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I agree. Eliminating white male candidates just because they are white and male, and only reincluding them if there aren't enough minority and female candidates to fill all the positions, is both racist and sexist. That has no place in a church. Or in society either, in my opinion.
You cannot solve the problems of racism and sexism by using the very processes that racists and sexists use. It is an illogical and flawed approach that can never work. It simply fosters more of the same.
I recently served on my church’s nominating committee. The nominating committee picks slates of candidates who are then elected to the church’s governing boards. The slates of candidates are chosen from names of members who are nominated by other church members (or who nominate themselves).
One governing board oversees the church’s legal, financial, personnel and other business-like matters, so we sought lawyers, people with HR and financial experience, etc. for that board.
When we were done with coming up with the slates of candidates, one member of the nominating committee became very upset because the candidates for the governing board above were disproportionately white men.
She convinced the nominating committee to remove all white men from the lists of candidates. Then the nominating committee sought people who weren’t white men to be candidates and when the nominating committee ran out of people, then the remaining slots of the candidate lists were filled by some white men. It was really hard to find enough people to fill all candidate positions even before white men were removed from the initial list of candidates.
1. Does this happen at your church?
2. What do you think of this?
3. If you were a white man who wanted to volunteer at the church, what would you do?
4. Do other nonprofits pick volunteers this way?
Thanks.
Did the percentage of White candidates exceed the proportion of the White membership of the church?
Sounds more like happenstance than discrimination.
Jesus said who are neighbor is from love your neighbor command which come from Luke 10:29,30 .....`` A certain man ``from the parable of the good Samaritan........ This certain man had No identify color of skin, No National difference, No creed of belief, Just anybody who is human ........ So Christians are called by Jesus to love your neighbor with anybody, not even any critical race theory of Laurene Jobs of the ruling class
Most pastors I know are just happy to have enough volunteers. Their skin color is secondary.
Yeah, this ^. If you try to make a slate of candidates reflect some contrived notion of perfection, you are probably cutting off your nose to spite your face.
I do believe in the idea of "affirmative action". Churches should, assuming their host community has any diversity at all, try to make sure they are reaching various minorities and encouraging them both to participate and aspire to leadership. If they don't make the effort, it probably won't happen all by itself. But ... at the same time, anyone filling any role has to be competent, experienced or at least able and willing to learn, and they have to be available. So ideas like "there aren't enough young people represented" for example doesn't really make practical sense. "Young people" are busy going to school, establishing careers, raising young families. It is natural for older, wiser and steadier hands to fill volunteer roles. And those are also for structural reasons going to tend to be more rather than less affluent, and for knock-on structural reasons to therefore be predominantly white in any community of average diversity.
It's a difficult problem that can't be solved with a waving of the hand or a strong wish. That people can't understand that is one of the reasons I never liked the contrived controversies of nonprofit governance.
i recently served on my church’s nominating committee. The nominating committee picks slates of candidates who are then elected to the church’s governing boards. The slates of candidates are chosen from names of members who are nominated by other church members (or who nominate themselves).
One governing board oversees the church’s legal, financial, personnel and other business-like matters, so we sought lawyers, people with hr and financial experience, etc. For that board.
When we were done with coming up with the slates of candidates, one member of the nominating committee became very upset because the candidates for the governing board above were disproportionately white men.
She convinced the nominating committee to remove all white men from the lists of candidates. Then the nominating committee sought people who weren’t white men to be candidates and when the nominating committee ran out of people, then the remaining slots of the candidate lists were filled by some white men. It was really hard to find enough people to fill all candidate positions even before white men were removed from the initial list of candidates.
1. Does this happen at your church?
2. What do you think of this?
3. If you were a white man who wanted to volunteer at the church, what would you do?
I recently served on my church’s nominating committee. The nominating committee picks slates of candidates who are then elected to the church’s governing boards. The slates of candidates are chosen from names of members who are nominated by other church members (or who nominate themselves).
One governing board oversees the church’s legal, financial, personnel and other business-like matters, so we sought lawyers, people with HR and financial experience, etc. for that board.
When we were done with coming up with the slates of candidates, one member of the nominating committee became very upset because the candidates for the governing board above were disproportionately white men.
She convinced the nominating committee to remove all white men from the lists of candidates. Then the nominating committee sought people who weren’t white men to be candidates and when the nominating committee ran out of people, then the remaining slots of the candidate lists were filled by some white men. It was really hard to find enough people to fill all candidate positions even before white men were removed from the initial list of candidates.
1. Does this happen at your church?
2. What do you think of this?
3. If you were a white man who wanted to volunteer at the church, what would you do?
4. Do other nonprofits pick volunteers this way?
Thanks.
What you refer to, would never had happened decades ago.
No question, it would have been all white men ( I'm one by the way )
This case sounds like a misdirected attempt in hierarchal diversity. That appears to have a racist component.
Regardless, I would think there is a difference between diversity and racism.
Hopefully, the motivation here was, sincerely diversity.
Afterall, comfort with diversity throws cold water on racism.
I recently served on my church’s nominating committee. The nominating committee picks slates of candidates who are then elected to the church’s governing boards. The slates of candidates are chosen from names of members who are nominated by other church members (or who nominate themselves).
One governing board oversees the church’s legal, financial, personnel and other business-like matters, so we sought lawyers, people with HR and financial experience, etc. for that board.
When we were done with coming up with the slates of candidates, one member of the nominating committee became very upset because the candidates for the governing board above were disproportionately white men.
She convinced the nominating committee to remove all white men from the lists of candidates. Then the nominating committee sought people who weren’t white men to be candidates and when the nominating committee ran out of people, then the remaining slots of the candidate lists were filled by some white men. It was really hard to find enough people to fill all candidate positions even before white men were removed from the initial list of candidates.
1. Does this happen at your church?
2. What do you think of this?
3. If you were a white man who wanted to volunteer at the church, what would you do?
4. Do other nonprofits pick volunteers this way?
Thanks.
In my honest opinion, that member appears to be bigoted in her views.
Especially coming from a member of a church, she should realize that we are all unique children of God and our skin color does not define who we are or what we can contribute.
In what she is doing, she has become a "noisy gong" or "clanging cymbal" stirring up strife and division.
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It is a flawed premise from the get-go! We should be smarter than that!
