Christian Pastors Focus Group
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Christian Pastors Focus Group
Date of focus group : October 15 , 2020 Facilitators : Estrus Tucker and Jennifer Wichmann Demographics of the group
• Gender : Male ( 3 ), Female ( 2 )
• Race / Ethnicity : White ( 3 ), African American ( 1 ), Latino ( 1 )
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Quote Highlights
• I ’ m really excited about the diversity of the city . I think people have a willingness to work together for the for the greater common good at the city and the reason I feel that way is because of what was done through the Ministerial Alliance march that was held at their doors for that and just seeing the citizen of Arlington , and the people that came out in that participated in that and just where that spirit was it ’ s like everyone , hope for a better community and in a sense of coming together for the greater good of all of them .
• I think we [ the Arlington Ministerial Alliance ] were open with each other we ’ re honest with each other , and I believe we listened to one another ’ s probably what I would say . And I think if that ’ s happening at the leadership level that should bode well over the long haul throughout every strata of our society . I realized there are problems . There ’ s still some segmentation .
• Others who aren ’ t quite yet , as represented in overall leadership and sometimes the conversation feels more Black-white , and not as multicolored as it could be , but I think it feels like the doors are open for progress and movement in that direction . So it feels healthy . There are definitely pockets that are not healthy . And I think the election , I think the murder of George Floyd , and I think all these things that happened have exacerbated some of those . Here recently I see within my own congregation , which is a fairly diverse congregation you know , age demographic effects that socio economic factors will speak into how people view things but improving for sure . I agree with that .
• And that concern I think largely is about whitewashing where we ’ re at . You know , sure , the needle has moved a lot this year , you know , whether it ’ s Brianna Taylor or Ahmad Arbury or George Ford or any number of other things that happen you know on a daily basis . So , so that that ’ s really my answer like whatever I think it ’ s through my own white filter . So I ’ m aware of that . I ’ m more aware of that now than I ’ ve ever been in my life . I was born and raised in Atlanta , Georgia . So , you know , I spent the first 30 years of my life there , right . So , you know , these are not new conversations . But when I listen to my congregants what I hear is a lot of concern , you know about their children driving or I have a congregant who works with DACA , you know , just you know that every day kind of fear and you know what I see happening now is like , “ okay , NASCAR doesn ’ t allow Dixie flags anymore - yeah , let ’ s see what happens next .” So those are my thoughts on that question .
• This my congregation St Andrews United Methodist Church which started out being a predominantly , well , it was all white congregation and now we are very diverse congregation with people from Nigeria and different parts of the world , African American , Asian Americans , Latinos and then last year we entertained an idea about merging with all African American church . I know for a fact that 30 years ago that would not have happened .
• I think that this crisis of COVID-19 has really made me so appreciative of the community just trying to gather for dialogue and having conversation . But I also remember like when we couldn ’ t be in our local churches we had in people saying , “ hey , if you can ’ t , I ’ d be willing to open up my church and we will film for you .” And I ’ ve experienced in my church host a local food pantry been doing it for three years . And now if we couldn ’ t do it , if it wasn ’ t for the Christian community because we have the disciples of Christ , the Church of Christ , Assembly of God , Presbyterian , all faith communities
Unity Council Report 105