About 20 members of Columbia Hope Episcopal Church met Sunday afternoon to discuss racism within the denomination as well as hopes to diversify the church.
Chester Hines, Jr., chairman of the Commission on Dismantling Racism for the Episcopal diocese of Missouri, traveled from St. Louis to address the congregation and facilitate discussion. Hines gave a brief version of the presentation that usually lasts two days.
The presentation focused on a history of racism within the Episcopal Church, the church’s vision, mission and goals regarding racial interactions, and the definitions of power, racism and white privilege. Hines said the purpose of raising awareness about racism was to make a change.
Aaron Wildavsky mentioned this phenomenon in his book, “The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism,” to wit that as the number of privileged elites increases (as it has) and the number of disadvantaged minorities decreases (as it has), there opens what he calls an “oppression gap” that generates a high demand for the politically-useful oppressed for those same elites to burnish their enlightenment credentials. Hence the feverish pitch at which the elites labor to create victims to hold up – he market cannot otherwise clear.