Melting Pot or not?

Part of the American story is the view that our country is a melting pot blending together diverse groups of people. After all, the words on the Statue of Liberty speak of "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free" coming to these shores.

And, according to a recent Pew Center Poll (from December 2008), Americans say they believe that living in diverse communities is best. Quoting from the report, "About six-in-ten Americans say they like the idea of living in politically, racially, religiously or economically mixed communities, while about a quarter take the opposite view: They would rather live in communities made up mostly of people like themselves."

The only problem with this poll result comes as we consider further data that suggests, despite what our nation's citizens may say, most of us live in communities and worship in churches that are pretty much monochrome. The Pew Report includes this analysis: "While it's impossible to know for sure, it is worth noting that residential segregation has long been a fact of life in America, and that, at least by certain measures, some varieties of segregation appear to be on the rise.
The most pervasive forms of residential segregation, by far, are racial and ethnic. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, while blacks comprise just 12% of the U.S. population, about half of all blacks in 2000 lived in majority-black neighborhoods. Hispanics also tend to be clustered into segregated enclaves, though not quite to the same degree as are blacks. Latinos made up 12.5% of the U.S. population and 43% lived in majority-Latino neighborhoods as of 2000."

A recent analysis of diversity among churches I have seen points up the same thing. While there are more predominantly white congregations with some racial diversity than existed 10 years ago, the over-whelming majority of African-American congregations have no racial diversity.

As we look at the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr tomorrow - January 15 - and the inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday - January 20, it would be appropriate for us to ask, "How far have we really come?"