Gee, Pastor White, I really appreciate your seeing me like this. I’m sort of stuck in an awkward position, and I can’t quite figure out what to do. What I mean is I’m trying to help a friend of mine, and I just can’t seem to figure out how. I’m hoping you could advise me in some way.
What? No, it’s like I said: a friend of mine.
I’ve got this pal, a buddy named Juan Pablo Montoya. He’s Cuban; well, Cuban-American. His folks are Cuban, but Juan was born here and grew up in South Florida. He’s got the whole Latin family thing going on there. I mean, it’s crazy how many cousins he’s got, and every weekend there’s a baptism, or a christening, or a funeral, or a wedding, or one of those fancy 15th birthday parties they throw for girls, or a baseball game, or just a bunch of people grilling something.
Anyway, Juan’s got this issue: he can’t get a job.
Hmm? Yeah, he’s legal; this isn’t one of those “undocumented transient worker” things. He’s got an education, too. Bachelor’s degree, plus an M.Div., plus most of his D.Min. Speaks English (first language) and Spanish (mastered on the field). Worked as an international missionary, heading up a program to bring SBC churches into partnership arrangements with unreached indigenous groups in South America. His education and experience are not what holds him back.
See, the problem is that Juan Pablo’s name is, in fact, Juan Pablo.
For example, he calls a church and talks with the secretary for a few minutes, then he’s talking to the pastor. Juan always introduces himself up front, but like most people the pastor is still developing a sense for the person on the other end of the line and will not catch the name. It is only after an extensive phone call that the pastor asks, embarrassed, for my pal to repeat his name: Juan Pablo Montoya.
Silence. Every time. Then it comes:
“Well, we don’t really have a large Spanish-speaking congregation, or even a large Hispanic community here. Of course, we’re always looking for a new way to connect with people. Perhaps in time….”
What’s that? Well, I guess being able to fit in with your congregation is important. Juan can do that. He was a floppy-haired rebellious skater-punk in high school. He wears Converse high tops and a baseball cap around town. His wife is whiter than you and I combined, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Midwestern girl named Tracy.
You look surprised. What were you expecting with a name like Juan Pablo Montoya? Big moustache, slicked-back hair, shirts unbuttoned to his navel? Gold medallions peeking out of his luxurious chest hair? Or were you sort of envisioning Desi Arnaz, yelling at Tracy/Lucy about the chicken flying out of the pressure cooker?
Wha…tacos? No, that’s Mexican food. Juan Pablo is Cuban.
Hmm? Well, I guess you’re right. We could make a case that Hispanics will respond to a Latin pastor better than to a non-Latin. And I suppose, like you say, that non-Hispanic churches might interact better with non-Latin pastors.
But Juan and I, we just don’t get it. I mean, on one side is our American society, changing and growing and molding itself into multi-ethnic conglomeration, perhaps the most culturally pluralistic nation on earth. On the other side is our convention, pigeon-holing non-white Christian men and women into serving only other non-whites. And you, Pastor White, you’ve led your church to give an enormous percentage of your offerings to the Cooperative Program, and your Lottie Moon giving is tremendous. How can you give to Lottie Moon and yet deny that Juan has a place to serve in white churches? You don’t see the connection?
Let me spell it out: your church gave tons of money to the IMB, an organization committed to cross-cultural ministry and missions, and yet you think that a well-educated second-generation Cuban male who owns zero cigars can’t minister to non-Hispanics? What…are only white North Americans capable of ministering outside their own cultural milieu?
I know, that sounds like I’m leveling a charge of racism against the pastors you are defending; that’s unfair, and I didn’t mean it that way. Juan and I, we just don’t understand the contradiction, that’s all.
Let me approach it from a different angle: suppose Juan Pablo and his wife visited your church. Would you send him to a Spanish-speaking congregation after only seeing his name? Would you, for a moment, doubt your ability to minister to him, and your congregation’s ability to include the Montoya family in the body? Hmm? You need to speak up; I don’t hear well.
Do you see the contradictions?
You and I both know that we can’t afford to make ourselves relevant in today’s world by altering our theology, but why can’t our convention’s churches reflect the same blurring of ethnic boundaries seen in our culture? Why can’t people see that once racism goes away, the tendency to limit jobs based on racial assumptions still remains? Why can’t our convention’s pastors evaluate Juan’s skills as a minister instead of determining his calling for him based on his name?
Pastor White? Hello?
Great article. Thought-provoking.
I appreciate how you got your point across. And you’re right.
Of course, I am sorry if I am the only one, but was wondering how Juan Pablo Montoya would juggle driving his NASCAR schedule and work in the church. http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/jmontoya00/cup/
Like I said, I’m sorry to bring that up in an important thread.
Yeah, when the question was “What were you expecting?” my thought was a guy in a fire-resistant suit that I would not let have the keys to the church van.
However, rereading for the real content and this was very challenging. We keep re-segregating ourselves and calling it relevance or fitting in or something—but it’s just destructive behavior in the body of Christ.
To me, this was kind of a “wow” moment. Well written, Jeremy.
Thanks for the article. I’m a white guy serving in Hispanic ministry. Fortunately God has blessed me in my church, but if I ever sought to go into full-time ministry I don’t know how well I’d be received. I’ll pray for Juan Pablo though.
-Un güero en un mar moreno.
Brilliant article.
I have no idea who that driver is. I’ve never seen NASCAR, though I know what it is.
There are a million men named Juan Pablo, I’d bet, and the odds are pretty good that there are multiple Montoya clans.
He’s a Colombian driver who came to NASCAR after driving IndyCar for a while. Target is his primary sponsor.
Jeremy,
I didn’t mean to belittle what your friend and others like him experience. It was not my intention at all. I understand what you said because I have almost sent hispanic people to a spanish speaking church in the misguided thot they might feel more ‘at home’. So what you said hit home in my heart.
Ahh, don’t worry about it. The name similarities are pretty funny.
I think there is a time for suggesting better churches, suggestions that stem from concern for people and their needs. I also think there is a place for nudging fellow Christians toward better places of service. However, both scenarios depend on knowing the person, their needs, their skills, God’s call, etc. Simply looking at a last name and deciding where they fit either as staff or as members is where the problems begin.
Pastor white , Juan understands why because he’s educated and not in an all white University because they don’t exist. You can’t beat dumb when you give your children tiny confederate flags to wave in front of a trash heap that was their home before the storms came even tho many of the first responders who have come to help him and his family might be offended not by the child but by the flag – and you don’t care because it is your god given right to offend anyone you want. You have the name John and Jon and… Read more »
All of this post #10 is the truth. The child was on national news and very young standing in front of what looked like use to be a trailer. I’m sure we have all heard the rest and the two bananas story was actually done by a dark skinned Catholic Priest from a sidewalk vegetable & fruit stand in Washington, D.C. Literary justice is o.k. isn’t it ?
Or at least, I’ll pray for all the Juan Pablos who are out there.
As long as it’s not Juan Indigo Montoya…
(I’m assuming this is based on actual experience with names changed for anonymity), this is a sad but true reflection of our hiring practices. One of the greatest points you make there is that many churches would gladly accept Juan as a tithing member but a search committee would pass right over him because of the name.
Any Princess Bride reference ought to be honored.
I wrote this in honor of a friend in the US who is struggling with this very issue these days, though the name is changed. Juan Pablo Montoya is a non-driving, non-sword-fighting buddy who lives in Venezuela.
Yes, Josh, many churches would reject Juan Pablo as staff and still accept him as a member. The church would collect his tithe, and send part of it the IMB in order to send a family of one race to minister to those of another race without grasping the irony of it.
Actually, it is “Inigo”. There is no “D”.
the D stands for death to the 6th fingered man.
Before the advent of blogging, where did we go to discuss the ins and outs of the Princess Bride.
And while we’re discussing Princess Bride during a post on the subject of employing the unemployable…
“And YOU: friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless! Do you want me to send you back to where you were? Unemployed… in Greenland?”
Fuss, fuss,
I think he likes to yell at us!
No more rhymes. I mean it.
Anybody want a peanut.
He’s very, very short on…..charm.
The basic problem is that we, the church, the believers in the creator God have bought into the lie of “race.” God didn’t create Adam & Eve for Europeans, Adoo & Indira for the Indian sub-continent, Gatimu & Matuko for those in Africa, etc… He created birds, bees, fish, beasts, and humans. We are all one race: humanity. We have different ethnic backgrounds (a curse I think from Gen 11), but we are one humanity. I think it is a mistake for a church or the SBC to try and become “post-racial” because then we continue to foster the false… Read more »
Hi JEREMY,
I had some trouble with this sentence:
“Why can’t people see that once racism goes away, the tendency to limit jobs based on racial assumptions still remains?”
I was thinking that we will know when racism has finally ‘gone away’ when our children’s children’s children don’t understand what that word ‘rascism’ means.
And when we tell them, their eyes get big and they say,
‘was it really like that back then?’.
Wishful thinking ?
I hope not.
What part of that sentence gives you trouble? It isn’t clear from your post.
Jeremy, I totally get what you are saying, but (as I’m sure you know) the problem is not universal. We have a music minister at our church who is Cuban. He serves as music leader for our more ‘traditional’ service and also works with our youth. He has started 4 youth worship bands – 2 middle school and 2 high school – and is building our youth into true worshippers. All this in the rather lily white, southern suburb of Nashville – Franklin, TN. I cannot imagine our church running without Alexis Cruz. He is an incredible asset to our… Read more »
Good to hear!
Thanks, Robin.
I want to take a moment and emphasize something: the issue isn’t truly anything to do with the spirit of racism. That’s not what Juan Pablo and I see. Instead, it is an assumption of usefulness based not on interaction or skills, but simply last name. There is no attempt to say he’s not worth anything; they just assume he is going to fit a certain role, and that’s it.
I know that’s not what you were pointing to, but I think there are some who might look for a chance to claim racial discrimination here.
I don’t doubt that at all. With Juan Pablo, it was because of his name. It could just as easily be because of the way someone dresses. I happen to be handicapped. You’d be amazed how many people see that my legs don’t work well and assume that my mind follows suit. It could be that the real issue is time. People just don’t take time to look beyond the surface of much of anything any more. Everything is a quick photo op or sound byte. If it takes more than a few seconds of thought, we don’t bother with… Read more »
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised at the thing about your legs. It is probably the same sort of assumptions people make when they see my wife and I communicating in sign language.
We have 4 degrees between us and are multi-lingual, yet the moment our hands begin to move there are people who relegate us to the level of idiots. You and I could probably share some horror stories.
Undoubtedly.
By the way, I’d love for you to meet Alexis Cruz sometime. Knowing him is definitely worth your time.
In Juan Pablo’s case, it is unfortunate that people look at him and assume he is of one cultural mindset and one perspective. I know plenty of Hispanics who fit in just as easily (if not better) in a “white culture” (however defined) as in a “Hispanic culture” (however defined). I hear a lot of people lament the fact that our churches are not more multicolored than they are. We should remember though that as we should be colorblind, we should not also be “cultureblind”. When we imagine our church as being multicolored, we typically picture our church doing the… Read more »
Excellent point! Colorblind does too often equal cultureblind, and equates blending with “you guys come be like us.”
It’s an issued any time majority and minority cultures mix. Charges of colonialism in missions stemmed in part from this. Problems in my line of work, deaf missions, can be traced back to this. Unity, an important Christian concept, becomes a bludgeon with which to keep people in line with the practices of the majority.
I enjoyed this blog post, but I want to draw something else out. Currently, most churches search for their next pastor through a pastor search process, taking applications from candidates and evaluating what each one has to offer and how he would fit in the church. Since churches are often hiring a stranger, it makes sense that they look for someone with the most in common with the congregation. They want someone who will “fit.” Part of the issue for the Juans out there, and for the churches, is that most churches are not raising up their own pastors from… Read more »