Race And Rumours

Yesterday I put on Facebook an example of "a storm of rumours" which hit my ministry when I "married into Africa" -- showing an anonymous response to a question on a Church feedback form: "Does anything at this time especially delight or offend you?" The discussion on Facebook is helpful and level-headed. Were the rumours racist? A young Black minister said to me: virtually certain -- if I had married a White woman, would I have faced the same? OBSERVATION: I was a minister whose faith and doctrine were explicit and clear, and the clan into which I married were and are devoted Christians, with several ministers among them. Even so, the rumours were believed, and most of them would have been sufficient cause to dismiss a minister. Together with racist rumours, a raft of other rumours was launched.

POSTSCRIPT: Some thought that this was an isolated example. When I wrote that it was "an example", I meant that it was one among many. Bearing in mind that many people reacted positively at the time.