“Race and Religion”–A Presentation at the UCC’s 27th General Synod
“Race and Religion”–A Presentation at the UCC’s 27th General Synod
As part of the United Church of Christ’s Sacred Conversation on Race, the 27th General Synod of the UCC discussed issues of race in multiple settings. In addition to the adoption of a resolution on Sacred Conversations on Race, a half of a day during Synod was dedicated to a variety of topics dealing with several aspects of race issues, and how they relate to society. One such session was entitled “Race and Religion,” and was introduced by the Rev. Dr. Dale Bishop, pastor of the Rhinelander First Congregational United Church of Christ in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Rev. Dr. Bishop is also a past Executive Minister of Wider Church Ministries and co-Executive of Global Ministries, as well as a former Middle East executive in Global Ministries.
“Two lifetimes ago, I taught the languages and religions of pre-Islamic Iran in the Middle East Languages and Cultures Department of Columbia University. During that time, I was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to live with and study the Parsi community in India for six months. The Parsis are contemporary adherents of the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. Once the official religion of the Persian Empire and for a time Armenia, Zoroastrianism is now the creed of roughly 100,000 Parsis in India, most of them resident in and around Mumbhai, perhaps another 10,000 or so in Iran itself, and maybe another 10,000-20,000 in scattered communities throughout the world, including the United States and Canada. Zubin Mehta, formerly the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and now conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, is a Parsi.
“The ancestors of the Parsis of India were a group of Zoroastrians who fled Iran in the wake of the Arab conquest. They resettled in the territory of Gujarat in western India sometime during the tenth century. Legend has it that they arrived off the Indian coast by boat, and that they sat offshore in their boats while their leaders negotiated their possible resettlement in India with a local rajah. Since the Parsis and the Gujaratis didn’t know each other’s languages, they had to communicate non-verbally. The rajah presented the Parsi leader with a cup of milk filled to the brim, indicating that there wasn’t enough room in the land for these strangers. The Parsi leader, in turn, added a few crystals of sugar to the milk. The cup didn’t overflow, and the mixture was sweetened. The logic was compelling, and the Parsis were allowed to settle. It’s a nice immigration story to keep in mind during a time of anti-immigration sentiment in our own country.
“But immigration isn’t today’s topic here. We’re here to talk about race and religion. And to move to that topic, we need to hear a bit of the rest of the story….”