Historic Vote in SBC

Tuesday marked a historic event within the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest protestant denomination in North America, when they elected the first African American president in its history.  The event has found its way into even the Canadian news cycles, (follow the link below to read about it as covered in the Globe and Mail news)

The Globe and Mail

It is such a historic and newsworthy event, in part, because the denomination was founded when it split from First Baptist Church in America over the issue of slave ownership.
As a Canadian, and one who has grown up in the muticultural environment of the Greater Toronto Area, I feel a bit distant from this particular issue of race and still find the segregation within the church (black congregations, white congregations, Hispanic congregations etc.) in the US so different from my experience.   I tend to think of Canada as the end of the underground railway, and as a multicultural place.  These things are true, but it would be naive of me to think that racism has not and does not exist, or that segregation does not exist within the church in Canada.  It would be revisionist history to believe that all African American citizens faced a warm and unsegregated welcome as they immerged from a long journey hidden within the buggy of the underground railroad.  It would be a mistake to think that every immigrant who arrives here finds automatic acceptance into the promised land.   Even within my denomination in Canada, I find myself wondering about our many ethnic works, or our many predominantly white congregations.  On the one hand maybe it is the most practical way to engage different people groups with the gospel, and inclussive in that it aims to allow all people to worship in the heart language.  This, at the heart of it, is a good thing.  On the other hand, do we create more segregation by doing this?  Is it the ideal?  I am not sure and I don't know the answers or know how we might overcome the practical challenges.  This is what I do know:

And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because You were slaughtered,
and You redeemed people
for God by Your blood
from every tribe and language
and people and nation. 

Rev 5:9

Jesus made a way for people of all ethnicities to be a part of His kingdom.  When His kingdom is established in its full it will be multicultural.  Here on earth, we pray that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Today, I celebrate because the church has taken one more step as we move towards God's best.