Jan. 6 response leaves North Carolina church congregation splintered: report

Concerns about underlying racism at a North Carolina church exploded into the open after the church leadership issued a statement on the Jan. 6th insurrection that has split the congregation, according to a report.

According to the Washington Post, the Chapel Hill Bible Church once had a solidly interracial membership, but has seen an exodus of non-white congregants in the months following the riot at the Capitol.

As the Post's Yonat Shimron wrote, former church members complained "church leadership over the past several years has turned inward, drawing boundaries around orthodox beliefs and dismissing or demeaning members’ concerns.

"That has led to the departures of many families of all races who complained of the church leadership’s lack of transparency and care," before adding, "But the loss of non-White members has been especially pronounced, especially since white evangelical Christian congregations have made efforts in recent years to repent of the sin of racism and court a younger, more multiracial generation."

According to the report, the catalyst for the flood of membership losses goes back to concerns about Jan. 6 and how the church responded to it.

Asked by the church elders to provide a statement on the riot, Pastor Jay Thomas, wrote, "[P]olitical affiliation, policy commitments, political parties, the details of the election, how to interpret the details and meaning of the raid on the Capitol, and the like, are not so clear and straight-lined from Scripture that this is the moment to say A is right and B is wrong, or vice-versa."

That set off a firestorm among the church members, with former congregant Walker Hicks recalling, "It was the kind of Trump language of ‘good people on both sides. It just provoked all sorts of distress and dismay and trauma among congregants of color and made them feel more alienated and confused and unsupported.”

Lisa McConnell, who resigned from the church in February, said the schism was a long time coming, as non-white congregants, many of them Asian, felt they were not respected by the church leadership.

“Over the years, many programs that brought in people from the community were canceled by the pastors,” she explained “We witnessed the church becoming more homogeneous.”

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