BEING African-American <<<<<<<
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Higher IN
HIGHER THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
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theological education BY BRIAN BAILEY
PHOTO BY MATT HOWEN
I am one semester away from earning my Master’s degree in Biblical Studies, and the prospect of doctoral work is both exciting and daunting.
As I fill out online applications and peruse the faculty of each institution, there is a reoccurring trend: the noticeable absence of minorities in general and African-Americans in particular. Out of 309 faculty members to the four schools I am applying to (this includes Multnomah as well as my undergraduate institution, so six schools total), 33 of those faculty are minorities. Of those 33 minorities, ten are AfricanAmerican. That is a little more than 3 percent (if my math is correct). This reality leads me to ask three questions: Does evangelical academia, as a whole, believe that higher theological education is a predominantly white profession? Do they believe that only Caucasians are able to produce exceptional research, add to the scholarly community and think deeply about theological and biblical issues? The more dreadful question I ask myself is: because of the lack of African-American’s in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate theological education, does the African-American community believe that these things should be left to middleaged, middle-class Caucasians? With teaching at the graduate or undergraduate level in mind, I have had to wrestle with these questions within myself during my seminary experience.
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