Local Parishioner Pushes “Bring a Brother to Church Day”

May 21, 2007 | by Dan | No Comments

By Dan Wheeler

Ed Whittaker, a member of the San Francisco First Reformed Presbyterian Church, faces increasing criticism over the “Bring a Brother to Church Day” program he launched three weeks ago. We spoke to Ed, a thirty-something IT department manager for a local law firm, as he earnestly handed out flyers promoting the program on the church steps. Ed looked every bit the tech geek in his khakis, the calculator watch and the large key ring dangling from his belt. All geek that is except for the jarringly out of place T-shirt with the red, green and yellow colors of the Ethiopian / Rastafarian flag. “I don’t know why everyone is so opposed to my diversity initiative” he said. “We have exactly two brothers attending our church out of about 900 members, which is embarrassing. I don’t see anyone else out there trying to brown up this crowd.” Among other things, the flyers urged church members to “invite the Negroid peeps”.

Rev. Fred Hubbell, the senior pastor of First Reformed, is quite upset about the situation. “I tried to explain to Ed that our evangelism efforts have to be sensitive and avoid negative connotations. Now I have to explain over and over again that I do not call African Americans “brother” unless they are my brother in Christ of course. Then I have to explain why I don’t like the program but want black people in our church. I got a call from the Daughters of Thunder demanding to know why we aren’t inviting black women to church. I’m darned if I support the program and darned if I don’t, pardon my language. Honestly, who says “negroid”? Its totally inappropriate.“

In a visit to First Reformed Presbyterian Church this Sunday, we saw about 4 African Americans in attendance out of about 500. We were briefly interviewed Devon Hardee, one of the few we were able to meet. Devon had heard of the Bring a Brother to Church program. “It’s weird,” he said. “I must have been invited to church about 30 times last week and I already go here. Am I really the only black guy these people know? It is encouraging that the church is trying to diversity, but its pretty embarrassing how clueless they are.” Other church members we spoke to agreed that the racial ratio of the church was unacceptable and confessed that they simply did not know any black people (except for Devon, whom everyone seemed to know).