Serena is an opinion writer in the Fall 2024 Sojourners Journalism Cohort. Learn more about the program.
Serena Puang is a journalist from Rogers, Ark., currently writing features for the Baton Rouge Advocate. She previously interned at IndyStar where she wrote about things to do and the Boston Globe where she covered living arts. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, NBC, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Business Insider, Teen Vogue, among other publications. When she’s not writing, you can find her taking photos for her bookstagram or spending too much money on cafes.
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The Fatal Flaw of the Multicultural Church Movement
Photo by Carolyn Franks / Almay via Reuters Connect
As an adult, I’ve been in many so-called “diverse communities” where there is a lot of racial diversity, but culturally and experientially, it felt very similar to the predominately white church I grew up attending for Sunday school. From the way we worshiped to the food we ate together afterward, these interracial churches seemed to only work because they were comfortable places for white people. In these integrated congregations, white people would often say to me, an Asian American, that they felt so grateful to have so many different experiences and viewpoints reflected in the congregation (“We’re learning so much from different communities”). But those viewpoints were never reflected on the leadership team.