Make A Donation
Click Here >
dismantling structural racism
The year was 1903. The crowd was gathered on a street in Wilmington, Delaware. A Black man named George White had been arrested on charges of assaulting and killing a white girl. The man orating was a Presbyterian pastor named Robert Elwood. The mob broke into George White’s holding cell, dragged him out, then beat, hacked and burned him to death [a documentary about the lynching of George White, “In the Dead Fire’s Ashes,” directed by Stephen Labovsky, debuted at the Wilmington Film Festival in spring 2005].
Over the past year about 3,800 hate attacks were recorded against Asian Americans. According to research by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, attacks increased by 150% in 2020.
This is it. The hard conversation. You’re prepared to lead your church group in the difficult work of antiracism. You’ve researched the perfect book. You’ve got the webinar cued up. You have your difficult but necessary questions prepared. But have you done your own work?
Racism in South Africa was legally instituted and theologically justified by some churches. It has remained embedded in the fabric of society to this day, manifesting itself in many subtle ways that cause racial discrimination, inequality, violence and ridicule of the “other.”
“I’m a Black Italian, a Black European, a woman who was born in Rome with Somalian roots,” said writer Igiaba Scego. She spoke out about herself after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in police custody in Minnesota after being pinned to the ground, and whose last words were, “I can’t breathe.”
The objective of this brief reflection is to explore the theological interplay between the Bible and racism. Being an African-Jamaican, I have embraced the Christian faith through Presbyterian missionary Christianity. For me, Scripture centers on being “the Word of the Lord.”
I was born in Nazareth, but spent five years of my childhood in Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, where my father was the Anglican priest.
Just two blocks north of our home in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, is a 40-block-long linear park that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. My family and I enjoy walking there in the evening and relish the spectacular sunsets that don’t respect borders. In this time of pandemic, we are glad to see families and friends walking dogs and getting exercise along the 14-foot-wide park.
At its heart, the Reweaving the Ecological Mat initiative, now coordinated by the Pacific Conference of Churches, is about reclaiming the Pacific identity, an identity intimately interwoven with the land, seas and skies, but stolen by a racist gospel.
Three PC(USA) pastors who serve congregations that have made significant strides helping to provide their neighbors with safe and affordable housing formed the centerpiece of Wednesday’s national Matthew 25 webinar. Nearly 250 people participated.
