Timely Resources to Mobilize Change
Anti-Racism Statement - Reforming Our Hearts
Global Health Ministries rarely makes a statement on national issues in the USA. Our focus is around the globe on international health systems that create opportunities for justice and health among some of the most vulnerable people on earth.
But recently the tragic killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and so many others have shed light on injustice and vulnerability here in the USA, which we cannot ignore. Our offices are located less than 10 miles from where George Floyd was murdered. These events demand that we acknowledge how deeply the United States is crippled by hatred and racism.
I often find myself needing to help Americans believe they are “big enough” to care not only about their immediate community, but also for people in other lands. I like to say we’re “big enough to do both.”
Today, however, I feel the need to flip this advice around. We partner around the world with people who are brown, black, Latinx, Indian and indigenous …we partner as equals around the globe. These partnerships are miraculous and I am so honored and thankful for every one of you who participate in this ministry. But how can we do this and not afford the same equality to people in our very own country?
Peaceful protests are not only appropriate today, they are absolutely necessary. As a nation we need to examine ourselves and honestly seek change. Even if we feel that we aren’t racist, we must probe our implicit biases, our snap judgements, our local, regional and national laws; and ultimately eradicate what one preacher has called “the sin of partiality.” When our systems and our hearts are partial to white people…it is a sin. Jesus said, in Matthew 7:12,
“Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
From the brutality of four police officers murdering George Floyd to favoring white folks in job interviews, to offering kindness and opportunities ONLY to people who look like you… these are daily tragedies we can no longer ignore.
Earlier this week, the Churchwide Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, of which I’m a pastor, said it simply,
“The officer’s knee suffocating the life out of George Floyd reminds us that blatant acts of intimidation, hatred, and violence continue.”
This act, and everything that makes it normal is the exact opposite of who we are called to be. God’s call to each of us is expressed in simple and memorable words by the prophet Micah 6:8:
““What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice,
and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God””
Reforming our hearts and our society requires nothing less than a miracle…the miracle of an open heart that sees and values all people equally. The miracle of white people educating themselves to recognize our own partiality.
It is NOT the way of this world. It is the way of God. May God trouble your heart today and mine...give us a holy un-rest, until the sin of partiality is no longer normal in the United States of America. This isn’t going to be quick or easy. We need to pray for help today, and every day.
A Prayer for Healing
Lord teach us to pray,
Save us, O God, from ourselves,
from racism cloaked in pious words,
from the power of white supremacy ingrained in what we think of as “normal”
from micro aggressions that gnaw away at our humanity,
from empty apologies without changes in our actions,
Save us, O God, from ourselves
And teach us your ways.
Amen.
Resources
Here are a few select and timely resources to help us listen, learn and mobilize for change:
How to be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)
In this book Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.
“What emerges from these insights is the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind, a confessional of self-examination that may, in fact, be our best chance to free ourselves from our national nightmare.” —Jeffrey C. Stewart, National Book Award and Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The New Negro (review in The New York Times)
OWN: Where do we go from here?
http://www.oprah.com/app/where-do-we-go-from-here-full-episodes.html
In two one-hour session Oprah speaks directly with black leaders, offering insight and tangible plans to answer the questions "What matters now?," "What matters next?" and "Where do we go from here?" Guests for this 2-part episode include: Stacey Abrams, Rashad Robinson, Nikole Hannah Jones, Bishop William Barber II, Ibram X. Kendi, and Ava DuVernay.
More Anti-Racism Resources to consider:
———————————————————————————————————————-