Posts Tagged ‘Reconciliation’
Dear [White] Church, Allow Your Hearts to Be Uncomfortably Broken
Dear [White] Church, Allow Your Hearts to Be Uncomfortably Broken Pain is a meeting place with God. It is a place of the truest honesty. Pain is not a mistake to fix. Healing rarely comes without pain. A broken heart is always a beginning. This pain is a beginning or this pain is a…
Read MoreDear Church, Open Your Eyes to Racism
Dear Church, I write to you to admit my own blindness as a white woman to our history of racism and the harm that has been done and continues to be done to our brothers and sisters of color. I encourage us white folks to support one another as we open our eyes to these…
Read MoreDear Church, I Write to Share a Recipe for Gumbo!
Dear Church, Given America’s polarized divisions, it’s time to make gumbo! As a proud native of New Orleans, I have absolutely no reservation in sharing that gumbo is my favorite food on the planet. I love the shrimp. I love the sausage. I love the chicken. I also love the okra. Gumbo brings diverse ingredients…
Read MoreDear Church, Make Room for Lament
Dear Church, I sit and write this letter in the confines of my home as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep through the entire world. If you wake up every morning only to realize that this was not all a bad dream, I am with you. If your voice does not resonate with the inspirational…
Read MoreDear Church, What Spaces Will You Create?
Dear Church, Lately, I have been pondering the question, “What drives my passion for racial reconciliation?” In 2002, my family moved to the suburbs of Charleston, SC from the projects of Queens, NY. I left an environment where race was freely discussed at home, school, and church to a place where the conversation of race…
Read MoreDear Church, Serve Alongside Others
Dear Church, I want to sit here and talk about the ways I wish the Church would do better. I want to rattle off the ways I wish people would really step up and make progress. But I also think the most vulnerable and honest way I can talk about this idea of serving…
Read MoreDear Church, Refuse to be in Denial
Dear Church, I write to you to admit that I am a recovering racist, working to overcome the lies ingrained in me by white supremacy and a racialized society. I share this to be transparent with you, to own up to and change the ways I’ve bought into the illusion of race and white supremacy,…
Read MoreDear Church, Music Can Bridge the Divide
Dear Church, In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared June, Black Music Month. Later in 2009, President Obama renamed it African-American Music Appreciation Month. This month was created to celebrate the influence African-Americans have had throughout the world by their music that has been created. It tells stories of faith, freedom, love, and justice. For years,…
Read MoreDear Church, Lest We Forget Our Need for Repentance
Dear Church, Where does reconciliation start in America and are we even ready? Where does the church fit in? I think it’s important to try to understand the rich and complicated history of the church in America before we can answer either of those questions. Our country is deeply forgetful; one could say we have…
Read MoreDear Church, This is no time for complacency. Action is required.
Dear Church, Over 60 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr., stated: “A solution of the present crisis will not take place unless men and women work for it. Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every stop…
Read More