Presbyterian response to racial equity protests

As a Matthew 25 church, we have committed to dismantling racism and promoting racial equity. This time in our nation is an important context in which to live the love of God. 

 

30-Day Journey: We seek to foster a world grounded in the Christian values of love, acceptance, inclusion, and equity for all people.  The Racial Equity Task Force invites you to humbly and prayerfully take this self-paced 30-day journey to understand and address issues of power, privilege, and systemic racism.  > SIGN UP      See the Fox 8 story on this project.

 

FROM OUR PASTORS & STAFF

• • Personal piety or social justice – Rev. Danny Massie
  • What do we tell our children about race and racism – Donna Chase, Director of Spiritual Formation
  • Building Christian bridges to the ‘other’ – Rev. Danny Massie
  • As Christians, we must speak up for all who cannot breathe – Rev. Dolly Jacobs
  • Waking up at 3 in the morning troubled about George Floyd, looting, and sin – Rev. Neil Dunnavant
  • We are committed to working to end racism, prejudice, discrimination – Rev. Danny Massie
  • Unity and Christian essentials – Rev. Nate Sell
  • Acts 2 and the current movement of the Spirit – Rev. Alexandra Mauney
  • Books that help us understand how blatant and insidious racism still is in our nation – Rev. Neil Dunnavant
  • Teaching anti-racism at home – Lana Burske, director of the Weekday Preschool Center
  • Working with others for justice, love, and freedom – Rev. Alexandra Mauney
  • Video from our Service of Repentance and Lament

Summer Storytime: Let’s Read and Talk about Race Together: Join Donna Chase each Wednesday for a children’s book collected from the International Civil Rights Center & Museum here in Greensboro. The books are for all ages and are best read and listened to as a family in hopes of sparking age-appropriate conversation about race. Donna also offers resources for parents. 

• • • • • The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles. Parent Resource: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Dr. Beverly Tatum.
        • Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford. Recommended for parents: The video, Underground Railroad Tree Tour at Guilford College and the movie Harriet on Netflix, Amazon Prime, RedBox, itunes and HBO.
        • Freedom on the Menu by Carole Boston Weatherford. Recommended for parents: How Bennett College students played a role in Greensboro sit-ins and Linda Beatrice Brown talks about her book, Belles of Liberty.
        • Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Ramsey. Parent resource: The original pamphlets, The Negro Motorist Green Book, free downloadable resources from New York Public Library Digital Collections.
        •  Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney. Recommended for parents: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
        • The Youngest Marcher by Audrey Faye Hendricks. Recommended for parents: Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in A Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey. Rev. Harvey is a professor of religion at Drake University. Here is an interview with the author. “How to not raise a racist white kid,” column by the author.
        • Let’s Talk about Race by Julius Lester. Recommended for parents: So You Want to Talk About Race by parent and best-selling author Ijeoma Oluo. Watch the author’s 8-minute video, “On Talking about Race and Racism.”  Here is an interview with her from ParentMap.
        • She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, by Loki Mulholland. Recommended for parents: Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Her talk, “Deconstructing White Privilege,” is available here. An interview with Teaching Tolerance is available here. 

MORE TO READ & CONSIDER

Recommended by our staff

• • • The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone. Our Director of Discipleship Matt Logan and Rev. Keith Dove discuss this important reflection on race and the church,
    • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. You may also want to watch the film.
    • Our Race Task Force recommends this three-part documentary, Race: The Power of An Illusion.
    • Donald T. Phillips’ Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership. Rev. Danny Massie describes it as sage advice in a historical perspective.
    • “Racism has a cost for everyone.” Rev. Keith Dove offers a reflection guide.
    • Rich Benjamin’s “My road trip through the whitest towns in America”  Kevin Murray, Director of Youth Ministry, shares a reflection guide.

Statements

• • • ‘It is a righteous and holy anger that sees injustice and knows that it is wrong’ – Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. Rev. Moffett served as pastor of our sister church, Saint James Presbyterian, prior to her current position
    • If You Can’t Breathe, Neither Can I, by Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness, in The Presbyterian Outlook.
    • Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, Stated Clerk of the PC(USA)
    • Salem Presbytery Peace and Justice Committee. This group includes three FPC members.
    • Statement of the Greensboro Faith Leaders Council.
    • Statement of the North Carolina Council of Churches. Our Salem Presbytery is a member.