Race

There’s one exercise I distinctly remember from a regional gathering of ministry interns and supervisors. We were asked to place ourselves on a line in relation to what power we felt we held in that room.

I placed myself at the lowest end of the line.

I placed myself at the lowest end of the line. I was not yet ordained and hadn’t yet finished my education, was fairly low income, was the one learning in that room and not teaching, and I was one of the youngest women, who also lives with a physical disability (Cerebral Palsy).

On August 16, 1967, Martin Luther King was interested in the soul of America. At the eleventh Southern Christian Leadership Conference convention in Atlanta, he observed the domestic terrorism in the South, northern indifference to structural inequalities, and a stubborn resistance from the evangelical community to realizing its own hypocrisy.

“Grace is bad arithmetic”--famous words from my pastor Dave Vroege in a sermon just over a year ago. He continued, explaining how grace is nonsense.

“Grace is bad arithmetic.”

Nonsense! Why? Because it is given to us regardless of whether we want it or not.

I’ve always understood grace to be an action word. An invitation on how to behave and act. It’s the absence of anger and the presence of love and peacefulness.

Hard words to hold when one is full of rage.

We're excited to welcome Laurel Luke as a new Do Justice columnist, focusing on criminal justice!

Four years ago, I knew very little about criminal justice reform or prisons. I didn’t know anyone who had been to prison, have any knowledge around what a prison was like or how long people stayed, and I didn’t have a clue what legislation or stories got people locked up. All I knew was that prisoners did something bad, were serving a sentence, and most would be released.

During the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission it was often said that the journey of reconciliation is long. Colonialism has a long and lasting legacy that requires continual commitment to the hard work of reconciliation. Therefore, we urge you today to continue the work as a matter of honouring God’s image in Indigenous people in Canada, to keep striving towards the high bar that Christ set for us: that we become reconcilers, following the example of the Great Reconciler, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).

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Why not use the month of February to further expose yourself to not only the accomplishments and achievement of Black Canadians, but also the past and present struggles of our community? It may give you a deeper appreciation for why some of us value the month-long party.

I've gathered a list of films, books, historical figures, key locations, and more. Let's dig in!

But when the time came for her to leave the community, she didn’t want to leave. Not only did she not want to deliver alone far from her community, but she also had 5 young children that she didn’t want to leave behind. I remember the daily stress of worrying that she would deliver the babies before leaving the community.

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, and to challenge you to do the same.

I’m an artist and I love painting narrative-laden surreal landscapes.

The image of the sperm whale is a recurring motif in my artwork. Its mysterious qualities and daily practices fascinate me. Its survival is dependant on holding its breath and diving very deep, almost three thousand feet below the ocean's surface, to wrestle the giant squid: its sustenance.

It’s been quite the year! Thanks for reading and learning along with us, as we wrestled with faith and justice with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (Karl Barth).

Here are the top Do Justice articles (ranked by top pageviews) that got you thinking and acting in 2018: