Race

Editor's note: This is the second post in our new series How to Stay in Conversation with "the Other Side". During this series, we hope to learn together how to communicate about contentious issues in ways that build up the Body of Christ. Above all, we hope that this series will help you stay in conversation in constructive ways that honor and respect the image of God in those you disagree with and in the people affected by the issues about which you are talking.

As a young Black girl I recall feeling a mixture of discomfort and pride at the start of February. February marked Black History Month and it was a time when teachers would try to rally and cajole their Black students to participate in assemblies and presentations. Some students felt these events were unnecessary—the same opportunities weren’t afforded them to celebrate their cultural heritage year-round as part of the school’s curriculum. Some of us felt that our cultures were not readily embraced during every other month of the year.

Let’s practice a new heart examination for Jesus before Easter by becoming self-aware and then starting a new habit that may help build the bridge toward racial reconciliation for Christ.

Under this red dress is a sign that reads “Who is She?” It is this sign that truly compelled me to read about and pray for the people who are represented by these red dresses that many Canadians have seen in their cities over the past few month.

There is a lie that our culture continually perpetuates. It is the lie that life is only as valuable as its circumstances. We see it in films or books that romanticize assisted suicide and euthanasia, that reduce abortion to a decision over whether one can afford a child, or that imply that people with disabilities are burdens, or that some people are more violent than others because of their race or ethnicity. These lies are deeply offensive on a variety of levels, but they are also all around us.

Have you seen the line-up for this year’s January Series from Calvin College yet? Every year, the college puts on a free series of talks on various issues of the day, presented at their campus in Grand Rapids and streamed online, as well as at remote sites across the continent. (Each address begins at 12:30 PM EST.) We commend Calvin for a diverse, high-quality line-up of speakers with important things to say, especially about justice and diversity. Here are our staff picks for this year.  

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

My kindergartener came home excited this weekend -- he’d gotten a free book, one that he could keep! He wanted to read it right away.

As soon as I saw the book, I tried to deflect. “Maybe later, honey.” Nope! Now!

“Wouldn’t you like to find a different book? There a whole bunch of new ones from the library on the table.” Nope! This one! The Indian one.

It’s Thanksgiving season in the United States -- when many of our kids will come home with construction paper head-dresses and mythology about a peaceful dinner between "Pilgrims and Indians."

What this pro-life series has taught me is that the CRCNA is deeply, unapologetically pro-life. 

“Sometimes Native people want to be white. Tell them that they’re made in God’s image.” That’s what an Indigenous elder told a friend of mine when she asked what she should tell Church people about Indigenous peoples. Violet, an elder among the Carrier people of northern British Columbia, is naming and challenging the internalized racism faced by Indigenous peoples across North America today. When the image of God is diminished in one it is diminished in all of us – and life and shalom are affected.