Another week passes and the protests continue; people fighting against white supremacy and police brutality. The murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor (who are not the latest but just the most public on the current news cycle), and the activism of the Black Lives Matter movement have started conversations among many Presbyterians at all levels of the church.
White supremacy, the epicenter of it all, is so interwoven into the fabric of our culture and our history that it is hard for people not affected by it negatively to identify the behaviors and the unconscious aggression that reinforces it. This is reflected in our daily living and thus in our sessions and congregations. In order to be able to start the work to combat these behaviors we need to learn the characteristics of white supremacy and ask ourselves the hard questions. Odds are that our sessions are unaware of how complicit they might be. Let’s have this conversation. It is time.
The key to learning and dismantling white supremacy is to educate ourselves to be better, to be equipped to know when we are complicit, to know when others are, and to be able to act and stop the patterns. It is the responsibility of the people who benefit from this system to dismantle it, to reach reconciliation through reparations, to build community. As ruling elders, this is our responsibility, and our call, within our own congregations. Now is the time to examine and ask ourselves some important questions that can bring us to action:
Non-Inclusivity
In a predominantly white denomination, having a congregation with very few BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) is common. But, ask yourself:
Why is my congregation and its session predominantly white?
What message are we sending to the community that only white people are invited to join and feel safe in our congregation?
How many times have we asked the few BIPOC to share their thoughts (expecting them to be the voice of all the Lord’s diversity)?
Power and Exclusion
Serving on the session includes making decisions about the direction God is taking the church, about the ministries, finances, and other important matters. Ruling elders are trusted with that responsibility. Being intentional about the inclusiveness of the participation of leadership positions for BIPOC is a way to stand against white supremacy. Ask yourself:
Are there people in my congregation who have served on the session for multiple terms again and again?
Does this cycle prevent non-white members from serving?
Assumptions
When we assume instead of asking, we let our biases guide our ministry. How many times have we assumed someone is too busy to serve as a ruling elder, or to teach Vacation Bible School, but then we count on them to cook for our fundraisers, or to help clean our churches, or to drive the youth group? Ask yourself:
For whom do we allow our stories of what is happening for them prevent us from checking in with them? What is convincing us to act that way?
Commodity
White supremacy expects the oppressed to do the leg work for the oppressors. Asking a BIPOC to do this work for you is an example of supremacy at work. Ask yourself:
When have you expected a BIPOC person to teach you about something you don’t know? And when did you notice?
The Confession of Belhar states:
"Christ's work of reconciliation is made manifest in the church as the community of believers who have been reconciled with God and with one another;
"… that this unity can be established only in freedom and not under constraint; that the variety of spiritual gifts, opportunities, backgrounds, convictions, as well as the various languages and cultures, are by virtue of the reconciliation in Christ, opportunities for mutual service and enrichment within the one visible people of God." (Book of Confessions, 10.3)
It is my hope that as ruling elders, we can continue to be inclusive agents of change in the world.
For Further Study:
"White Fragility" by Robin DiAngelo
"So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo
"Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation" by Jennifer Harvey
"Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in Contemporary America," 5th edition, by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Miguel Andrés Rosa Morales is a ruling elder from the Iglesia Presbiteriana en Hato Rey, Presbytery of San Juan. He worked for the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) interning as a member of the General Council Planning Team (2016) and for the PC(USA) Office of the General Assembly as program assistant for General Assembly Meeting Services (2017). Miguel recently graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and serves as a member of the General Assembly’s Special Committee on Racism, Truth and Reconciliation.