St. Paul Area Synod Invitation: The Road Toward Racial Justice
This specific initiative to which all people of the St Paul Area Synod are invited is called The Road Toward Racial Justice. It is not a packaged program, led by one committee or group of leaders. Instead, it is a commitment to the lifelong work of better understanding and addressing the systems of racism and white privilege that shape attitudes, perspectives, and relationships within our households and faith communities, and diminish our national and global work as a church. The power of Christ’s resurrection gives us the courage to examine our own lives and institutions today, trusting that a Living God is leading us toward justice and equity for all the beloved children of God. We are all invited to commit ourselves to this journey with other persons in the Saint Paul Area Synod. Learn more and make your commitment here.
Incarnation’s Racial Justice Working Group
Several of the Incarnation community have been gathering from time to time since fall of 2020 as a Racial Justice Working Group, to listen, learn and leverage the work each is doing so that we may together as a faith community, grow in navigating differences that make a difference, especially regarding racial justice. Using the model of the Inward/Outward Journey that Pastor Kai Nilsen often references, some of this working group have been drawn to individual/inward work, some to corporate/inward work, some to individual/outward work and some to corporate/outward work. All of work is needed. All are invited to participate. If you’d like to be included as a part of the Racial Justice Working Group, contact Becky Benson.
Join the Racial Justice Working Group’s Facebook Group by going to this link and requesting to be added. Here you will be in the company of those others who are eager to learn and get connected to advocacy opportunties.
Resources for Listening and Learning
Listening
Healing Our City Video Recordings from the Virtual Prayer Tent
The Healing Our City Facebook page and the Healing Our City YouTube channel has cateloged each daily reflection from the virtual prayer tent since early March through May 26, shared by thought leaders from various faith traditions. You may go back and listen to them at any time. Healing Our City is an initiative of the Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement, to respond to and transform the pain experienced in Minneapolis, through prayer and actions leading to a more just, equitable and healthy city.
Learning
Here are other suggestions for starting to learn. This list is certainly not comprehensive, but it is a place to start.
Small Groups: Justice
Join others for reading and discussion during summer 2021 on topics related to racial and social justice. Learn more here. If you’d like to engage in a small group but don’t see one listed regarding a justice topic you are interested in, contact Denise Floe.
Movies
Just Mercy, based on the life work of civil rights attorney, Bryan Stevenson and his book by the same name, can be streamed on multiple platforms (YouTube, Google Play, Amazon, Xfinity On Demand, and others). A short series of discussion questions for Just Mercy are here.
13th, a thought-provoking documentary where scholars, activists and politians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom. Discussion questions for 13th are here.
Books by Black Authors
- Dear White Peacemakers, Osheta Moore
- How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X . Kendi; as an introduction, listen to Ibram X. Kendi interviewed by Brene’ Brown.
- I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown ; as an introduction, listen to Austin Channing Brown interviewed by Brene’ Brown.
- Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Caste, Isabel Wilkerson
As a starting place last summer, the Incarnation Congregation Council and Incarnation staff read the book, White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo and engaged in dialogue around the book. This began the process of helping the leadership of Incarnation to understand better our white privledge and to recognize that others travel through life with much more difficulty. You are invited to join in reading this book, so that as a community, we can begin to have some common language to use as we go forward together.
Resources Within Our Minnesota Context
- Sparked: George Floyd, Racism and the Progressive Illusion, edited by Walter R. Jacobs, Wendy Thompson Taiwo, and Amy August (book); virtual book release on May 19, 2021.
- A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, Sun Yung Shin (book)
- The Jim Crow of the North, from the Minnesota Experience PBS, a Twin Cities PBS Original (documentary)
- Articles about racial disparities in Minnesota
Racial Justice Resources for Children, Youth and Families
- For Children:
- Little Moments Count: Racial and Social Justice and Becoming Anti-Racist
- Children’s books
- Diversity Matters
- Talking about Race and Anti-Racism with Children
- Racially Diverse Books for Middle Grades (3-6)
- Brand New Racially Diverse Books for Littles
- Using Media to Talk with Children About Race
- Why and How to Talk to Your Child About Racism
- What is Race? Having the Conversation with Young Children
- Talking to Children About Racial Bias (American Academy of Pediatrics)
- Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism (CNN/Sesame Street)
- Talking Race with Young Children (NPR)
- How to Talk to Kids About Anti-Asian Racism (NPR)
- How White Parents Can Talk to Their Kids About Race (NPR)
- For Youth:
Leaning In: Loving Response to Underserved Neighbors
Life continues to be enormously challenging for many underserved neighbors because of a variety of circumstances people face. Incarnation engages with a number of local partners informally and formally in ministry partnerships, to support the work of alleviating pain and suffering, while bringing hope and relief. To learn about and be a part of Incarnation’s support of this work, go to Incarnation’s Current Service Opportunities page and Incarnation’s Ministry Partnership page.
Another way to alleviate pain and bring hope is to support the Twin Cites Mutual Aid Project which emerged over the summer in response to the needs of underserved communities. Check out the extensive, interactive Twin Cities Mutual Aid map to learn where you may donate items, what items are needed, days/hours to drop off, as well as ways to volunteer in service.
How did Bethlehem Lutheran In-the-Midway become a mutual aid site in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death? Watch this Twin Cities PBS Original piece.
Incarnation Congregation Council’s Statement in Reponse to George Floyd’s Death
Dea
r Friends of Incarnation,
Social justice—a life that focuses on justice, the well-being of all human relationships, and the social structures that promote that justice and well-being—is a central theme of the biblical narrative. Social justice is God’s love in action. The question about social justice is not, “Should we, as followers of Jesus, pursue social justice?” The question is “In what ways will we pursue social justice in our context and time?”
The cry for social justice was particularly strong through the prophets:
“Hear this, you that trample the needy,
And bring to ruin the poor of the land.” (Amos 8:4)
“Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien or the poor;
And do not devise evil in your heart against one another.” (Zechariah 7: 10)
“Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe
And runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause
Does not come before them.” (Isaiah 1: 23)
Note the focus was not just on individuals who trample on the needy but also on the systems they (the princes) established. In the face of that oppression, the prophets cried out:
“Let justice roll down like waters,
And righteousness like an everflowing stream.” (Amos 5: 24)
“God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
(Micah 6:8)
Those themes echoed throughout Jesus’ life and ministry. Listen to Jesus’ first words from his first sermon in Luke,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
To bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” (Luke 4: 18)
Justice was a hallmark of Jesus’ ministry and a marker of the reality of the Kingdom of God: Good news to the poor. Release to captives. Freedom for the oppressed.
To be Jesus’ people is to share his heart for justice.
So now we must ask, “In what ways will we pursue justice in our time and context?”
The killing of George Floyd ignited the communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul and became the flashpoint for us to take a hard look at the ways we have not lived justly with our Black, Indigenous and People of Color neighbors and, as significantly, the ways we have ignored systems of racism.
As leaders of Incarnation, the biblical call to work for justice and to take on systems of oppression has presented itself in a way that we cannot overlook or deny, no matter how painful it is. Justice is God’s love in action.
If we are to live out our vision of “a world filled with God’s grace and love” we must be willing to face what we need to face, to change what we can change, and to work where we can work so that all people can thrive in our communities of faith and in our surrounding neighborhoods.
The Incarnation Council, pastors and other staff leadership will meet to discuss what is Incarnation’s path forward and you will be informed of what plans come from those meetings. Until then, we ask you to pray for all who are hurt by racism, the communities who have seen destruction, for our church leadership and for how you may be a part of God’s call to justice for all people.
A Message from Senior Pastor Kai Nilsen
Senior Pastor Kai Nilsen
Twin Cities to Chicago to Columbus, Ohio to Norfolk, Virginia. A week ago when we left, these cities were simply stops on the way to see family as we began a cross country trek to help my son and daughter-in-law move in to their new home in Norfolk, Virginia. As I write this, they are four of dozens of cities across the country with marches protesting the killing of George Floyd, including a peaceful march five stories below my son’s new apartment. As we know, from the gut-wrenching images in our own cities, all the marches have not been as peaceful.
How did we get here?