By Kathryn Mary Lohre

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?
Jeremiah 8:22

On May 24, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA hosted a memorial service for lives lost to COVID-19. In a time of physical distancing, the church ecumenical gathered online for “A Time to Mourn,” drawing thousands together to remember and lament. Grounded in our hope in the resurrection, the Rev. Elizabeth A Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, declared, “The body of Christ is COVID-positive.”

The very next day, a black man named George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Onlookers to his arrest quickly became protestors to his death, filming it for all the world to see. The footage of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man on the street until he became lifeless went viral. In their public statement, “Lynching Justice in America,” the officers of The United Church of Christ, asked “Is this how white supremacy prays? The original pandemic of our nation – structural racism and white supremacy – has reasserted once again itself as the deadliest virus among us.

Thus, as the country passed the grim marker of more than 100,000 lives lost to COVID-19 last week, the death of one man became the focus of our national attention. George Floyd’s last words, “Please, I can’t breathe,” are a stark reminder that a severe respiratory virus is not the only illness plaguing us. But we need to be clear in our diagnosis. This it is not about two unrelated ailments: COVID-19 and racism. Rather it is about how the coronavirus, as an acute disease, is aggravating many of our society’s underlying conditions in these, and other ways:

• Stay-at-home orders have exacerbated gender-based-violence.
• Private health care systems have magnified economic injustice, as those who cannot afford it have limited access and quality of care.
• Under-resourced public education systems have provided unequal opportunities for remote learning during school shut-downs, and contributed to food insecurity in many families.
• Disproportionate rates of infection and death from COVID-19 in communities of color have exposed racialized health disparities, including pre-existing conditions.
• The classification of “essential workers” has laid bare the racialized hierarchies of labor in our society, and our dependence on low or no-wage migrant workers.
• The return of wildlife to urban areas has revealed our addiction to habits of consumption, travel, and transit that gravely contribute to climate injustice.
• Unchecked discriminatory police practices targeting black and brown bodies, compounded by racist criminal justice systems have led to several killings of unarmed black and brown people during the COVID-19 pandemic, including not only George Floyd, but also Dreasjon (Sean) Reed, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and others unnamed, and delayed or denied justice for their killers.

None of these conditions are new since the onset of COVID-19. They are more severe. We, the people of the United States, are very ill. We, the ecumenical family in the United States are very ill. “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (I Corinthians 12:26). Whether we are experiencing the symptoms, or contributing to them, none of us are well. You know that, you have seen it, and you have reached out in love and solidarity with us. For this, we give thanks to God for the continued accompaniment of the ecumenical family on the pilgrimage of justice and peace.

Every day since George Floyd’s death, protestors have taken to the streets in cities across the country. Risking arrest and violence, and COVID-19, they are demanding justice – undeterred by those with evil, ulterior motives. Like they prophet Jeremiah, they are crying out, “Black lives matter!” Our churches – our clergy and lay people – are amongst them, and also supporting them with service, care, and sanctuary in our communities. The protestors are enraged by the death of George Floyd, yes, but their rage is also pointing to the 401 years of anti-black structural racism and white supremacy undergirding it, and creating barriers justice. We are at a tipping point as a nation. We feel this whether we are watching and working from self-quarantine, or seeing and joining in with our bodies in the streets.

The status quo has been weakened by COVID-19, and it is susceptible. The question we are wrestling with is, what role will the churches have in treating the underlying conditions – of making lasting change for building racial justice and dismantling white supremacy? The African Methodist Episcopal Church, for one, has been clear: “White supremacist business as usual, is no longer acceptable.” This is work we must engage within our churches, but also together, ecumenically. The Act Now to End Racism initiative of the National Council of Churches will be vital in these next steps, including its recently adopted work focused on white supremacy.

United in Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we must undertake a comprehensive and aggressive treatment plan against structural racism and white supremacy, even and especially while we flatten the curve and seek treatment for COVID-19. Our life together in Christ depends on it because if you can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.

Kathryn Mary Lohre serves as Assistant to the Presiding Bishop and Executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations & Theological Discernment for the ELCA

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On June 17, 2015, a white man named Dylann Roof entered a historic Black church in Charleston during a prayer meeting and opened fire, killing 9 people and wounding 3 more. Roof did not leave his motive in this shooting to our imaginations. He overtly and explictly espoused white supremacist beliefs and targeted the people of Mother Emanuel Church because of their race and commitment to civil rights.

He drew pictures of a white Jesus in his journal in prison.

I felt my stomach sink when I found out that Roof was raised in an ELCA church. 

I imagine that the church Roof grew up in was full of good and faithful people. From what I know, many people there are horrified about what Roof did. Our church may not have taught him white supremacy directly, but like many of our churches and beloved institutions, it did not do enough to teach him to resist it. His formation within the ELCA was not enough to teach him to recognize the image of God in the people who would become his victims. As a board member for the Euro Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice(EDLARJ), I have had the opportunity to witness the stories of our siblings of color in the ELCA through our partnerships with the many ethnic specific and multi-cultural ministries within our church. Many of the stories of people of color within the ELCA include painful interactions with white church members. As much as we want to hope that racism is something relegated to the past, the truth is that it is widespread and ongoing.

Many of us who are white grew up with the idea that talking about race is impolite or “too political.” We prefer to focus on things we consider “spiritual” in church and ignore the daily lived realities of our siblings of color. Talking about racism is uncomfortable. It is easy to feel defensive as a white person when we are asked to examine our own biases or be honest about the racism our country was built on. But our lack of courage in confronting these issues and our refusal to dismantle racism has real consequences. White supremacy has a body count. Even though we did not pull the trigger on June 17, our complacency as white people has made us complicit, and we have blood on our hands. The Emmanuel Nine is a part of that.

The ELCA has called for June 17 to be a day of Commemoration for the Mother Emanuel Nine, recognizing Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson as martyrs. This commemoration is one step in a process of unlearning our own biases and tearing down corrupt, racist systems. On June 17 we are to remember these victims and to be in prayer, as the Emmanuel 9 were when they were slaughtered.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel who organized alongside Dr. MLK during the Civil Rights Movement has been quoted as saying that when he marched, he felt like his legs and feet were praying. Prayer begins with reflection but true prayerfulness leads to action. Our prayers should lead us into accountability, reparations, and reconciliation. This might look like attending an anti-racism training, getting involved in an issue campaign affecting people of color, or giving financial support to the memorial set up to be built in remembrance of the Emanuel 9.

God asks that we love our neighbor, and love requires justice. Because white supremacy was created for and benefits white people, it is the responsibility of white people to take on the work of unlearning the racism we have internalized as part of our socialization in a racist society. We must actively pursue racial justice, and as white people we have a particular role; to remember, to repair, to right wrongs. Let June 17 be a day we recommit ourselves to this struggle and to loving our Black siblings and in word and deed.

God of All, it is your will for people to be whole and free. We give you thanks for the life and witness of the Emmanuel 9. Grant that their faithfulness may be an example for all of us as we work towards an end to racism in our churches and communities. Remove the barriers that stand in the way of our collective liberation. Put an end to white supremacy and other systems of oppression. Connect us with one another and empower us to build a world where all people are safe and loved. In the name of your Child, Jesus Christ, who lives and liberates with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Bio:
Elle Dowd (she/her/hers) is a bi-furious recent graduate of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, an intern at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Logan Square, and a candidate for ordained ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Elle has pieces of her heart in Sierra Leone, where her two children were born, and in St. Louis where she learned from the radical, queer, Black leadership during the Ferguson Uprising.

She was formerly a co-conspirator with the movement to #decolonizeLutheranism and currently works as a community organizer with the Faith and Justice Collective and SOUL, writes regularly for the Disrupt Worship Project, and facilitates workshops on gender and sexuality and the Church in both secular conferences and Christian spaces. Elle is a board member of the Euro Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice, an organization that partners with ethnic-specific and multi-cultural ministries in the ELCA.

Faith Lens is not published during the summer.

But don’t worry, it will be back September 8 with a new posting for Sunday, September 13, 2020.

By Rabbi Yehiel Poupko

Today, we, the Jewish People, have finished counting and fulfilling seven weeks of seven days, forty-nine days since Pesakh and the liberation from slavery in Egypt-Mitzrayim. As the Torah records, we were freed from slavery in the sight of all the world.

In Your love You lead the people You redeemed; In Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode. The peoples hear, they tremble; Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia. Now are the clans of Edom dismayed; The tribes of Moab — trembling grips them; All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast. Terror and dread descend upon them; Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone — Till Your people cross over, O LORD, Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed. (Shemot-Ex. 15:13-16)

This evening we celebrate Shavuot-Pentecost. We will arrive at Mt. Sinai, where we will be given the Torah, where we will receive the Torah, and where God will reveal God’s self to us, as recorded in Exodus-Shemot 19 and 20. No one else was present at this revelation and at the giving of the Torah. The liberation from slavery is a universal experience witnessed by all the world. The giving of the Torah at Sinai is absolutely particular and parochial. Only the Jewish People were given the Torah. God and Israel were alone at Sinai, the Rabbis teach, like a bride and groom at their wedding. In order to achieve this absolutely particular, parochial, and private experience God gave the Torah to us in the desert. We were all alone with God. No one was there. No one else was given the Torah.

And then imagine the shock. No sooner than we at Sinai are all alone with the One God, in order to give the Torah to Israel, God begins to read the Torah out loud in the hearing of all Israel so that Moses-Moshe can write it down. What are amongst the very first words that Israel, in absolute intimacy with the One God hears read?

When in the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth…and God said, “Let us make the Adam (the human) in our image, after our likeness…” And God created the Adam in God’s image. In the image of God did God create the Adam. Male and female God created them.”

In a moment of absolute parochialism, an experience shared with no one, God declared to Israel, every person is created in the image of the One God. In this pristine moment of intimacy God declares the absolute universal principle. Every human is created in the Image.

We have a custom, a tradition, to stay up all night tonight, Shavuot, and to read, study, and learn the whole Torah from the beginning of Genesis-Bereshit to the end of Deuteronomy-Devarim. Like all Israel standing at Sinai, what will we experience? So, tonight in our moment of absolute privacy with the One God we will note, on this anniversary of our honeymoon with God at Mt. Sinai as we begin to read the whole Torah from the beginning of Genesis-Bereshit, that just two or three days ago one person created in the image of the One God, an African American, an American citizen, a resident of Minnesota, George Floyd, cried out, “Please, I can’t breathe!” At the same time, another person created in the image of God, for approximately ten minutes with his knee on George Floyd’s neck did not hear him speak these four words, “Please, I can’t breathe.” And tonight, we will also come to that verse in the Torah, and God artistically fashioned the human, dust from the earth, and breathed into the human’s nostrils the breath of life, and the human being became a breathing articulate being. So, tonight on Shavuot, in commemoration of our most particular of experiences, we will, like our parents long ago at Sinai, listen to the words of the Torah declare the most absolute universal of all realities. Every human being is created in the Tselem Elokhim, the Image of God. And into every human being has God breathed the breath of life. As we remember the last words of George Floyd, “Please, I can’t breathe!”

All good to each and every one of you,

Yehiel Poupko
YP/cm

Rabbi Yehiel Poupko is Rabbinic Scholar at the Jewish United Fund/ Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.

elca.org/emanuelnine

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine, ELCA congregations are encouraged to reaffirm their commitment to repenting for the sins of racism and white supremacy, which continue to plague this church. As part of the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, voting members adopted a resolution designating June 17 as a commemoration of the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine. Each year this day will be set aside as a time of penitence for ELCA members through study and prayer. An online ELCA prayer service, including leaders from across the church and Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton as preacher, is being planned for June 17, 2020, to mark this fifth anniversary. Below you will find a collection of resources that will assist you and your congregations during this time of prayerful reflection, remembrance, and recommitment. More is available at elca.org/emanuelnine.

The Emanuel Nine
On June 17, 2015, Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Lee Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson – the Emanuel Nine – were murdered by a self-professed white supremacist while they were gathered for Bible study and prayer at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (often referred to as Mother Emanuel) in Charleston, South Carolina. Our relationship to the shooter as well as two of the slain reminds us of both our complicity and our calling. Together we confess that we are in bondage to the sins of racism and white supremacy and, at the same time, we rejoice in the freedom that is ours in Christ Jesus who “has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (Ephesians 2:14). May God continue to guide us as we seek repentance and renewal, and racial justice and reconciliation among God’s precious children.

Worship resources
The resources referenced below are provided to help congregations navigate this commemoration and day of repentance. Many of these materials were recently produced for this first year of marking the commemoration; among the others are helpful ELCA websites and documents as well as resources from our ecumenical partners.
In this time of pandemic, many of the resources will need to be adapted for virtual worship, online conversation, or individual reflection and devotion. You are invited to use them in whatever ways are most helpful for your local context.

•  “Prayers, Litanies, and Laments for the Commemoration of the Emanuel Nine” | PDF |
• “Terror and Prophetic Witness,” a litany by Senior Bishop Adam J. Richardson, Jr., African Methodist Episcopal Church | PDF |
• “The Doors of the Church Are Still Open,” a litany in memory of the Emanuel Nine by Senior Bishop Adam J. Richardson, African Methodist Episcopal Church | PDF |
• ELCA “Confession, Repentance and Commitment to End Racism Sunday” (Sept. 6, 2015) | PDF |
• ELCA “Worship Resources: Juneteenth” | PDF |

Ecumenical partnership
For many decades, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the African Methodist Episcopal Church have been ecumenical partners through coalitions such as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC). In the 1990s, our two churches entered into theological dialogue seeking full communion and co-published a congregational resource. Our churches have also engaged in various forms of cooperation and public witness together and with other ecumenical partners. We have participated together in the cross-racial dialogue of the Conference of National Black Churches since 2015 and in the NCC’s A.C.T. Now to End Racism initiative since 2018. As the Office of the Presiding Bishop tends to church-to-church relations nationally, vital relations have been cultivated across the church by bishops, rostered ministers and lay leaders, with key leadership from Lutherans of African descent. We continue to seek ways to deepen and expand our ecumenical partnership across various ministry contexts and communities as part of our ecumenical commitments and churchwide resolutions. You can access an overview of ecumenical relations between the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America here.

You can learn more about the ELCA’s Emanuel Nine commemoration and day of repentance along with accessing additional resources by visiting elca.org/emanuelnine.

White folks – we need to get past the idea that we need to fix white supremacy for other people – that we can be white saviors coming in to save the brown and black folks in our church.  The truth is that we are the ones that are broken.  Now don’t get me wrong – White supremacy DEFINITELY needs to be dismantled in order to improve the lives of our brown and black siblings.  I just don’t want you to get it twisted.  I want you to realize that we too are harmed by white supremacy.  That what we need is collective liberation.  That we are not the savior.  A brown skinned Palestinian Jewish man named Jesus is.

About our brokenness.  We are seriously lacking in empathy.  When we hear about another black body being shot on the news, we wait “to hear the whole story” before we can lament about the situation.  We find some way to justify what was done.  We find some way to assign blame to the victim.  “Well if he wasn’t walking in the street.”  “If he didn’t speak that way to the police.” “Well he shouldn’t have been selling loose cigarettes.” “Well he did have a realistic toy gun in his hand.”  Somehow we have become okay with state sanctioned executions in the street.  Where oh where is our empathy?  White supremacy tells us that objectivity is possible – that emotions shouldn’t play a role in decision making.  All too often we get stuck in our heads and we forget about our hearts.  We rationalize away some pretty awful things.  White supremacy has us do these things.

White supremacy also tells us that we have a right to comfort.  In church.  White supremacy tells us that we have a right to comfort in church. What?!  Jesus was about flipping power structures, lifting up the lowly  – he was executed by the state for standing up for his friends.  Jesus was intensely political.  But we want the church to “not be political”.  We want the church to be comfortable.  We think talking about race is racist.  We wonder if we could just use some words other than “white supremacy”, which after all isn’t really that big of a problem.  So without thinking about it, we have created the equation that white comfort is more important than black lives.  OUCH.  I know  – its a shocking realization.

I know – some of you are probably super mad right now.  You’re mad because you think I am accusing you of being a white supremacist.  You’re mad because you can’t possibly be a white supremacist – you’re a good person – white supremacy tells you that you have to be perfect.  You can’t have some flaw like white supremacy or racism.  The thing is, white supremacy is not so much about you as an individual as it is about this insidious evil system that we are ALL caught up in and that we ALL suffer from – though in different and unequal ways.  The evil genius of white supremacy is that it operates without you noticing or doing anything to keep it in place.  It is so deep and entrenched that we don’t even notice it or realize that we have anything to do with it.

It’s going to take a lot to root white supremacy out of church folks and its going to be hard, but we HAVE to do the work.  Much harm has been done because we have failed to do the work.   (I often wonder what Dylann Roof learned in his church about racism.  I wonder if he had pictures of white Jesus hanging  in his ELCA congregation.  I wonder what role did our denomination play or not play in his formation.) We are going to have to offer each other an ABUNDANCE of grace.  We are going to have to be okay with not knowing what we are doing and forging ahead on faith.  We are going to have to ask other white folks to give up their comfortable positions because the truth is that white comfort is NOT more important that black lives.

Shari Seifert with her friend David Starks together at Calvary Lutheran Church – Minneapolis following the murder of Philando Castile.

The truth is that we are all the body of Christ together and when part of the body hurts, the whole body should feel it.  We shouldn’t wait “to hear the whole story”.  We should feel it with our whole heart.  As Bishop Eaton said tonight – until white folks care about the death of black lives as if they were their own, nothing is going to change.  Can you join me in hoping and praying for the holy spirt to enter our hearts and move us to compassion and to action?  Can you join me in calling for the dismantling of white supremacy?

Bio: Shari Seifert  lives in Minneapolis with her wife, two sons and the cutest Golden Doodle you have ever seen.  She works as a Realtor and  is committed to working towards dismantling white supremacy in the ELCA.  Shari is currently vice-president of the European Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice (EDLARJ),  a member of the Minneapolis Synod racial justice table, her congregation’s Race Equity Committee and Multi-faith Anti-Racism and Healing (MARCH)     She is also on the core planning  team the Multicultural Youth Leadership Experience (MYLE).

As we approach the twentieth anniversary of our full communion agreement, “Called to Common Mission,” we give thanks to God for the partnership we share with The Episcopal Church. In the coming months, we will pray for and with one another, seeking spiritual renewal in these challenging times, and revival for the common mission we share.

From Pentecost Sunday through the first Sunday in September, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and her Episcopal counterpart Presiding Bishop Michael Curry welcome congregations and individuals to regularly pray “A Prayer for the Power of the Spirit Among the People of God.” This prayer – crafted by a team of Lutheran and Episcopal prayer leaders in light of the COVID-19 pandemic – will connect us in common prayer and revive us for common mission, wherever and however we may be gathered.

Congregations might wish to incorporate the prayer into worship following the Prayer of the Day, as part of the Prayers of Intercession, or at the conclusion of worship before the Blessings or Dismissal. Individuals may pray it anytime as part of their own personal prayer discipline. Please feel free to print, publish, post, and share it widely.

At Pentecost, we celebrate the power of the Holy Spirit. In our diversity, we are united through God’s presence among us. We are amazed and astonished. United in Christ, and joined by common prayer, the Advocate calls and sends us out in common mission. Come, Holy Spirit.

A Prayer for the Power of the Spirit among the People of God
God of all power and love, we give thanks for your unfailing presence
and the hope you provide in times of uncertainty and loss.
Send your Holy Spirit to enkindle in us your holy fire.
Revive us to live as Christ’s body in the world:
a people who pray, worship, learn, break bread, share life, heal neighbors,
bear good news, seek justice, rest and grow in the Spirit.
Wherever and however we gather,
unite us in common prayer and send us in common mission,
that we and the whole creation might be restored and renewed,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Oración por el Espíritu en tiempos de incertidumbre y desplazamiento
Dios de todo poder y amor, te damos gracias por tu constante presencia y por la esperanza que brindas en tiempos de incertidumbre y de pérdida. Envía tu Espíritu Santo a encender en nosotros tu fuego santo. Revívenos para vivir como cuerpo de Cristo en el mundo: un pueblo que ora, adora, parte el pan, comparte la vida, atiende a sus prójimos, es portador de buenas nuevas, busca la justicia, descansa y crece en el Espíritu. Dondequiera y de cualquier manera que nos reunamos, únenos en oración comunitaria y envíanos en una misión común: que nosotros y toda la creación podamos ser restaurados y renovados, mediante Jesucristo nuestro Señor. Amén.

Une prière pour l’Esprit en une période d’incertitude et de déplacement
Dieu de toute puissance et de tout amour, nous te rendons grâce pour ta présence indefectible et l’espoir que tu nous donnes en cette période d’incertitude et de perte. Envoie ton Saint-Esprit allumer en nous ton Saint feu. Ravive-nous pour vivre comme le corps du Christ dans le monde : un peuple qui prie, adore, apprend, rompt le pain, partage la vie, guérit les voisins, porte de bonnes nouvelles, cherche la justice, se repose et croît dans l’Esprit. Où que nous nous réunissions et de quelque manière que nous le fassions, unis-nous dans une prière commune et envoie-nous dans une mission commune afin que nous et toute la creation puissions être restaurés et renouvelés à travers Jésus-Christ notre Seigneur. Amen.

The ELCA recognizes June, 17 as day of Commemoration of the Emanuel 9 and a Day of Repentance of Racism.  This blog is featured as part of a series to call the ELCA to address white supremacy and racism. To find additional worship materials for June 17, please visit https://www.elca.org/EmanuelNine

3 Then I turned to the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying,

“Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.  (Daniel 9:3-6)

I love living and serving as a pastor in rural communities on the Great Plains. I have spent most of my life in this environment, and my family has been part of this landscape for generations. My identity is tied to this place, and that comes with complex realities and shameful truths. Like anywhere in the United States, has been present in this space since the arrival of white people. It takes different forms in different settings, I cannot speak to how it manifests in other rural environments. Rural spaces are not monolithic.

There are, of course, overt displays of white supremacy. People fly confederate battle flags, hang racist symbols in bars while claiming they are, “just being country,” whatever that means. Hate groups hold rallies to intimidate immigrant communities. We have an abundance of statues and landmarks named after men who committed genocide against our indigenous neighbors. Those obvious examples give cover for the quieter, more prevalent, and just as pernicious ways that white supremacy manifests itself into the daily rhythm of our lives.

This landscape is defined by openness. That this openness has tragically created space for my people to hide how white supremacy is alive and well. It is easy not to see migrant workers when they are the only people standing in a field miles from the nearest town or behind the walls of factories processing our food. It is easy to not see the indigenous communities that our presence has forced onto reservations or to ignore the people of color who live in our communities as our neighbors. It is easy to claim that issues facing communities of color don’t affect us because there is just so much space.

The reality is, regardless of how easy it is to look another way white supremacy damages us all. The stories we pass down from generation to generation about how our rugged ancestors came from Europe with nothing.  How they were tough and brave enough to “tame the land.”  Those stories live on in us, a constant nagging sense of inadequacy. These prideful narratives center on white exceptionalism and yields shame that creates a hardness within us and our communities.

As a result we gloss over the honest parts of these stories, where people were faced with a choice of starvation, conscription, or a boat to a place they had never been. We don’t tell how whole communities shared one window so that everyone’s sod home was up to code when it was to be inspected. We exempt the reality that people of color have been present in every wave of immigration to this area. We certainly don’t spend enough time sitting in the discomfortable truth that we live in this vast and beautiful space only because of the systematic extermination and removal of indigenous people.

I love living and serving here. I delight in meeting our new neighbors who much like large parts of my family, have come fleeing dire situations to find some measure of peace. I am honored when I am invited into holy moments where those whose families have been in this space for thousands of years share their experience with me. I have hope that we can stand against this damaging and pervasive narrative. We value humility, let’s commit to taking an honest look at the ways in which we have participated in the oppression of our neighbors. We value steadfastness, let’s commit to the long process of dismantling white supremacy.  We value community, let’s commit to creating a world where those who have been excluded for so long are shown the dignity, justice, and love.

Kelly France is  the interim pastor at Swedlanda Lutheran Church in rural Hector Minnesota. In his ministry he seeks to build communities that address the injustices of white supremacy and religious intolerance in the rural Midwest.  He serves on the board of the European Descent Lutheran Association for Racial Justice (EDLARJ).