By Kent Dorsey, ARPR Task Force Chair
The Region’s Anti-racism/Pro-reconciliation team completed its on-line training. Our trainers, David Bell, Director of Yakama Christian Mission, White Swan, Wash. and Pedro Ramos-Goycolea, Pastor of Desert Dove Christian Church, Tucson, Ariz. were also panelists for the “Love Is an Action Word” webinar on lingering racism toward indigenous peoples hosted by the Office of General Minister and President. Our training highlighted the power of racist ideas in the spread of Christianity in North America – including the Restoration Movement.
At this Advent and New Year everyone is eager to tear 2020 from the calendar. Could our haste to put the past behind us include ignorance and apathy about peoples who have experienced year after year, decade after decade of terrible circumstances, resulting from unexamined racist ideas, institutions, and practices?
The hope of Emmanuel (God-with-us) which binds us all together in 2021 rings hollow if we ignore the continuing legacies of conquest, slavery and white supremacy in church and society that have been revealed in this troublesome year. We welcome the Christ Child as the incarnation of God so loved the world. Our hope of being made whole is born in this divine love for the whole world.