For this last ePistle in Black History Month, I want to turn our attention to the future. As a predominantly white church within a relatively liberal subculture of the country, it can be difficult to discern what it looks like to live out a Christian calling of radical love that demands full dignity and equal sociopolitical standing for our BIPOC members and neighbors. As we as a church continue to discern humbly and in earnest what this looks like moving forward, I want to warn us of a common trap for those inclined toward social progress, the trap of moderation.
Dr. King wrote in his striking Letter from Birmingham Jail, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.’” This quote has never left me, because it strikes to the heart of why police violence, economic injustice, healthcare disparity, and so much more plagues the Black community in America. This is also why Wesley Rowell is the first senior staff of Trinity’s history who isn’t white. Transformative change can only come if we’re willing to let the status quo be unsettled.
True justice work is terrifying but liberating. I believe that if we embark on this journey together, it will sharpen our Christian witness and draw us deeper in faith and love, together as the diverse family of God. I have some thoughts of what this could look like for Trinity, but it’s ultimately not my voice that matters in this conversation. Actually, the voices we need to listen to may not even feel there is space for their voices to be heard here. Perhaps this is where we must begin to lay the groundwork for transformative love, proactively seeking one challenging conversations with humility and curiosity where we remain open to being unsettled. May our love abound and change us, that one day we might truly be one. In the words of the great James Baldwin, “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.”
