Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-10-01
Thursday, October 1st, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Our book study on White Fragility is going well. Thanks for praying for your church friends who are exploring the subtleties and power of racism. Here’s a column that I borrowed from one of my colleagues at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago:
I learned this definition of racism at a workshop run by the Chicago Regional Organization Against Racism (CROAR): Racism is race prejudice combined with power. As soon as I heard the definition, I felt relieved. Not because it made the problem of racism feel less serious or easier to solve, but because it gave specific contours to it that I felt I could grab onto. Without clarity and understanding, racism feels like a force to simply swallow a people up.
It’s been over two years since I learned that definition. Since then, Fourth Church has committed to a strategic direction of embracing racial equity and modeling an antiracism approach in all of our ministry. Also, during that interval, “antiracism” has achieved widespread adoption among community leaders (including church leaders), commentators, academics, and activists as the term best fit for the urgency of our moment. As a church leader, I have begun employing the term routinely, even though I would be hard pressed to define it with the kind of clarity that so relieved me at that CROAR workshop.
Clarity about antiracism is available, thankfully. Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How To Be An Antiracist, is full of helpful definitions: racism and antiracism, yes, but also racist and antiracist policies, ideas, and people. Kendi employs definitions as tools for fighting racism. “If we don’t do the basic work of defining the kind of people we want to be in language that is stable and consistent,” he argues, “We can’t work toward stable, consistent goals.” It won’t be possible to model antiracism if we can’t say what it is.
Here, then, is the Kendi glossary of antiracism:
Racism: “a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities.”
Antiracism: “a powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist ideas.”
Racial inequity: “when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing.”
Racial equity: “when two or more racial groups are standing on a relatively equal footing.”
A racist policy: “any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups.”
An antiracist policy: “any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups.”
A racist idea: “any idea that suggests one racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group in any way.”
An antiracist idea: “any idea that suggests the racial groups are equal in all their apparent differences.”
I don’t think a person or community is required to accept Kendi’s glossary wholesale to pursue antiracism. Personally, I wonder if it’s not overly restrictive in its guiding binary opposition of racism and antiracism. Also, it feels very technical. A theological lexicon of racism probably reaches beyond terms like “equal” and “inferior” to include “sin” and “evil.”
Kendi’s definitions are sheer gift, questions aside. For those of us committed to racial equity and antiracism in our lives and our churches, they are as helpful a conversation partner as we could hope for.
—Rocky Supinger, Associate Pastor for Youth Ministry, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago
News:
Presbyterian Women’s Fall Gathering
TODAY October 1
2 pm via Zoom
Program — Brandi Lowe, Moderator PW
The next Adopt A Highway will be Tuesday, October 6, at 9 am.
First time volunteers call Liz Miley, 356-5402 or email ebmiley@aol.com
Don’t forget these conversations on PUBLIC SAFETY: The City of Champaign is pleased to invite you to participate in a community listening session to share your vision for public safety in our community. All residents, business owners and community stakeholders are encouraged to take part. The goal is to help create better communication and understanding between Champaign Police, City Administrators and community members by allowing you to directly voice your thoughts and expectations around policing. Each session will include Chief of Police Anthony Cobb and Police command staff, City Manager Dorothy David, and elected City officials. The listening sessions will be moderated by Dr. Travis Dixon, an American media studies scholar and Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois.
Determining the future of policing in our community should be a collaborative process involving community partnerships, and the first step in that process is to hear from you. Each listening session will be used to gather information from the public so it can be shared with the City Council as they make future public safety policy decisions to best address the needs, interests, and values of our community. Virtual Listening Session Dates:
· Saturday, Oct. 3, 1-3 p.m.
· Friday, Oct. 9, 1-3 p.m.
· Tuesday, Oct. 13, 6-8 p.m.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the listening sessions will be held electronically using the Zoom meeting platform. More information on how to join and participate, including how to attend via Zoom can be found on the City’s website at champaignil.gov/
Humor (Hard times need godly laughter):
From Tom Gilmore: Why did the boy build a robot? Because his mother told him to make new friends.
From Mary Gritten: I went to the library to find some books about turtles. “Hardbacks?” the librarian asked. “Yes,” I replied, “with little heads,”
How do you make the number one disappear? Just add a ‘g’ and it’s gone!
Good Word:
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos 5:24
LET US PRAY:
Holy God,
our theologians teach that
You never change. Yet,
You created the world to change
every nanosecond. From season
to season, morning to noon,
day to night, birth to old age—
Every second you give us
something new to delight in
and marvel over.
Frost, soon, will dust
pumpkin and lawn with a million
crystals in myriad, delicate form.
Green leaves will crisp and changed hue
to red, yellow, even blue.
Our children are learning to walk,
to ride bikes, to harness their dreams.
Every moment is new.
Holy God,
all of this change is too
marvelous to take in.
Hear our thanks.
Receive our praise.
We hold your works
in wonder, awe, and delight.
How majestic is your name
in all the earth.
AMEN.
Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
