Lent is a time when we are called to tend to our spiritual lives more than any other season. We set aside worldly distractions and take on additional spiritual practices to discover what keeps us from experiencing the fullness of relationship with God and with others. For decades, the United Methodist Church has boldly declared that racism is a sin at both personal and institutional levels–a sin that “plagues and hinders our relationship with Christ.” This Lent, we are focusing on the Spiritual Work of Resisting Racism. Recognizing that we cannot be complacent with neutrality, we will engage in the steps it takes to actively work against racism in our lives and our world, moving in hope toward the Easter promise and the world that God intends. Take a courageous step in your faith and join us for this challenging series.
Subscribe to Daily Lenten Interruptions
Conversations about racism are difficult. Yet, we come together this season, willing to take steps toward resisting its hold on our systems and our lives because we know that God will lead the way. If you are ready to engage with us on a daily basis, interrupting your routine for just 5-10 minutes throughout Lent to consider what it means to resist racism, please subscribe below. Daily emails will be a mix of videos, articles, prayers, and personal reflections that will encourage you to consider how God is inviting you to respond to racism.
Sundays, March 1 – April 5, 10:00 – 10:45 a.m. Zoom Online Class
All are welcome to join Pastor Cathy Stone and Director of Youth Ministries Devon Bailey for a series of classes covering themes from White Fragility, no reading or preparation required. Join us as, together, we engage in steps to actively work against racism in our lives and our world.
We will use the Zoom platform to deliver our class online. If you do not have Zoom on your computer, the meeting invitation link will ask you to download the application prior to the class. Step-by-step directions are provided here. The meeting invitation will be shared in our Sunday morning email. To save time, you can go ahead and sign up for a free Zoom account here.
All are invited to join a Lenten small group for our churchwide study of Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’”(Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
Look for messaging from your small group leader on remote options to continue your small group.
Small Groups
Zoom Online Wednesdays, March 4-April 1, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Co-Facilitated by Caroline Jones and Kathy Morales Register Here.
Zoom Online Thursdays, March 5-April 2, 7:00-8:30 p.m. Co-Facilitated by Daviss King Register Here.
Zoom Online Tuesdays, March 3-31, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Facilitated by Pastor Cathy Stone Register Here.
Zoom Online Thursdays, March 5-April 2, 11:45 a.m.–1:15 p.m. Facilitated by Pastor Cathy Stone Register Here.
FAQ
We are a pretty progressive church—why do we need to talk about racism here?
In her book White Fragility, Robin Diangelo writes, “White progressives can be the most difficult for people of color, because to the degree that we think we have arrived, we will put our energy into making sure that others see us as having arrived. None of our energy will go into what we need to be doing for the rest of our lives: engaging in ongoing self-awareness, continuing education, relationship building, and actual anti-racist practice. White progressives do indeed uphold and perpetrate racism, but our defensiveness and certitude make it virtually impossible to explain to us how we do so.”
Are we just doing this to be politically correct?
We are taking on the subject of racism because we believe our faith compels us to grow in understanding the ways we contribute to the broken systems in our world. Rather than (even unintentionally) being a part of what is harming others, we must do the hard work of learning, reflection, and action to become part of healing. The United Methodist Church recognized this twenty years ago when the General Conference passed a resolution for every congregation to implement “a strategy and program which educates and supports systemic and personal changes to end racism.” We believe church is a safe place to do hard work, and FUMC is ready for this step.
I don’t see color—I just see people. What’s the big deal?
Layla Saad writes, “When you say “I don’t see color” to a [person of color], you are saying “Who you are does not matter, and I do not see you for who you are. I am choosing to minimize and erase the impact of your skin color, your hair pattern, your accent, or other languages, your cultural practices, and your spiritual traditions as a [person of color] existing within white supremacy. Sho Baraka says “all of creation, all of our differences is a beautiful reflection of who God is and to ignore that is not just ignorant, but it is also a spit in the face of our Creator.”
Doesn’t talking about racism make it worse?
Carolyn Helsel writes, “Not talking about race and racism has been a strategy our society has used in the past, but it has not worked. People continue to have biases that they act on, with the biggest impact falling upon communities of color. If religious leaders do not talk about it, and if our congregants are not able to talk about it, our biases will continue to harm others. Also, by not talking about it, we are discounting the stories of men and women of color who experience their race as having a daily impact on their lives. If we do not talk about it, it feels as if we are ignoring their pain. As people of faith, we are all called to attend to the suffering of one another. In order to attend to this suffering, we need to first acknowledge that it exists. Racism continues to exist, and refusing to name it will not make it go away.”
I am a person of color at FUMC. How do I navigate this season?
We are approaching this season with an acknowledgment that our church is predominantly white. The Pastors have held conversations with people of color in the church to discuss ways to navigate this season. If you would like to talk more, we invite you to reach out to one of the Pastors.
Why didn’t we invite any people of color to teach us?
It is important, as Layla Saad writes in her book, Me & White Supremacy, that we have made efforts to ensure that people of color entering a predominantly white community are not on the receiving end of racial microaggressions or white fragility. That we have done the grueling work as a community and that we are not merely using behaviors such as tokenism, white saviorism, white centering, and so on to create an optical illusion of allyship rather than the honest and disruptive work of anti-racism. That the exhausting burden of teaching white people about their racism is not put on people of color.
Where is this going? Do you have any goals for this season?
Our overall goal is to make progress toward becoming an anti-racist church—a church that is actively participating in the healing of racism. We hope all who participate will come away from this season having identified a couple of key points of understanding and one key action through which they can join that effort in an ongoing way. In addition, we hope to build a solid foundation of education, so that, as a congregation, we can move toward tangible acts of solidarity with people of color.
What can I do to prepare?
Pray for God to give you an open spirit to receive whatever God wants to show you in this season, so that you might become an even greater part of God’s work! Then, show up!
Glossary
Discrimination
The denial of justice and fair treatment by both individuals and institutions in many areas, including employment, education, housing, banking and political rights. Discrimination is an action that can follow prejudicial thinking.
Erasure/Colorblindness
The act of denying or refusing to acknowledge that people’s race and people’s lived experience in America because of their race differs. This is reflected in statements like, “I don’t see race,” “I’m colorblind,” “We are all equal,” and “But we’re all just one human race.”
Implicit Bias
The unconscious attitudes, stereotypes, and unintentional actions (positive or negative) towards members of a group merely because of their membership in that group. These associations develop over the course of a lifetime through exposure to direct and indirect messages. When people are acting out of their implicit bias, they are not even aware that their actions are biased. In fact, those biases may be in direct conflict with a person’s explicit beliefs and values.
Microaggressions
The result of implicit bias wherein a statement, action, or incident is indirectly or subtly (often unconsciously) reflective of prejudice. An example would be a person clutching their bag as they walk by a black man.
Prejudice
Prejudging or making a decision about a person or group of people without sufficient knowledge. Prejudicial thinking is frequently based on stereotypes.
Stereotype
An oversimplified generalization about a person or group of people without regard for individual differences. Even seemingly positive stereotypes that link a person or group to a specific positive trait can have negative consequences.
Racism
Power + Prejudice = Racism. Racism describes the result of prejudicial attitudes being combined with the power to dominate and control the systems and institutions capable of carrying out discriminatory practices. In other words, racism results from access to the power to enforce prejudices so as to advantage one racial group.
White Fragility
The defensiveness and avoidance that arise for white people when facing even a minimum amount of racial stress. The feelings can be so uncomfortable that white people distance themselves from engaging or actively shut down conversations about race. It may surface as the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.
White Privilege
The term for the way people and social institutions grant social privileges that benefit white people beyond what is commonly experienced by people of color under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. White privilege is not something that white people necessarily do, create, or enjoy on purpose. It refers more to the phenomenon that social systems award preference based on the presumptions of white as norm.
Definitions assembled and adapted from the work of the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center, Robin DiAngelo, and White Privilege: Let’s Talk.
All are invited to join a Lenten small group for our churchwide study of Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’”(Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.