DeLois Guess – Season of Prayer on Racism
Thoughts on Racism
By Mrs. DeLois Guess
Member, Pine Street Christian Church, Tulsa
Systemic Change – Season of Prayer on Racism
Systemic Change — Racism
By Ms. Marilynn Knott, Retired Commissioned Minister
Member, Crown Heights Christian Church, OKC
Oklahoma’s most valuable resource is our people. One of the best things we can do for our state is to enable our people to become fully the people God created them to be. If you check out statistics on poverty, you will learn that people of color are disproportionately included in counts of those living in poverty. Jim Wallis labels racism as America’s Original Sin.
One of my great grandfathers was the captain of a local militia for the Confederacy during the Civil War. I was told he was very bitter about the loss of the war and carried that bitterness throughout his life passing it on to his family. Some years ago, I sat in a court house in Tennessee reading the will of this great grandfather’s father who was the product of Manifest Destiny probably taught in his church. Tears ran down my cheeks as I read the names of his house slaves and the children who inherited them listed among the horses and cattle he was also leaving them. His great granddaughter, my mother, did not pass that on to me. I never got the chance to ask her how that happened. My guess is she learned racism was wrong in Sunday school when a teacher taught her that God commanded us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and she thought God meant it.
People of Faith Don’t Always Get Things Right
People of faith don’t always get things right. As Paul says we get caught up in the world sometimes and transfer the ways of the world to our faith. The good thing is we serve a God of second chances giving us the opportunity to turn around and work to set things right. My mother took that opportunity and lived and modeled it all her 98 years from serving all colors of people as a deaconess in the Methodist church in West Virginia during the depression to intercessory prayers from her nursing home bed.
Pray for Needed Systemic Change
Systemic racism is insidious, destructive in ways that are gradual and not easily noticed. As we pray about needed systemic change, let us seek and follow guidance on becoming intentional in our efforts to overcome systemic racism.
PRAR Season of Prayer on Racism
Faith in Action Commission Introduces Season of Prayer on Racism
By Ms. Marilynn Knott (Retired Commissioned Minister)
Chair, Commission on Faith in Action
Member, Crown Heights Christian Church, OKC
My name is Marilynn Knott and I am currently the Chair of the Faith in Action Commission of the Christian Church in Oklahoma. Just over two years ago the Faith in Action Commission began exploring more deeply the need to address racism and other forms of discrimination from a faith perspective. We held a one-day workshop led by Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism team members from another Region and then began formation of an Oklahoma PRAR team. Interested people, including members of the Faith in Action Commission, participated in a more in-depth training the next summer.
One-Day Workshops for Clergy and Laity
Eventually we determined that we needed the whole Christian Church in Oklahoma to share in the formation of PRAR team and thus decided to provide ten one-day workshops, two in each area for clergy and laity both, to invite all to become a part of the process. The first five of these workshops are scheduled and will be held starting in March and continue throughout the spring. The second five will be held in the fall. Dates and places for the first five are on the Regional calendar along with dates for the fall workshops with places still to be determined. Reminders will be sent as we get closer to the dates and begin registering participants.
This initiative began following the flare up in Ferguson Missouri followed by the Terrance Crutcher incident in Tulsa, which raised the awareness of the need for people of faith to address discrimination and we still hear of similar tragedies today. There are no easy answers but there are answers as God calls us to love one another and puts no limitations on whether the other is black or white, male or female, immigrant or citizen.
Join us for a Season of Prayer on Racism
Starting today we are calling you to join us in prayer for discernment of God’s vision for our world of diverse people. Each Monday we will post some thoughts to encourage your prayers. We hope you will join us as we prepare to answer the call truly to love one another as Jesus loves us.