Central Florida Presbytery Statement on Racial Injustice

 

CENTRAL FLORIDA PRESBYTERY'S
​STATEMENT ON RACIAL INJUSTICE

Statement Adopted by the Council of Central Florida Presbytery on August 11, 2020. 
Appendices Adopted on August 24, 2020.

“In every age, the church has expressed its witness in words and deeds as the need of the time required."1   In the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others who have been unjustly killed, now is that time. As a Matthew 25 Presbytery,2 and with the conviction to dismantle structural racism, we end our silence.
​
We, faith leaders and clergy of Central Florida Presbytery,3  confess that we have been slow to face the reality, sin, and evil of racism. We admit that we have neglected to acknowledge the pain of our fellow Presbyterians, Christians, and all whose value has been judged and discounted because of the color of their skin.4

Racism is real. Racism is still prevalent in the hearts of many, including those who profess belief in God. Racism is learned behavior because no infant is born with bigotry. There is only one human race, whereby every person, most especially the disenfranchised, yearns for dignity and deserves respect.

We acknowledge that racism is a sin against God and against non-white people. We are all created in the image of God. We confess our failure to fully follow Jesus Christ in loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. We acknowledge that we cannot truly love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love our brothers and sisters whom we see every day (1 John 4:20). We have failed to take responsibility for our part in the struggle against systemic racism, and we have failed to demonstrate love for our sisters and brothers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

As proclaimed in the anti-racism statement made by the Sumter Leaders of Faith: 5

• Racism is a sin. Racism is a sin against God and against humanity.
• Racism tells a lie. Racism tells a lie about God and about what God intends for humanity for it falsely claims that some are less than others.
• Racism must be confessed before there can be reconciliation.

Many have been willfully ignorant of and callously indifferent to the sin of racism and the spiritual crisis it has caused. Collectively, we have allowed fear to give way to silence -- continuing and perpetuating racist ideologies, theologies, and practices that have found welcome and continue to fester in our places of worship, communities, homes, and hearts.

Historically, white Christian traditions have been complicit in racism. The formation of our nation, strongly influenced by religious conviction, included an acceptance of racism and slavery. We stand guilty of defending the genocide of indigenous communities, tribes, and people, and of making acceptable slavery, particularly of Black peoples (Luke 11:42-52).6   These long-held beliefs have contributed to structural racism in our education, economic, and judicial systems. We have permitted the unfair prosecution and punishment of Black people for unproven crimes or suspicions. We are now confronting this reality.

Today, we declare that Black lives do matter.

We affirm our love and support of our brothers and sisters in law enforcement. However, police brutality is never acceptable, and we must hold accountable those who commit such acts.

The late Honorable Representative John Lewis said, “If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.” We have an obligation to make “good trouble.”

Scripture proclaims that the Lord requires us to “do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).

Therefore, Central Florida Presbytery commits to act for racial justice, equality, and respect for all people. We commit to demonstrate this within our communities, through our prayers, policies, and practices. 

1 Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), “The Confession of 1967 9.02” in The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Part I, Book of Confessions, (Louisville: Office of the General Assembly, 2016).
2 Central Florida Presbytery voted to become a Matthew 25 Presbytery at its December 3, 2019 stated meeting. Citing Matthew 25:31-46 and Jesus' call to actively engage in the world, this Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) initiative calls councils and congregations to help eradicate systemic poverty, dismantle structural racism, and/or build congregational vitality. See how to become a Matthew 25 community at: www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/matthew-25/become-a-matthew-25-church.
3 Central Florida Presbytery is the council of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations encompassing the 10-county region of Central Florida. For more information about the Presbytery, go to: www.cfpresbytery.org.
4 Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), 224th General Assembly, Item 00-29 “On the Church in This Moment in History – Responding to the Sin of Racism and a Call to Action” 2d Plenary, 2020.
5 Ecumenical Faith Leaders Task Force, “Sumter Leaders of Faith,” (Sumter, SC: New Harmony Presbytery, 2020).
6 Jesus spoke woe to his contemporaries, saying they were implicated in wrongs committed by their ancestors.

Additional Resources on Radical Injustice from Anti-Race Committee of the Central Florida Presbytery

 

Our Central Florida Presbytery published a statement on racial injustice.  There have also been a number of important resources produced to provided guidance and education in addressing anti-racism. 

Along with the statement, a number of policies, action plans, defining terms were included. I fully and wholeheartedly support the statement which is the result and product of countless hours by the Anti-Racism Committee (ARC) of the Central Florida Presbytery.  I applaud their work and commend the statement and the information to all faithful Christians as we seek to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. 

In this post, I will publish additional material that is included in the addendum.  This is an essential resource, and it is my hope that it will be utilized to increase our understanding of the sin of racism that still permeates our national and church life.  Racism must be called out as a sin, and racism must be understood, confronted, refuted, and condemned, if we are to seek reconciliation and peace. 

George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020.  The video of the murder taken by Darnella Frazier captured the shocking images.  The world has reacted with shock at his murder and the realization that there have been many other cases that we have ignored before George Floyd (Walter Scott, shot in the back by a police officer, Jordan Edwards, Eric Gardner, Michael Brown shot in Ferguson MO, Tamir Rice, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery among others).  I am posting these resources as we reflect and recommit ourselves to the work of justice that God has called us. To work towards a just and equitable society where people will be treated with fairness and dignity.   I hope these resources will be of help to anyone looking to explore and dive deeper and reach a better understanding of the issue of racism, and how to overcome its devastating effects.  

CENTRAL FLORIDA PRESBYTERY STATEMENT ON RACIAL INJUSTICE

APPENDIX A

RECOMMENDED ACTION PLAN

We, a diverse and complex community of believers acknowledge that in order to achieve racial reconciliation we must take the following actions:

PRAY with an open mind and heart, and respond to God’s leading. 

We will undertake this discipline individually and collectively as a church.

LEARN: sharing the history, dynamics, and consequences of racism as power;

listening empathetically to the hurts and hopes of people of color;

For the majority white members of the church we are especially responsible to hear the lived realities and stories of people of color without blaming, deflecting, or changing the subject. We also strive to recognize the wounding of our soul in the historic role of oppressor and how this continues to affect

our view of society, culture, and racial tensions.

being culturally humble by respecting those who are marginalized and when or how they peacefully

protest their mistreatment;

recognizing implicit bias (attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions and decisions

in an unconscious manner) and the resulting habit of ingrained prejudice; and

avoiding racially charged words and dehumanizing phrases.

REPENT and ATONE:

for our personal acts of racism or colorism;

We acknowledge that humans can veil racist or prejudiced thoughts and behaviors, even from

ourselves;

for our failure to hear the cries of our marginalized kindred;

for the power imbalance and the undercurrent of racism that limits access to leadership and control

of faith institutions;


for valuing law and order and property above the lives of people of color; and

for our silence in the face of racial injustice.

4. AFFIRM:

inclusion in leadership in the Central Florida Presbytery and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) while

acknowledging that more work is necessary;

that we sin before God and against humanity when we refer to any person as “other” or as “them”;

our accountability to all people of color;

the need to reform our racialized criminal justice system;

the importance and value of a truth and reconciliation process for our faith traditions and nation;

that faithfulness demands working for restitution and restorative justice from our faith institutions and

our nation for BIPOC communities.

“Repairing what's broken is a distinctly biblical concept, which is why as people of faith we

should be leading the way into redemption, restoration, and reconciliation.”7

7 LaTasha Morrison, Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation. 2019, WaterBrook, Crown Publishing Group. p.154

5. ACT:

by bringing our prophetic voices into the public arena;

by leading our congregations to confront racism;

by calling for the appropriate discipline, up to and including, termination and prosecution, of law

enforcement officers who commit racist or brutal acts;

by transforming our system of policing, criminal justice, immigration, and mass incarceration systems

that are decimating BIPOC communities;

by balancing the inequities inflicted on non-white communities from health care to employment, from

education to wealth, from the criminal justice system to housing;

by practicing Christ’s love and acceptance of all people and all faiths by leading with love;

We can never expect others to believe what we believe if we do not extend love to everyone.

by taking responsibility for our part in the struggle for racial justice in all arenas of life.

by making amends for our silence by speaking truth with humility and listening with deeper conviction

to those we have offended.

As a Presbytery, we will:

empower the Mission Development Committee to develop practices and policies that address

racism;

encourage all committees, ministries, members and congregations to engage in efforts to end racial

injustice;

require Ministers of Word and Sacrament, Certified Christian Educators, Commissioned Pastors and

presbytery staff to engage in anti-racism training on an ongoing basis;

urge the leadership, staff and members of the presbytery’s congregations to participate in the same

recurring anti-racism training events;

provide opportunities for all members of the presbytery and our congregations to participate in

educational events that promote understanding and discussion about racism and our racial history;

recommend that all individuals learn about racism (see the attached resource list);

promote storytelling events and intercultural experiences that help us understand our collective narrative as people of faith and the ways we are transformed by the Gospel and by intentional

conversations with our racially diverse siblings;

communicate the presbytery’s awakened convictions, repentance, and commitment to a new

awareness through all available outlets;

commit to be active and to publicly proclaim our new understandings as we express our faith through

civic engagement.8

8 Historically this has included works for the abolitions of slavery, marches for civil rights, non-violent protest, sit-ins, communicating with elected officials, etc.

APPENDIX B

GLOSSARY TERMS

Term Definition / Explanation
Bigotry	Obstinate or intolerant devotion to one's own opinions and prejudices9
BIPOC	An acronym for 'Black, Indigenous, People of Color,' it is meant to unite all people of color in the work for liberation while intentionally acknowledging that not all people of color face the same levels of injustice.”10
Black	According to the Columbia Journalism Review, Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community for many people. Capitalizing “Black” follows the practice established for other groups (African-American, Asian, Hispanic, etc.) and extends transnationally to Caribbean and Central/South American Black persons.11
Black Lives Matter	“Black Lives Matter: A now-mainstream declaration that “Black lives matter, too,” this affirmation is independent of the socio-political Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc. The phrase was coined in a 2013 social media post by activist Alicia Garza following the acquittal of Floridian George Zimmerman, who had been charged with the murder of an unarmed Black teen named Trayvon Martin. The hashtag gained traction the following year after the killing of two other unarmed Black men by police. Advocates confirm the phrase was never intended to imply that only Black lives matter. “Saying unequivocally that “Black Lives Matter” in no way means that all lives do not matter. It is rather an acknowledgement that many lives – specifically black lives – are systemically devalued.”12
Civic engagement	A process in which people take action to address issues of public concern. This has included work for the abolition of slavery, marches for civil rights, non- violent protest, sit-ins, communicating with elected officials, social media engagement, etc.
Colorism (also known as Shadeism)	Prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin.13 Not to be confused with racism, colorism is a form of prejudice or discrimination in which people who are usually members of the same race are treated differently based on the social implications which come with the cultural meanings which are attached to skin color.
Empathy	The capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position.14

Implicit bias Attitudes or stereotypes which unconsciously affect human understanding, social behavior, actions, and decisions, making an individual’s actions difficult to control.15

9 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bigotry
10 https://www.sunrisemovement.org/bipoc-gnd-crash-course#:~:text=The%20term%20BIPOC%20stands%20for,the%20same%20levels%20of%20injustice. 

11 https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php
12 https://www.pcusa.org/weekofaction/
13 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colorism
14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy

People of Color

(POC)

Any person who is not considered white or of European heritage in the United States. Persons of Color include Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian persons among others. The term emphasizes common experiences of systemic racism.

Term

Prejudice

Racism

Systemic Racism

White Fragility

Definition / Explanation

Preconceived judgment or an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge; an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics”16

Prejudice and or bigotry, coupled with institutional, generational, or cultural power. It can be expressed individually, institutionally, systemically, or structurally.18

Historic and continuing discrimination against Persons of Color within systems (including education, labor, residential, health, and criminal justice systems).20

“The tendency among members of the dominant white cultural group to have a defensive, wounded, angry, or dismissive response to evidence of racism.”22

Racial Justice

The systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all.17

Structural Racism

Describes a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity.19

White
According to the Columbia Journalism Review, capitalizing the word “white” risks

following the lead of white supremacists.23

White Privilege

“The unearned, mostly unacknowledged, social advantage white people have over other racial groups simply because they are white.”23

16 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudice

17 http://www.nea.org/racialsocialjustice

18 https://debbyirving.com/are-prejudice-bigotry-and-racism-the-same-thing/ 

19 https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/structural-racism-definition/

20 https://time.com/5851855/systemic-racism-america/
21 https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php
22 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/white-fragility
23 https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/white-privilege/

CLARIFYING STATEMENTS

In the polarized climate of 2020, many terms have become politically charged. Therefore, we believe it is important to clarify the original definition and stated intent of the terms listed below.

• Black Lives Matter
Represents a political and social movement originating among African Americans, emphasizing basic human rights and racial equality for Black people and campaigning against various forms of racism.24 It is a decentralized movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience in protest against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against Black people. 25

• “#BlackLivesMatter – What we believe (from BlackLivesMatter Foundation):

• ▪  “We acknowledge, respect, and celebrate differences and commonalities.

• ▪  We work vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people.

• ▪  We intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful

  struggle that is restorative, not depleting.

• ▪  We are unapologetically Black in our positioning. In affirming that Black Lives Matter, we need not

  qualify our position. To love and desire freedom and justice for ourselves is a prerequisite for wanting

  the same for others.

• ▪  We see ourselves as part of the global Black family, and we are aware of the different ways we are

  impacted or privileged as Black people who exist in different parts of the world.

• ▪  We are guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs,

  immigration status, or location.

• ▪  We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead.

• ▪  We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans

  folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-

  antagonistic violence.

• ▪  We build a space that affirms Black women and is free from sexism, misogyny, and environments in

  which men are centered.

• ▪  We practice empathy. We engage comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their

  contexts.

• ▪  We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children. We 

  dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work “double shifts” so that they can

  mother in private even as they participate in public justice work.

• ▪  We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as

  extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the

  degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.

• ▪  We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing

  ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are

  heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).

• ▪  We cultivate an intergenerational and communal network free from ageism. We believe that all

  people, regardless of age, show up with the capacity to lead and learn.

• ▪  We embody and practice justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another.”26

  0. 24 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/black-lives-matter?s=t 25 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter
     26 https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

Implicit bias

“A few key characteristics of implicit biases

• Implicit biases are pervasive. Everyone possesses them, even people with avowed commitments

  to impartiality such as judges.

• Implicit and explicit biases are related but distinct mental constructs. They are not mutually

  exclusive and may even reinforce each other.

• The implicit associations we hold do not necessarily align with our declared beliefs or even reflect

  stances we would explicitly endorse.

• We generally tend to hold implicit biases that favor our own ingroup, though research has shown

  that we can still hold implicit biases against our ingroup.

• Implicit biases are malleable. Our brains are incredibly complex, and the implicit associations that

  we have formed can be gradually unlearned through a variety of debiasing techniques.”27

  Racism
  Prejudice is when a person negatively pre-judges another person or group without getting to know the beliefs, thoughts, and feelings behind their words and actions. A person of any racial group can be prejudiced towards a person of any other racial group. There is no power dynamic involved.”

  Bigotry is stronger than prejudice, a more severe mindset and often accompanied by discriminatory behavior. It’s arrogant and mean-spirited, but requires neither systems nor power to engage in.

  Racism is the system that allows the racial group that’s already in power to retain power. Since arriving on U.S. soil white people have used their power to create preferential access to survival rights and resources (housing, education, jobs, voting, citizenship, food, health, legal protection, etc.) for white people while simultaneously impeding people of color’s access to these same rights and resources. Though “reverse racism” is a term sometimes heard, it has never existed in America. White people are the only racial group to have ever established and retained power in the United States.

  Institutional Racism

  When someone is treated unfairly because of their race that has become part of the normal behavior of people within an organization.28

  Structural Racism

  Often used synonymously with Systemic Racism, Structural Racism describes a system in which public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various, often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.29

  Systemic Racism

  Often-unconscious and always insidious, systemic racism traces roots directly to slavery and its offspring of Jim Crow laws and mass incarceration. For example:
  “That’s the ugly history most Americans know and acknowledge. But systemic racism also found its way, more insidiously, into the institutions many Americans revere and seek to safe...

  22 http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/research/understanding-implicit-bias/
  28 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/institutionalized-racism 29 https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/structural-racism-definition/

guard. Established in the 1930s, Social Security helped ensure a stable old age for most Americans, but it initially excluded domestic and agricultural workers, leaving behind two- thirds of black Americans. Federal mortgage lending programs helped white Americans buy homes after World War II, but black Americans suffered from a shameful catch-22. Federal policy said that the very presence of a black resident in a neighborhood reduced the value of the homes there, effectively prohibiting African-American residents from borrowing money to buy a home. And sentencing laws of the past several decades meant that poor black Americans were thrown in prison for decades-long terms for consuming one type of cocaine while their wealthier white counterparts got a slap on the wrist for consuming another.30

The act of making of amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury.31

“Reparations for slavery is the application of the concept of reparations to victims of slavery and/or their descendants. There are concepts for reparations in legal philosophy and reparations in transitional justice. Throughout history, reparations for slavery have been both given by legal ruling in court and/or given voluntarily (without court rulings) by individuals and institutions32. Reparations can take numerous forms, including: individual monetary payments, settlements, scholarships, waiving of fees, and systemic initiatives to offset injustices, land-based compensation related to independence, apologies and acknowledgements of the injustices,33 token measures, such as naming a building after someone, or the removal of monuments and renaming of streets that honor slave owners and defenders of slavery.34/35

There are many instances of reparations for slavery relating to the Atlantic slave trade dating back to the at least 1783 in North America36, with a growing list of modern day examples of Reparations for slavery in the United States in 2020 as the call for reparations in the US has been bolstered by protests around police brutality and other cases of systemic racism in the US.37 Recently in the US, the call for reparations for racism has been made alongside calls for reparations for slavery.38/39

Despite many calls for reparations, examples of international reparations for slavery consist of recognition of the injustice of slavery and apologies for involvement but no material compensation.40/41”42

30 Ibid.
31 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reparation
32 Davis, Allen (May 11, 2020). "An Historical Timeline of Reparations Payments Made From 1783 through 2020 by the United States Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Colleges and Universities, and Corporations". University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
33 Davis, Allen (May 11, 2020). "An Historical Timeline of Reparations Payments Made From 1783 through 2020 by the United States Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Colleges and Universities, and Corporations". University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
34 "Black Asheville Demands - Reparations Section". June 26, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
35 Kepley-Steward, Kristy; Santostasi, Stephanie (July 10, 2020). "Confederate monuments in downtown Asheville removed or covered". Retrieved July 12, 2020. 36 Davis, Allen (May 11, 2020). "An Historical Timeline of Reparations Payments Made From 1783 through 2020 by the United States Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Colleges and Universities, and Corporations". University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
37 "Calls for reparations are growing louder. How is the US responding?" June 20, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2020. Several states, localities and private institutions are beginning to grapple with issue, advancing legislation or convening taskforces to develop proposals for reparations.
38 Cashin, Sheryll (June 21, 2019). "Reparations for slavery aren't enough. Official racism lasted much longer".
39 "Black Asheville Demands - Reparations Section". June 26, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
40 Howard-Hassman, Rhoda (2004). "Reparations to Africa and the Group of Eminent Persons". Cahier d'Etudes africaines. Retrieved July 20, 2020. a" French law of 2001 that recognizes the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity, and the admission by the Belgians in 2002 of their role in the murder of Patrice Lumumba, first President of independent Congo"
41 "Blair 'sorrow' over slave trade". BBC News, 27 November 2006. Accessed 15 March 2007.
42 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reparations_for_slavery
43 Coates, Ta-Nehisi. The Case for Reparations. The Atlantic, June 2013

"This to me is the deepest significance of reparations. People who think this is just a matter of giving black things vastly underestimate the challenge. Reparations may seem impractical. Living without history, I

suspect will - in the long term prove to be suicidal."43

"It's important to remember that in our practice of restorative justice, reparation is not punitive. Reparation is not about punishing anyone. It's not about paying a fine for a wrong committed or assuaging a guilty conscience. Instead, reparation acknowledges that through historical injustice, some communities were denied (or had deliberately stolen from them) opportunities, possessions, property, wealth, and safety so that other communities could obtain more of those things. Reparation is about repaying or returning those things so as to restore equity."44

Social Justice

“Social justice is a concept of fair and just relations between the individual and society, as measured by the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity, and social privileges. In Western as well as in older Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their societal roles and receive what was their due from society. In the current global grassroots movements for social justice, the emphasis has been on the breaking of barriers for social mobility, the creation of safety nets and economic justice.

Social justice assigns rights and duties in the institutions of society, which enables people to receive the basic benefits and burdens of cooperation. The relevant institutions often include taxation, social insurance, public health, public school, public services, labor law and regulation of markets, to ensure fair distribution of wealth, and equal opportunity.”47

White Privilege

White privilege refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it.48 These differences are maintained in part by denying that these advantages and disadvantages exist at the structural, institutional, cultural, interpersonal and individual levels and by refusing to redress them or eliminate the systems, policies, practices, cultural norms and other behaviors and assumptions that maintain them.49

Structural White Privilege: A system of white domination that creates and maintains belief systems that make current racial advantages and disadvantages seem normal. The system includes powerful incentives for maintaining white privilege and its consequences, and powerful negative consequences for trying to interrupt white privilege or reduce its consequences in meaningful ways. The system includes internal and external manifestations at the individual, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels.

44 LaTasha Morrison, Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation. 2019, WaterBrook, Crown Publishing Group. p.158 45

47  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice

48  White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women Studies. Peggy McIntosh. 1988.

49  Transforming White Privilege: A 21st Century Leadership Capacity, CAPD, MP Associates, World Trust Educational Services, 2012.

Social justice refers to justice in the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.45

“Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Social workers aim to open the doors of access and opportunity for everyone, particularly those in greatest need .”46

45 https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/social_justice

46 https://www.sdfoundation.org/news-events/sdf-news/what-is-social-justice/ 

The accumulated and interrelated advantages and disadvantages of white privilege that are reflected in racial/ethnic inequities in life-expectancy and other health outcomes, income and wealth and other outcomes, in part through different access to opportunities and resources.

Interpersonal White Privilege: Behavior between people that consciously or unconsciously reflects white superiority or entitlement.

Cultural White Privilege: A set of dominant cultural assumptions about what is good, normal or appropriate that reflects Western European white world views and dismisses or demonizes other world views.

Institutional White Privilege: Policies, practices and behaviors of institutions -- such as schools, banks, non-profits or the Supreme Court -- that have the effect of maintaining or increasing accumulated advantages for those groups currently defined as white, and maintaining or increasing disadvantages for those racial or ethnic groups not defined as white. The ability of institutions to survive and thrive even when their policies, practices and behaviors maintain, expand or fail to redress accumulated disadvantages and/or inequitable outcomes for people of color.50

With roots in European colonialism,52 the Atlantic slave trade, and the growth of the Second British Empire after 1783, white privilege has developed53 in circumstances that have broadly sought to protect white racial privileges,54 various national citizenships and other rights or special benefits.55/56”57

White Supremacy

White supremacy is the idea (ideology) that white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of white people are superior to People of Color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. While most people associate white supremacy with extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis, white supremacy is ever present in our institutional and cultural assumptions that assign value, morality, goodness, and humanity to the white group while casting people and communities of color as worthless (worth less), immoral, bad, and inhuman and "undeserving." Drawing from critical race theory, the term "white supremacy" also refers to a political or socio-economic system where white people enjoy structural advantage and rights that other racial and ethnic groups do not, both at a collective and an individual level.58

White Supremacy Culture

50 Transforming White Privilege: A 21st Century Leadership Capacity, CAPD, MP Associates, World Trust Educational Services, 2012.
51 Stephen, James (1824). The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated. Cambridge University Press. p.179.
52 Ibid.
53 Bischoff, Eva; Elisabeth Engel (2013). Colonialism and Beyond: Race and Migration from a Postcolonial Perspective. LIT Verlag. p. 33. ISBN 978- 3643902610. Whiteness scholars mostly concentrate on the idea of power as a white economic and political privilege, which is assumed to have been formed over centuries and to still be unconsciously perpetuated by individuals.

54 Hintzen, Percy C. (2003). Henke, Holger; Fred Reno (eds.). Modern Political Culture in the Caribbean. University Press of the West Indies. p. 396. ISBN 978- 9766401351. In making their claims to white elite status, the elite of colonial Africa and its colonized diaspora have managed to reproduce, in postcolonial political economy, the very forms of domination that existed under colonialism. These forms are rooted in racial exclusivity and racial privilege.
55 Henry, Frances; Carol Tator (2006). Racial Profiling in Canada: Challenging the Myth of 'a Few Bad Apples'. University of Toronto Press. p. 22. ISBN 978- 0802087140. Whiteness studies analyse the link between white skin and the position of privilege operating in most societies, including those which have been subjected to European colonialism.

56 Talley, Clarence R. (2017). Theresa Rajack-Talley; Derrick R. Brooms (eds.). Living Racism: Through the Barrel of the Book. Lexington Books. p. 17. ISBN 978-1498544313. Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton in their book, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, argue that the internal colonialism of the Black population occurs as the purposeful relegation of the Black population to inferior political and economic status both during and subsequent to slavery. From this perspective, white privilege emerges in American society because of the relations of colonialism and exploitation.

57 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_privilege

58 Dismantling Racism Works web workbook,https://www.dismantlingracism.org/racism-defined.html

White Supremacy Culture refers to the dominant, unquestioned standards of behavior and ways of functioning embodied by the vast majority of institutions in the United States. These standards may be seen as mainstream, dominant cultural practices; they have evolved from the United States’ history of white supremacy. Because it is so normalized it can be hard to see, which only adds to its powerful hold. In many ways, it is indistinguishable from what we might call U.S. culture or norms – a focus on individuals over groups, for example, or an emphasis on the written word as a form of professional communication. But it operates in even more subtle ways, by actually defining what “normal” is – and likewise, what “professional,” “effective,” or even “good” is. In turn, white culture also defines what is not good, “at risk,” or “unsustainable.” White culture values some ways – ways that are more familiar and come more naturally to those from a white, western tradition – of thinking, behaving, deciding, and knowing, while devaluing or rendering invisible other ways. And it does this without ever having to explicitly say so.59

White supremacy culture is an artificial, historically constructed culture which expresses, justifies and binds together the United States white supremacy system. It is the glue that binds together white-controlled institutions into systems and white-controlled systems into the global white supremacy system.60

59 Paying Attention to White Culture and Privilege: A Missing Link to Advancing Racial Equity, by Gita GulatiPartee and Maggie Potapchuk, The Foundation Review, Vol. 6: Issue 1 (2014).

60 Challenging White Supremacy Workshop, Sharon Martinas Fourth Revision. 1995.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

Disclaimer: Every view or opinion expressed in the referenced resource does not necessarily constitute agreement or imply endorsement.

Articles and Online Resources

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/white-supremacy-christianity-robert-jones-160000229.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/theological-roots-white-supremacy-120007153.html
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (PDF) – 6 pp.

AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance) resource list https://aorta.coop/resources/ Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State

University https://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/

The Complicity Cleanse https://www.complicitycleanse.com/about-face Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change

Groups http://www.resourcesharingproject.org/dismantling-racism-resource-book-social-change-groups Podcast for White Lies https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510343/white-lies
Podcast on Policing, Throughline on NPR https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/869046127/american-police

Books

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. 336 pp. 2012, The New Press. ISBN-13: 978-1595586438

James Baldwin, Go Tell It On The Mountain. 272 pp. 2013, reprint edition, Vintage Books. ISBN-13: 978-0345806543

Austin Channing Brown, I’m Still Here, Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness. 192 pp. 2018, Convergent Books. ISBN-13: 978-1524760854

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. 512 pp. Picador, 1st edition, ISBN-13: 978-0805086843

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me, 176 pp. 2015, One World. ISBN-13: 978-0812993547

Robin Diangelo, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. 192 pp. 2018, 

Beacon Press. ISBN-13: 978-0807047415

Implicit Bias Assessments and Cleanses
Implicit Associations Test https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/featuredtask.html

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. 312 pp. Beacon Press, 2015, reprint edition. ISBN-13: 978-0807057834

Jennifer Eberhardt, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. 368 pp. 2020, reprint edition, Penguin Press. ISBN-13: 978-0735224957

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man. 581 pp. 1995, Vintage Books. ISBN-13: 978-0679732761
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow. 320

pp. 2020, Penguin Press. ISBN-13: 978-0525559559
Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. 460 pp. 1992, reissue edition, Ballentine

Books. ISBN-13: 978-9990065169
Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. 912 pp. 2016, Media tie-in edition, Da Capo Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0306824852
Carolyn B. Helsel, Anxious to Talk About It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully about Racism. 128 pp.

2018, Chalice Press 2018, ISBN-13: 978-0827200722
Daniel Hill, White Awake: An honest look at what it means to be white. 192 pp. 2017, IVP Press. ISBN-13:

978-0830843930

Debby Irving, Waking Up White: and Finding Myself in the Story of Race. 288 pp. 2014, Elephant Room Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0991331307

Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be An Antiracist, pp.238, 2019, One World, ISBN-13: 978-0-5255-0928-8

Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, pp. 236 2020, Simon & Schuster, ISBN-13: 978-1-9821-2286-7

LaTasha Morrison, Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation. 256pp. 2019, WaterBrook, Crown Publishing Group. ISBN-13: 9780525652892

Bruce Reyes-Chow, But I Don’t See You as Asian: Curating Conversations about Race. 242 pp. 2013, BRC Publications. ISBN-13: 978-0989498104

Andrea J. Ritchie, Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color. 362 pp. 2017, Beacon Press. ISBN-13: 978-080708898-2

Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. 368 pp. 2015, Spiegel & Grau. ISBN-13: 978-0812984965

Layla Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor, 256 pp. 2020, Sourcebooks. ISBN-13: 978-1728209807

Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. 256 pp. 2020, Zondervan. ISBN-13: 978-0310113607

David Truer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present. 528 pp. 2019, Riverhead Books, reprint edition. ISBN-13: 978-0399573194

Videos

Robin Diangelo, “Vital Conversations: An Interactive Video Series on Today’s Realities of Race and Racism,” produced by General Commission on Religion and Race for the United Methodist Church, published February 21, 2017. 22 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwIx3KQer54

13th, directed by Ava Duvernay. Kandoo Films, 2016. Netflix, streaming video. (1 hr., 40 min)

Debby Irving, “Finding Myself in the Story of Race,” produced by TEDx Fenway, published July 20, 2015. 15 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD5Ox5XNEpg

Jane Elliott – Blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLAi78hluFcleS0

The Veggie Tales Theme Remix You Need to Drop Everything to Watch -

https://youtu.be/crg0WAlBdTo

Special Committee on Racism, Truth and Reconciliation Video on Reparations

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=871788259897309&ref=watch_permalink

Racism, Law Enforcement and The Church

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Yv7_sTeafbc

Documentary - Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls at School by Monique W. Morris https://pushoutfilm.com/

Presbytery & Denominational Resources

http://www.cfpresbytery.org/anti-racism.html
https://www.pcusa.org/racial-justice-resources/
FacingRacism.Org - PCUSA's Antiracism statement https://facing-racism.pcusa.org/
Facing Racism: A Vision of the Intercultural Community - approved by the 222nd General Assembly (2016)

Church wide policy: https://facing- racism.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/facing_racism/resources/facing-racism-policy.pdf

https://churchleaders.com/pastors/videos-for-pastors/377389-phil-vischers-17-minute-history-lesson-is-

worth-every-second.html?fbclid=IwAR3N7KFWjhET5hK3w8WoL5U-jfCIvVOpXWExfj_yKaTGvTPqtaGnFo-

Study Guide: https://facing-racism.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/facing_racism/facing- racism-study-guide.pdf

“Trouble the Water: Conversations to Disrupt Racism and Dominance” is a documentary series resource produced by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for communities and congregations to facilitate conversation and engagement around the issues of race and racism. As we struggle as a nation with these deep systemic and structural issues on a daily basis, we hope this series can be a resource to listen to one another, have difficult but honest conversations and collectively work together to disrupt systemic racism.

PCUSA Special Committee on Racism, Truth & Reconciliation Facebook
page https://www.facebook.com/PCUSASpecialCommitteeRaceTruthReconciliation

Reparations Video

https://www.facebook.com/PCUSASpecialCommitteeRaceTruthReconciliation/videos/871788259897309

PC(USA)—Hispanic/Latino-a Intercultural Congregational Support:

www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/racial-equity-womens-intercultural-ministries/hispaniclatino-a- intercultural-congregational-support

PC(USA)—Hispanic/Latinx National Presbyterian Caucus: www.facebook.com/HispanicLatinoPCUSA PC(USA)—Office of Immigration Issues: www.oga.pcusa.org/section/mid-council-ministries/immigration PC(USA)—Presbyterian Publishing Corp. (Spanish Language): www.pcusastore.com

CONFESSIONS ON RACISM AND RECONCILIATION

CONFESSION OF 1967

4. RECONCILIATION IN SOCIETY 9.43

In each time and place there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. The church, guided by the Spirit, humbled by its own complicity and instructed by all attainable knowledge, seeks to discern the will of God and learn how to obey in these concrete situations. The following are particularly urgent at the present time.61

9.44
a. God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love he

overcomes the barriers between brothers and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary. The church is called to bring all men to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, education, leisure, marriage, family, church, and the exercise of political rights. Therefore the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by it. Congregations, individuals, or groups of Christians who exclude, dominate, or patronize their fellowmen, however subtly, resist the Spirit of God and bring contempt on the faith which they profess.62

CONFESSION OF BELHAR

61 Book of Confessions, Confession of 1967, 9.43, Presbyterian Church (USA). 62 Book of Confessions, Confession of 1967, 9.44, Presbyterian Church (USA).

10.5

We believe

• that God has entrusted the church with the message of reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ;

• that the church is called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, that the church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker, that the church is witness both by word and by deed to the new

  heaven and the new earth in which righteousness dwells;

• that God’s life-giving Word and Spirit has conquered the powers of sin and death, and therefore also

  of irreconciliation and hatred, bitterness and enmity, that God’s life-giving Word and Spirit will enable the church to live in a new obedience which can open new possibilities of life for society and the world;

• that the credibility of this message is seriously affected and its beneficial work obstructed when it is proclaimed in a land which professes to be Christian, but in which the enforced separation of people on a racial basis promotes and perpetuates alienation, hatred and enmity;

• that any teaching which attempts to legitimate such forced separation by appeal to the gospel, and is not prepared to venture on the road of obedience and reconciliation, but rather, out of prejudice, fear, selfishness and unbelief, denies in advance the reconciling power of the gospel, must be considered ideology and false doctrine.63

  10.6
  Therefore, we reject any doctrine which, in such a situation sanctions in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of people on the grounds of race and color and thereby in advance obstructs and weakens the ministry and experience of reconciliation in Christ.

  10.7
  In the Belhar Confession, “we believe that God has revealed God’s self as the one who wishes to bring about justice and true peace among people; that God, in a world full of injustice and enmity, is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged; that God calls the church to follow God in this; for God brings justice to the oppressed and gives bread to the hungry; that God frees the prisoner and restores sight to the blind; that God supports the downtrodden, protects the stranger, helps orphans and widows and blocks the path of the ungodly; that for God pure and undefiled religion is to visit the orphans and the widows in their suffering; that God wishes to teach the church to do what is good and to seek the right; that the church must therefore stand by people in any form of suffering and need, which implies, among other things, that the church must witness against and strive against any form of injustice, so that justice may roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream; that the church as the possession of God must stand where the Lord stands, namely against injustice and with the wronged; that in following Christ the church must witness against all the powerful and privileged who selfishly seek their own interests and thus control and harm others.”64

63 Book of Confessions, Belhar Confession, 10.7, Presbyterian Church (USA). 64 Book of Confessions, Belhar Confession, 10.7, Presbyterian Church (USA).

AFRICAN AMERICAN RESOURCES

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. 336 pp. 2012, The New Press. ISBN-13: 978-1595586438

James Baldwin, Go Tell It On The Mountain. 272 pp. 2013, reprint edition, Vintage Books. ISBN-13: 978- 0345806543

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man. 581 pp. 1995, Vintage Books. ISBN-13: 978-0679732761
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow. 320

pp. 2020, Penguin Press. ISBN-13: 978-0525559559
Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. 460 pp. 1992, reissue edition,

Ballentine Books. ISBN-13: 978-9990065169
Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. 912 pp. 2016, Media tie-in edition, Da Capo Press.

ISBN-13: 978-0306824852

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (PDF) – 6 pp.

https://swap.stanford.edu/20141218230016/http://mlk- kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/popular_requests/frequentdocs/birmingham.pdf

The 1619 Project https://nyti.ms/2Hjvu0L
13th, directed by Ava Duvernay. Kandoo Films, 2016. Netflix, streaming video. (1 hr., 40 min)

The National Museum of African American History and Culture https://www.si.edu/museums/african- american-museum

The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Incarceration https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/museum The National Memorial for Peace and Justice https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/
The National Civil Rights Museum https://www.civilrightsmuseum.org

ASIAN RESOURCES

Bruce Reyes-Chow, But I Don’t See You as Asian: Curating Conversations about Race. 242 pp. 2013, BRC Publications. ISBN-13: 978-0989498104

https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/07/01/many-black-and-asian-americans-say-they-have-experienced- discrimination-amid-the-covid-19-outbreak/

https://time.com/5859206/anti-asian-racism-america/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-long-history-of-racism-against-asian-americans-in-the-u-s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Filipino_sentiment https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/72852287.pdf

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/filipino-american-confronted-blm-message-sheds-light-form- genteel-racism-n1231409

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/06/12/woman-harassing-filipino-american-woman-exercising-orig-mg- mb.cnn

https://theundefeated.com/features/why-we-must-talk-about-the-asian-american-story-too/ https://civilrights.org/edfund/resource/stop-pointing-asian-americans-downplay-racism-universities/ https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/

https://www.forefrontnyc.com/blog/2020/4/6/anti-racism-in-chinatowns-across-the- us?gclid=CjwKCAjw1ej5BRBhEiwAfHyh1K14yugy2vElAeR7T00KkTiiRJsK5KFRak2RlOl7IOyjCrs7JM444h oCpqUQAvD_BwE

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52714804 https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/30/us-leaders-should-combat-anti-asian-racism-xenophobia https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/us/asian-american-racism-coronavirus-kelly-yang.html

HISPANIC/LATINX ADVOCACY: Online Resources

Association for Hispanic Theological Education (AETH): www.aeth.org Beth-El Farmworker Ministry: www.beth-el.org
Cesar E. Chavez Foundation: www.chavezfoundation.org
Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC): www.cplc.org

Committee for Hispanic Families and Children (CHFC): www.chcfinc.org Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI): www.chci.org Esperanza College of Eastern University: www.esperanza.eastern.edu Fuentes Strategies: www.fuentesstrategies.com

Grassroots Leadership: www.grassrootsleadership.org
Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE): www.latinas.org Hispanic Alliance for Career Advancement (HACE): www.haceonline.org Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU): www.hacu.net Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR): www.hacr.org Hispanic Federation: www.hispanicfederation.org
Hispanic Heritage Foundation: www.hispanicheritage.org
Hispanic Institute: www.thehispanicinstitute.net
Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA): www.hnba.com
Hispanic Office for Local Assistance (HOLA): www.cityoforlando.net/hola Hispanic Scholarship Fund: www.hsf.net
Latino Leadership: www.latino-leadership.org
Latino Victory: www.latinovictory.us
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC): www.lulac.org MANA: A National Latina Organization: www.hermana.org
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund: www.maldef.org

National Alliance for Hispanic Health: www.healthyamericas.org

National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB): www.nalcab.org

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO): www.naleo.org

National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA): www.nhcoa.org

National Hispanic Institute (NHI): www.nationalhispanicinstitute.org

National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA): www.nhmamd.org

National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP): www.facebook.com/National-Institute-for-Latino-Policy-NiLP- 167903163226/

PC(USA)—Hispanic/Latino-a Intercultural Congregational Support:

www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/racial-equity-womens-intercultural-ministries/hispaniclatino-a- intercultural-congregational-support

PC(USA)—Hispanic/Latinx National Presbyterian Caucus: www.facebook.com/HispanicLatinoPCUSA PC(USA)—Office of Immigration Issues: www.oga.pcusa.org/section/mid-council-ministries/immigration PC(USA)—Presbyterian Publishing Corp. (Spanish Language): www.pcusastore.com
Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA) in Florida: www.prfaa.pr.gov/prfaa-florida

Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF): www.latinojustice.org/en
Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at USC: www.socialinnovation.usc.edu/special-initiatives/tomas-rivera-policy-

institute
UnidosUS (formerly NCLR): www.unidosus.org
United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC): www.ushcc.com United We Dream (UWD): www.unitedwedream.org
Voto Latino: www.votolatino.org

HISPANIC AMERICAN THEOLOGY: Foundational Readings

Armendáriz, Rubén P. “The Protestant Hispanic Congregation: Identity.” In

Protestantes/Protestants: Hispanic Christianity Within Mainline
Traditions. Edited by David Maldonado, Jr. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999.

Bañuelas, Arturo J., ed. Mestizo Christianity: Theology from the Latino Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.

Boff, Leonardo. Holy Trinity: Perfect Community. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000. Boff, Leonardo, and Virgilio Elizondo, ed. 1492-1992: The Voice of the Victims.

London: SCM Press, 1990.

Bonino, José Míguez. Faces of Latin American Protestantism. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997.

__________. Toward a Christian Political Ethics. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983. Brown, Robert McAfee. Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes: Unexpected News.

Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1984.

Carroll, M. Daniel R. Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.

Chignoli, C. William. “Cultural Differences: The Silent Language.” Apuntes: Reflexiones teológicas desde el margen hispano 19, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 21-31.

Conde-Frazier, Elizabeth. “Hispanic Protestant Spirituality.” In Teología en Conjunto: A Collaborative Hispanic Protestant Theology. Edited by José D. Rodríguez and Loida I. Martell-Otero. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.

Costas, Orlando E. Christ Outside the Gates: Mission Beyond Christendom. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982.

__________. The Church and Its Mission: A Shattering Critique from the Third World. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1974.

__________. Liberating News: A Theology of Contextual Evangelization. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1989.

De La Torre, Miguel A. Liberating Jonah: Forming an Ethics of Reconciliation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007.

__________. Liberation Theology for Armchair Theologians. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2013.

__________. Reading the Bible from the Margins. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002.

De La Torre, Miguel A., and Edwin David Aponte. Introducing Latino/a Theologies. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.

Elizondo, Virgilio. The Future is Mestizo: Life Where Cultures Meet. New York: Crossroad, 1988.

__________. Galilean Journey: The Mexican-American Promise. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983.

__________. Guadalupe: Mother of the New Creation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997.

Espín, Orlando O. The Faith of the People: Theological Reflections on Popular Catholicism. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997.

Fernández, Eduardo C. La Cosecha: Harvesting Contemporary United States Hispanic Theology (1972-1998). Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000.

García, Ismael. Dignidad: Ethics Through Hispanic Eyes. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997.

Goizueta, Roberto S, ed. We Are a People! Initiatives in Hispanic American Theology. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1992.

González, Justo L., ed. ¡Alabadle! Hispanic Christian Worship. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.

__________. A History of Christian Thought. 2 vols. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987.

__________. Creation: The Apple of God’s Eye. Abingdon Press, 2015. __________. Liberation Preaching: The Pulpit and the Oppressed. Nashville:

Abingdon Press, 1980.

__________. Mañana: Christian Theology from a Hispanic Perspective. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990.

__________. Out of Every Tribe and Nation: Christian Theology at the Ethnic Roundtable. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992.

__________. Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.

Gutiérrez, Gustavo. The God of Life. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991.

__________. On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

__________. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973.

__________. We Drink From Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.

Hernández, Edwin I. “Moving from the Cathedral to Storefront Churches:
Understanding Religious Growth and Decline Among Latino Protestants.” In Protestantes/Protestants: Hispanic Christianity Within Mainline Traditions. Edited by David Maldonado, Jr. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999.

Isasi-Díaz, Ada María, and Fernando F. Segovia, ed. Hispanic/Latino Theology: Challenge and Promise. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996.

__________. En la Lucha/In the Struggle: A Hispanic Women’s Liberation Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

Jímenez, Pablo A. “The Bible: A Hispanic Perspective.” In Teología en Conjunto: A Collaborative Hispanic Protestant Theology. Edited by José D. Rodríguez and Loida I. Martell-Otero. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.

Lara-Braud, Jorge. “Hispanic American Spirituality: A Reformed Theological Reflection.” Church & Society: A Journal of Just Thoughts 90, no. 3 (January/February 2000): 88-103.

Maldonado, Jr., David. “Doing Theology and the Anthropological Questions.” In

Teología en Conjunto: A Collaborative Hispanic Protestant Theology.

Edited by José D. Rodríguez and Loida I. Martell-Otero. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997.

__________, ed. Protestantes/Protestants: Hispanic Christianity Within Mainline Traditions. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999.

Martell, Loida I., Zaida Maldonado Pérez, and Elizabeth Conde-Frazier. Latina Evangélicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013.

Orlandi, Carlos F. Cardoza. Mission: An Essential Guide. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002.

Pedraja, Luis G. Jesus is My Uncle: Christology from a Hispanic Perspective. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999.

__________. Teología: An Introduction to Hispanic Theology. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.

Recinos, Harold J. Hear the Cry! A Latino Pastor Challenges the Church. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1989.

__________. Jesus Weeps: Global Encounters on Our Doorsteps. Nashville:

Abingdon Press, 1992.

Recinos, Harold J. and Hugo Magallanes, eds. Jesus in the Hispanic Community: Images of Christ from Theology to Popular Religion. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009.

Rivera, Luis N. A Violent Evangelism: The Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992.

Rodríguez, José David, and Loida I. Martell-Otero, eds. Teología en Conjunto: A Collaborative Hispanic Protestant Theology. Louisville: Westminster

John Knox Press, 1997.

Rosario, Rubén. “Calvin or Calvinism: Reclaiming Reformed Theology for the Latin American Context.” Apuntes: Reflexiones teológicas desde el margen hispano 23, no. 4 (Winter 2003): 124-55.

Sanderlin, George, ed. Witness: Writings of Bartolomé de Las Casas. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1992.

Segundo, Juan Luis. Liberation of Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976. Sobrino, Jon. Archbishop Romero: Memories and Reflections. Maryknoll, NY:

Orbis Books, 1990.

Tamez, Elsa, et al. Against Machismo. New York: Meyer Stone & Co., 1987.

__________. The Bible of the Oppressed. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982.

__________, ed. Through Her Eyes: Women’s Theology from Latin America. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989.

Villafañe, Eldin. The Liberating Spirit: Toward a Hispanic American Pentecostal Social Ethic. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1993.

INDIGENOUS RESOURCES

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. 512 pp. Picador, 1st edition, ISBN-13: 978-0805086843

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. 312 pp. Beacon Press, 2015, reprint edition. ISBN-13: 978-0807057834

David Truer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present. 528 pp. 2019, Riverhead Books, reprint edition. ISBN-13: 978-0399573194

Heard Museum: Advancing American Indian Art https://heard.org National Museum of the American Indian https://americanindian.si.edu

For Full PDF click on the links below:

Central Florida Presbytery link to Statement on Racism

PDF link to Statement on Racism