I have a direct link to slavery. My paternal grandmother’s family ran a slave wholesaling business in Nashville prior to the Civil War and grew quite wealthy on selling excess ‘inventory’ down-river to the plantations of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. That is a guilt I live with as surely as the guilt I have of my actions in 1990 and 1991 in the Gulf. It is the past and all I, and others who share I this heritage and history of privilege can do is try to atone and hope that we can, by grace, be forgiven.
Here on DK has often been an uncomfortable place for people of faith. Many folks have been hurt by churches and are justifiably angry about this. Others look at the various charlatans like Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr. and are angered and sickened by their words, as well all of us should be. We see the those who call themselves Evangelicals prostituting themselves to the Vulgar Shouting Yam, all but screaming “Give us Barabbas! We have no king but Caeser!” and are, again as they should be, enraged by it.
This does not mean there is no Christian Left. There is. There are people of faith who are working for social justice and trying to live, however imperfectly, the gospel. People like President and Mrs. Carter, Bishop William Barber, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, and the late Rev. Fred Rogers. Recently here in Colorado, prompted by the 1619 Project issued a letter which has moved me to write this diary.
The entire letter can be read on the Colorado Sun’s website
I will not rewrite the entire thing, just this acknowledgement of, as we Episcopalians put it, the evil done in our names:
As Christian faith leaders in Colorado, we are called to reflect upon and be mindful of slavery’s legacy upon our state, nation, and the world. We mourn that the Holy Scriptures contained in the Bible were used to justify the Atlantic Slave Trade, and that the Christian Church did not speak in a unified voice against slavery. Many Christians pressed for abolition, but far too many Christians actively, or complictly, supported and benefited from the continuation of a brutal enslaving regime.
The letter goes on to state the goal in asking for forgiveness
Yet, we grieve that the Body of Christ remains broken along racial lines. We as the Church must acknowledge our role in this historical, moral, and spiritual tragedy. We must move forward in our prophetic witness for racial justice. Four centuries later, may our somber reflection and, most importantly, our actions, eradicate the vestiges of slavery that continue to poison our nation’s soul.
This is signed by the leaders of eleven faith traditions, including the Rt. Rev. Kym Lucas the newly consecrated African-American female bishop of the Diocese of Colorado.
While I by no means speak for all people of faith I hope we could end this with “So Say We All” (because I am a geek to my very bones)