About 7 years ago we at the Church of the Redeemer began to commit ourselves to an Episcopal Church initiative called Becoming Beloved Community. Becoming Beloved Community is centered on the work of racial justice, healing, and reconciliation. It was built by Episcopalians and for Episcopalians with the understanding that our particular church tradition is predominantly White – both currently and historically – and that this reality has shaped our shared experience of Christianity, of our faith, of what we think church even is.
The work of Becoming Beloved Community is both spiritual and social, it is personal and political, it is painful and inspiring. In many ways it pushes us to think about, as my dad used to say, where the rubber hits the road in terms of what we really believe about Jesus, about people, about our country, about our selves.
It’s also ongoing. You’ll notice I didn’t call it a program, but an initiative and a commitment. In terms of race, it took us 400 years to get where we are – give or take – and it’s going to take far longer than this lifetime for us to sort through the myriad ways our relationship to race affects every single one of us, much less to make justice, healing, and reconciliation our default programming.
As I said, it’s been 7 years since we began this work at Church of the Redeemer, so if you’re a member of our church, I’m sure you know all this already and you have the pillars of the Becoming Beloved Community memorized, and recite them as part of your morning routine. But just in case you’re new to it, the initiative has four pillars – or foundational areas of focus – for education and action: Telling the Truth About the Church and Race, Proclaiming the Dream of Beloved Community, Practicing the Way of Love, and Repairing the Breach in Society and Institutions. You’re welcome to explore the pillars of the Becoming Beloved Community initiative and our church’s commitment to it by checking out our website.
But in the meantime, it’s worth remembering that this work remains essential if we are at all serious about following Jesus. We are not done with it – or more to the point, it is not done with us. We have miles to go on our journey. As humans we are capable of being distracted from what really matters – especially in our current context with the bombardment of information, propaganda, and the seemingly endless parade of cataclysmic events scrolling before our eyes every waking moment. What really matters for us as Christians, though, is Jesus. And Jesus is at the center of the work of racial justice, healing, and reconciliation.
I think often of Paul’s letter the first century church in Ephesus, in which he writes to a culturally diverse community. They are obviously trying to figure out how to coexist across the personal and systemic differences that have historically separated them. Paul reminds them about Jesus, saying “he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” Paul understood and taught explicitly that following Jesus means living into our shared belonging across difference. Becoming Beloved Community is rooted and grounded in this practical, life-giving, liberating understanding of love.
Have you ever been in the water and swam against the tide? In many cases it is definitely possible to make progress. You can find your way upstream. When I was a young person growing up in the suburbs, I spent a lot of time at shopping malls. I remember the first time I ran up the down escalator. Aside from the initial exhilaration I got from breaking the rules and going against the grain, I distinctly remember two things: 1) I was able to get to the top. It was possible. And 2) It was much harder. Plain and simple. And if, while going up the down escalator, I paused for a brief moment, I was immediately carried downward again – because of course I was. Likewise, when you swim against the tide, if you pause for a break, the water will carry you backwards to some degree. Maybe your pause is necessary – you didn’t do anything wrong per se. But the tide is the tide: It will carry you a specific direction unless you actively work against it.
Something that is controversial to say but should not be is that we live in a White supremacist culture. I cannot fathom why this is controversial. It is certainly not partisan, and it is so clearly, simply, and consistently documented and provable that it should be like saying 1+1=2. Our country was set up by White people for White people, and was set up in such a way that specifically and intentionally exploited and dehumanized people of color for the benefit of White people. Again, not sure why this is controversial – just a statement of easily verifiable facts. The creators of our country would not have argued with this statement – they would simply have said that it was morally acceptable – and maybe even necessary or God’s will to do so.
So they built a White supremacist culture and we have not freed ourselves from it yet. I’m not saying there has been no progress, or that there haven’t been strides or accomplishments. I’m saying White supremacy is the man-made tide, and all the work we do for racial justice, healing, and reconciliation is a swimming against the tide. We seek to get to the head of the water where we can change the tide altogether. But as of now, we are still swimming. We are far from done with liberating ourselves from the demonic clutches of White supremacy.
It does not matter if the people in power say it’s not racist. They are incorrect. It is. A politician can get up and proclaim boldly that America is not now nor has it ever been a White supremacist nation and people can clap and point and say, “See? I told you!” Millions of people are perfectly capable of being incorrect about obvious facts. Right now, right this very moment in this country, a masked police force is carrying out orders to round people up based on the color of their skin and their accent, to arrest them without warrants, to detain them without due process, to subject them to subhuman conditions, to deport them with impunity. Our country has stopped accepting refugees from every country but South Africa – where the so-called refugees are White people who are in no danger.
The work of Becoming Beloved Community is ongoing.
Last week our church had the privilege of hosting the biblical scholar Ellen Davis, who spoke to us on the Psalms in relation to our upcoming pilgrimage. Dr. Davis pointed out in her opening remarks that, “the concept of pilgrimage is not a part of our dominant cultural experience.” I had not thought of this, but of course that’s true. I didn’t ask her why she thought that was, and I wish that I had, but I’ve been reflecting on her observation since she made it, and it occurs to me that when the average American travels somewhere, it is either for tourism or – in the case of Christians – it is for a mission trip. That is to say, we only go elsewhere either to enjoy ourselves or to offer our help to others.
Neither of these things is bad. But it occurs to me that when you go on a pilgrimage you go for the purpose of allowing yourself to be transformed – you go in order to learn something from someone else. Most of us don’t go elsewhere to learn or be helped or be transformed. We only to go teach or to enjoy ourselves. Does the dominant culture of America believe we have anything to learn from others? Do we even believe we can be transformed by them?
Our pilgrimage to the borderlands is a commitment to Becoming Beloved Community. We seek to be transformed by them. We journey to a place that has been hallowed by the feet of our migrant siblings. We seek to decenter ourselves, to decenter our own experience, to learn from our neighbors from our neighbors to the south, to recognize their belonging, their belovedness – to be blessed and transformed by a deeper understanding of their lives and journeys. It is small. It is a swimming against the tide. Sometimes walking the way of love feels like going up the down escalator. That’s ok. We will walk it anyway. The work of Becoming Beloved Community is ongoing.
