As some of our national leaders level charges of racism against one another, it is important for us, as followers of Jesus Christ, to remind ourselves of the life-giving claims our church makes about race and tries in good faith to live out.

In 1993 voting members of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted the Social Statement Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture.  The statement asserts that racism is sin and commits the church to engage in public leadership opposing it.  I encourage you to take a moment and read the full statement, which you can access here:

The statement explores important points, including the following:
 

• Racism — a mix of power, privilege, and prejudice — is sin, a violation of God’s intention for humanity.
• The ELCA is in mission in a multicultural society and is committed to welcome cultural diversity.
• Those with access to opportunities, power, and institutions remain separate from those without such access, whose cultures often have been ridiculed and reviled, or destroyed.
• Participation in public life is essential to doing justice, and the ELCA is committed to modeling honest engagement on issues of race.

The ELCA will support legislation that guarantees to all individuals equally: civil rights; access to quality education, health care, and nutrition; and opportunity for employment with fair compensation.

We believe that God has gathered the church together to live in the joyful reign of God as that reign was announced and modeled by Jesus.  So, we live into a future that is not fully here yet, but which is coming.  Too often, political leaders use our racial differences to stoke fear of “the other” and gain support for themselves.  Instead, as followers of Jesus let us absolutely reject such hate-mongering and see and celebrate racial diversity as the blessing God intends.  In Christ, there is no “the other”; there is only One.

--- Bishop Roger