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For far too long we have heard these stories on the evening news and have either excused the behavior of law enforcement or have shaken our heads in sadness and not spoken out when we needed to, or as loudly as we should have. In the Bible, we are told that, when we are confronted with evil, we are not to remain silent. Silence in the face of evil acts makes us complicit to the act and for this we must repent.
Today, this timidity stops. It is time we all stand up and say loudly “ENOUGH is ENOUGH!” As Bill Spangler-Dunning, Regional Minister of the Christian Church in Virginia, recently wrote, “racism in all its forms is evil and must be eradicated from this earth, if we, as members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) are to ever truly be a movement for wholeness in a FRAGMENTED WORLD!” And like our colleague Bill, we are “not OK with watching [our] black and brown Regional Minister friends who have to cry and suffer every time yet another person of color is killed and the world remains silent as if it does not matter.” Or for that matter, these same colleagues should not have to fear for their own lives every time they leave their homes to travel out to a congregation to help them find a new pastor, preach in a service of worship, or sit with a minister who has a loved one in a hospital and many other acts of ministry they do every day.
Steve, I, and the Kansas Anti-racism team implore you to add your voice to ours and join us in learning about and working to get rid of inequity in all aspects of our common life.
In Christ,
Ken Marston and Steve Martin
Co-Regional Ministers
Kansas Anti-Racist Team: June Stoker, Kent Dorsey, Cody Graves, Luis Mendez, Renee Goodwin, Olivia See, Christian Watkins, Roger Clark, David Dubovich, Titus James.
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