June 2020

If there was ever any doubt about the rampant sin of racism in America, it was shattered a week ago on Memorial Day. George Floyd’s cruel death under the knees of white police officers in broad daylight has touched off a firestorm of indignation and protest. Tragically, Floyd’s death follows the February shooting of Ahmaud Arbery by two white men as he jogged through a neighborhood close to his home in South Georgia. These are just the most recent and public examples of a line of racial injustices centuries long. Something is desperately wrong. Something inside us. Something white Americans, in particular, need to own and deeply repent from.
 
I share with you a powerful Facebook post from Bishop Bob Farr on May 29 that is worth our honest soul-searching:
 
"I am outraged. I hesitated to post what I really wanted to say yesterday because my blood was boiling.
 
The arrest of the white officer, seen pressing his knee to the neck of Mr. George Floyd, a black man who later died, does little to quiet my outrage. I am tired. I am tired of the senseless killing of black people. But I am not as weary as black people or, in a broader sense, as people of color, who have had to endure the aggression and violence that racism has produced for centuries at the hands of white people. I am not as weary as my black brothers and sisters because I do have breath in my lungs. I have the ability to run down the street without concerns of being assaulted. I do not have to tense up when I am pulled over by the police. I am not as weary because I have white privilege.
 
I have witnessed both explicit and implicit racism. I have been complicit in racism throughout my life. In the face of my outrage, I know that my faith calls me to get active and stay engaged even when it is hard. If the conversation around #BlackLivesMatter and the news reporting creates a sense of discomfort, tension or uneasiness in you, I invite you to spend some time talking to Jesus about WHY it bothers you. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your heart to a place of conviction so that we might create God’s kingdom on earth where all people – regardless of their skin color, ethnicity, religion, identity, or sexuality – might flourish.
 
It is not the job of black people to explain the structures of white supremacy, white privilege, racism, police brutality or any of the other byproducts that advance the white standard as the "normative" view. This is white people’s work and our need to engage in this work is urgent. Lives depend on it.
 
I am asking that every white United Methodist in Missouri but especially our appointed and assigned pastors, paid church staff and lay leaders to read a book that has helped me better understand my own sin and complicity to the horrors of racism: White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism (2018) by Robin DiAngelo, PhD.
 
Please read this book. Read it as church, a staff and within small groups. If you have finished White Fragility, begin the next book which may give you some ideas on moving from not being racist to antiracist: How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. We will have conversations as a Conference later this fall with these two books as our guide. I want Missouri United Methodists to be leaders in transforming their communities into less racist ones. Please join me. Lord in your mercy..."
 
Praying for my own repentance and praying for a spirit of repentance in our nation, so that God will heal our land.
 
Roger Ross
 
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24 (NRSV)
 
P.S. For encouragement, you can receive a weekly Prayer Text by texting KINGDOM to 573-227-6557.
 
As our country and world continue to battle COVID-19, we are painfully aware of the racial and ethnic injustices that plague our national character. We have much to bring before God.

        Feel free to pray for a different area each day. Thanks for praying!
 

• SUNDAY:  REPENTANCE & SALVATION- Pray that as we humble ourselves and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways, God will release healing, salvation, and justice across our nation and world. By faith, see the people of God, the church, standing in the gap for the sick, the oppressed, the hurting, the lost, and the lonely. Lord, multiply your Kingdom through us.                               
•  MONDAY:  PEACE- Pray for God’s perfect love to cast out all spirits of division, suspicion, anxiety, panic, and fear that grip our communities.                                
•  TUESDAY:  LEADERSHIP- Pray for wisdom, truth, direction, compassion, and strength for all leaders (political, medical, economic, religious) in authority. In particular, pray for Bishop Farr, the leaders of the Missouri Conference, and all our pastors who are facing unprecedented times and decisions.                        
•  WEDNESDAY:  JUSTICE- Pray for justice to roll down like waters and right living like an ever-flowing stream, so we may repent of racism and overcome the evil powers of this world with good.                                                                          
•  THURSDAY:  RESOURCES- Pray for sufficient human and medical resources for our healthcare systems as well as sufficient and necessary resources for all other sectors (i.e. financial) and institutions (i.e. schools, churches, local government).

•  FRIDAY:  PROTECTION- Claim the blood of Jesus as a shield and healing over people groups, institutions, systems, and policies as well as all first responders and medical personnel in the battle against COVID-19.

•  SATURDAY:  RESEARCH- Pray for all types of researchers to develop an effective, affordable, and safe COVID-19 treatment and vaccine.

(Some prayers adapted from Rev. Dr. Peter Bellini, a United Methodist Pastor and Professor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, https://davidfwatson.me/2020/03/14/10-guidelines-for-prayer-in-these-covid-19-times-by-dr-peter-bellini/