We, at First Presbyterian of Ferguson, repudiate racism and the privilege that comes with it. We seek to uproot it from our individual lives, from our religious lives, from our entertainment, and from our economic and political lives. In the history of the followers of Jesus, there arose a call and answer experience that fortified followers in their faith. We have practiced this in our own lives by having someone cry out, “GOD IS GOOD!” to which the rest respond “ALL THE TIME!”. We commit ourselves to this expression of faith in the midst of our embodied lives even when we are in pain.
As a nation, we are overlooking a precipice threatening to consume all of us. Suffering, pain, injustice, anger and fear are combining to become a wound that will prove fatal to the soul of our nation. Now is not the time for the people of God to retreat into a defensive response, nor is it the time for silence. We must face and hear the cries of millions of Americans, black, brown, and all hues of the human rainbow.
Racism is alive and well in our country. The blood of our brothers and sisters continues to be shed in ways that should invoke all of us to say: ENOUGH! Racism is sin at its most dangerous; it has tainted every aspect of American life, and despite our hopeful beliefs that racism and oppression are things of the past; it continues to seep into the cracks and fissures of the nation’s soul.
At First Presbyterian, we seek to embody God’s love and grace in all we do and so we will live out our faith in ways that bring about healing in this area and all areas of our lives. We have a chance to rewrite the tragedy of our nation’s story by joining with those who cry, “BLACK LIVES MATTER!” Let us join with our sisters and brothers, working to redeem ourselves in the process and wait for the response that will set us all free.