How Remembrance Leads to Repentance

Over the last few years, I’ve been exploring what it means to live out my faith in the context of racial justice and racial reconciliation. Throughout the process, God has led me to people of various ethnic backgrounds who have taught me so much about what it means to seek justice and reconciliation. The truth they’ve shared has shown me how little I know about the history of systemic racism in the United States.

I have learned about redlining. I have learned about laws denying entry to immigrants from Asian countries. I have learned about the denial of citizenship to anyone not considered “white.” I have learned about how the United States government stole land from indigenous people in the contiguous United States and Alaska and Hawaii.

As I’ve been learning, I’ve been most appalled by the actions of the white church to perpetuate and even protect these systems of injustice.

White church members argued for and benefited from the enslavement of Africans. White missionaries helped create the stereotypes of Asians as heathens who could never assimilate into Western culture. White Christians forcibly removed Native American children from their homes and stripped them of their heritage, language, and culture.

Many more white Christians turned a blind eye to the actions of others, choosing to ignore these injustices rather than speak up.

My heart breaks with the knowledge of how the white church has treated people of color in the United States and abroad. How could we have strayed so far from the teachings of Jesus as to treat other people as less valuable because of their skin color? And yes, I say “we” despite the fact I was not around to participate in most of these injustices.

Here’s the truth: the ideology of white supremacy is still present in the church today.

I am coming to terms with this truth. I never saw it before because it’s always just been part of the culture of the white church. A fish lives in water without ever realizing it’s wet. White Christians have lived in white supremacy without ever realizing it was there.

As I listen to voices outside the white church culture, I’m learning to recognize the presence of white supremacy, and I’m seeking to break its power in my life. Knowing the truth of its existence is just the start.

One voice I’ve been listening to is that of Latasha Morrison, who started an organization called Be the Bridge. She has created curriculum to facilitate discussion among small, diverse groups of people. By the end of their time together, they’ve explored what it takes to work toward reconciliation. One of the first steps is acknowledgment.

Until we acknowledge these injustices occurred and are still occurring today, we cannot move forward.

In the past, I’ve written about the importance of remembering in the context of knowing God’s goodness. Remembering what he’s done for us in the past helps us believe he will continue to do good in the present and future.

Now remembering has taken on new meaning for me. Now I choose to remember the ways the white church has sinned in what it has done and what it has failed to do. Now I remember my complicity in the injustices experienced by so many.

My remembering leads me to repentance.

It’s the necessary next step in the process. In repentance I acknowledge not only my sin, but also the corporate sin of past and current generations. In repentance I say, “No more.” In repentance I turn away from white supremacy and turn toward unity in Christ. In repentance I promise to work toward an end to injustice.

This is a journey I have not yet completed. I learn new things almost every day, new ways I must adjust my life to break the power of white supremacy.

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals has helped me in the process. The authors (Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro) were intentional about including the act of remembering and repenting for more than just our individual sins. On the anniversaries of unjust events or laws, the morning prayer readings include a description of those events or laws. This helps us to remember. After the reading, we speak specific words of repentance for these acts of injustice.

Although I’ve owned this book for a few years, I’ve started using it daily only in the last few months. I think the timing is perfect. Now I recognize many of the events and laws I’m asked to remember. As I read about them, I think of discussions I’ve had with those affected by these moments in our history. These moments are no longer far-off incidents. They are more reasons for me to live out my faith by remembering and repenting.

Katie Mumper is a daughter, sister, friend, writer, and singer. She loves Jesus, music, books, and great TV shows. Because she’s far from perfect, she is grateful for God’s grace in her life. She writes with the hope that others might be encouraged to let God make them new as well. You can read more of her work at beautyrestored.me.

Photograph © Beth Tate, used with permission