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Dear People of the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church:
We believe that every human being is a sacred creation of God, made in the image of God, with gifts uniquely given to share with the world. All are equally valuable, precious in God’s sight. But, since the very beginning, when Cain killed his brother Abel, we have jockeyed for superiority, wealth, power, and status.
Through the ages, race has been used to divide and conquer. This country, for much of its history, identified those who are White as enslaver, and therefore superior, and those who are Black as enslaved persons, and therefore inferior. This construct has permeated our culture, our politics, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our educational systems, our financial systems, our churches, and sadly, our very souls.
Enslavers often perceived the enslaved persons as less than human. Indeed, even our Constitution provided that only three out of five male enslaved persons counted as people (the women did not count at all) when determining legislative representation. At the heart of history’s greatest atrocities is the oppressors’ conviction that their victims are not fully human.
The enslaver's mindset of domination and dehumanization is all too alive and well in the psyche of this nation. Denial of due process, imposition of cruel and unusual punishment, lynchings, mass incarceration: inhumane treatment was and is all too often the experience of Black people in the American judicial, penal, and law enforcement systems. The incidents of the past few weeks have shed new light on its horrors:
Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was hunted down and killed in our state by three White vigilantes;
Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black first responder/EMT in Louisville, KY who was shot at least eight times in her own home by officers serving a “no-knock” warrant; and
George Floyd, who died when a police officer pinned his neck to the ground for 8 minutes and 46 seconds after he was already handcuffed, despite his pleas that he could not breathe.
The case of Ahmaud Arbery lay dormant for over two months, and likely would never have been prosecuted had an incriminating video not come to light. This video, and the video of George Floyd’s cruel death, demand that we listen to the pleas of Black people, who have tried for years to tell us of these injustices but have been belittled or ignored. Injustice has been excused, minimized, tolerated, and even applauded.
Injustice is also alive and well in the life of our Church. Racism permeates our system, which was born from a polity that institutionalized separation of white churches from black churches. The inequality of that history was transferred wholesale into our Church, with no real repentance and few mechanisms in place to address the inherent imbalances in resources and opportunities.
We acknowledge the deep pain that this sinful history of church and state, magnified by the egregious events of the last two weeks, has inflicted upon our Black clergy and laity.
We confess that Black clergy do not have the same opportunities for advancement as White clergy, and that White leaders have used Black leaders to gain influence and maintain their power structures.
We lament that many churches still balk at receiving Black pastors.
We acknowledge that we have established many new white churches but few black churches, and that resources have not been equitably distributed.
We, your Bishop, Extended Cabinet, and Conference Chancellor, call the North Georgia Annual Conference, and The United Methodist Church, to a repentance that bears fruit. We have grown weary of statements and ritual actions that do not lead to change. Intent without impact is impotent. We therefore pledge to take the following actions:
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