A Word from Pastor Nathan

Dear Friends:

On Sunday, Chad and I watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Frances McDormand, a Bethany alumna, won the Academy Award for Best Actress. A poignant dialogue occurs between Mildred Hayes (McDormand) and Father Montgomery (Nick Searcy). The priest had come to admonish Mildred for the billboards, but Mildred does not suffer fools. She quips back to the priest, “If you join one of these gangs, and you’re running with ’em, and down the block one night, unbeknownst to you, one of your fellow [gang members] shoot up a place or stab a guy, well then, even though you didn’t know nothing about it, and even though you may’ve just been standing on a streetcorner minding your own business, what these new laws said was you’re still culpable. You’re still culpable.” The word culpable has stuck with me.

Yesterday I heard news of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. Google him, and read reputable articles from trustworthy sources. After a police officer had his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for eight minutes, pinning him to the street, Mr. Floyd died.

This morning I went on a run. Somewhere I hit the 2.23 mile mark, but I didn’t think about it. On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery was gunned down for “jogging while black” at the 2.23 mile mark. His murder was filmed, but I cannot bear to watch the video.

Multiple paradigms are at work in these brutal killings: racism and privilege are two. Before you email me, hear me well: I think most cops are good; I am not saying all white folks are bad. What I am saying is that we are culpable. We are culpable because our past sins still impinge on the present. We are culpable if we weren’t there, weren’t alive yet, or “didn’t know nothing about it, even though [we] may’ve just been standing on a streetcorner minding [our] own business.”

WACC has long-supported Reconciliation Ministries, which provides anti-racism and pro-reconciliation training for clergy and laity. This is testimony that we are committed to justice and right action. In that same spirit, may we partner together in reading Dr. Jennifer Harvey’s book Dear White Christians? This book afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted, which is what Jesus did when he pointed out the culpability of the very religious persons on the empire’s payroll. Together, we can transform culpability into liberty and justice for ALL.

Peace,