July Pastors Note

Last month, Columbia Theological Seminary announced a restructuring that impacted 18 staff members. “[S]even employees accepted early retirement through an incentive program, and a reduction in force affected eleven employees.”1 That’s what Columbia’s official press release said. What it did not name was that the early retirees are mostly white, and nearly all of those who were let go are people of color. The changes go into effect today. Columbia has a very robust and growing endowment, and many people I know who are connected to Columbia have raised serious questions. 

In public social media posts and in private groups, I’ve seen friends who have been both students and employees name Columbia’s extended, documented, systemic problems around race. These include white people and people of color, and current and former faculty and staff. One person, however, went on attack against those raising concerns. She expressed her love for the institution and its leaders, and saw any critique of it as slander and bias. On the contrary, I saw people who also care deeply about Columbia, who have been formed by it, who have dedicated their lives in service to it, wanting to hold the institution accountable. That, too, is a way of showing love.

I’m not picking on Columbia. All of our institutions are impacted by racist systems because they were built with the scaffolding of white supremacy. This is America, which has never been the true land of the free. Thankfully, it has always been the home of the brave. It takes courage to hold the institutions we love accountable for systemic sin and the ongoing effects of it. In some eras, it takes even more courage to speak against the unjust policies and harmful actions of our country. I think we are in such an era now. 

As we approach the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, many of us do so with mixed feelings, to say the least. I, for one, am kind of grateful that I will be in Canada over the holiday - my other country of citizenship. Shall I apologize on our behalf? Would that be traitorous? Is writing this note an act of treason itself? 

Neither patriotism nor nationalim are gospel values. Jesus was executed as an enemy of the state. The groups he most often criticized in the gospels were central within the institution of Judaism. His people. They were people he loved - God’s chosen. But he called the people and the institutions to do better, to return to faithful relationships with God and with each other. Following his example, we can do the same. 

There have already been apologies issued from General Assembly for ways that systemic racism has been on full display - not only in the past, but in the present, at the Assembly.2 More apologies will be issued, complicity and sin named, as we seek to hold these institutions we love accountable, and work together to make them clearer exhibitions of the kingdom of heaven to the world, and more faithful in the work of gospel transformation. 

We can do the same with our civic institutions and all levels of government. We can grow into the “better angels of our nature,” as Lincoln concluded in his first inaugural address. We can do all of this by love - by the love of God, out of love for each other, and yes, even out of love for these broken institutions and systems. As Martin Luther King wrote to White clergy in Birmingham, his challenge came from his love for the church. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”3

Let us all continue to do the work we do, within the systems, institutions, and places in which we operate, from a deep foundation of love.

Grace and peace,

Stephanie

---

Stephanie will be at a conference in Canada, returning to the office on July 8. She will also be on vacation with her family July 20 - August 2. Barbara Bowman will be available for pastoral care needs for most of that time, with the exception of June 30 - July 1 and July 31- August 2. Mark Dewey will be on call for pastoral needs on those days. 

---

1https://ctsnet.edu/columbia-theological-seminary-announces-organizational-restructuring/

2 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=903463049447280&set=gm.997126596270498&idorvanity=395571473092683

3 https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html