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​Purpose:

  • To encourage and provide resources for conversations in our congregations and ministry settings that educate members regarding:  

    • the connection between faith and racial justice work

    • the history of racism, its systemic realities, and its continued harmful and destructive impact

  • To call and challenge our faith communities to be places of radical welcome and inclusion 

    • Why are we the whitest mainline denomination?

    • The need for both repentance and conversion

  •  To advocate for justice for those who encounter racial inequalities through means of government, education, economic injustice, police brutality, and the acts of active/silence racism.

Team Members:

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  • Rev. Aimee Appell
    Peace Lutheran Church
    Washington, MO

  • Rev. Josh Brecht
    Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
    Manchester, MO

  • Jill Duis, SAM
    Good Shepherd Lutheran ChurchWashington, KS

  • Sheri Ellwood

  • Andover Lutheran Church
    Windom, KS

  • Michelle Horter
    Reformation Lutheran ChurchWichita, KS

  • Rev. Meagan McLaughlin
    Christ Lutheran Church
    Webster Groves, MO

  • Dave Mareske, Deacon
    Hollis Renewal Center
    Kansas City, KS

  • Rev. Melissa Woeppel
    Lutheran Church of the Living ChristFlorissant, MO

  • Sharon Yelton
    Atonement Lutheran ChurchOverland Park

  • Leroy Zimmerman
    Atonement Lutheran ChurchOverland Park, KS

Documents:

 

Sermon:

Resources to help talk about racial justice: This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources on racial justice. Only our attempt to gather resources that might start a discussion. If you have items that have helped you and your faith community have good conversations about racial justice that you feel need to be on this list, please contact a member of the CSS Racial Justice Team, or send them to communications@css-elca.org.

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Justice Matters, June 8, 2020 - Bishop Candea's Remarks

​Synod Council Statement, June 2020

Declaration of the ELCA

Video Resources:

 

YouTube:

Film

Vimeo​

 

TED Talks

 

PBS

Other Online Resources:

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Printed Material (Introduction Level Material)

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Fiction

  • Kindred – Octavia Butler

  • Anything by Toni Morrison

  • The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead

  • Children’s Books

  • Missing Daddy, Mariame Kaba

  • We Are Water Protectors, Carole Lindstrom

  • Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

  • This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action and Do the Work, Tiffany Jewell

  • Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo

  • Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor, Layla F. Saad

Non-Fiction

  • Waking Up White, Debby Irving

  • I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown

  • Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson

  • Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

  • Dear White People: A Guide to Inter-Racial Harmony in “Post-Racial” America, Justin Simien

Theology

  • Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher in the Whitest Denomination in the US, Lenny Duncan

  • Who Lynched Willie Earle?: Preaching to Confront Racism, Will Willimon

  • America’s Original Sin, Jim Wallis

  • Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, Michael Eric Dyson

  • Luther’s Small Catechism with African Descent Reflections, Augsburg Fortress

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Printed Material (Deeper Level)

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Fiction

  • Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  • The Broken Earth series, N.K. Jesimin (Science Fiction)

  • Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi

  • Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

Non-Fiction

  • White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo

  • Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  • Me and White Supremacy, Layla Saad

  • The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin

  • How to be an Anti-Racist, Ibram X Kendi

Theology

  • Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Reconciliation, Jennifer Harvey

  • Preaching about Racism: A Guide for Faith Leaders, Carolyn Helsel

  • Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman

  • Black Theology and Black Power, James Cone

History

  • The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabella Wilkerson

  • Caste, Isabella Wilkerson

  • Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X Kendi

  • White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, Robert P Jones

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