Last week when the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ratified an amendment to its church constitution to allow the weddings of gay couples, the church reflected a sea-change in American attitudes. As contentious as the issue of homosexuality has been for Presbyterians in particular and religious practitioners in general, tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people is growing.
Another less controversial – but in many ways more radical – proposal is also quietly making its way to ratification in the PCUSA. The proposal is the inclusion of the Belhar Confession in the Book of Confessions. Written during the apartheid era in South Africa, it calls for unity and reconciliation – but more importantly, for action against the forces that harm the most vulnerable in society.
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Last week Franklin Graham posted a finger-wagging chastisement on his Facebook page that echoes that assumption and calls for the victims of oppression – not the oppressors – to change: “Listen up – Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and everybody else. Most police shootings can be avoided. It comes down to respect for authority and obedience.”
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“Your Facebook post makes you seem, at best, oblivious to the racial inequality in this country’s policing and criminal justice system, which is also still deeply embedded in our American society. At worst, your post reflects your own racial biases – unconscious or conscious. It makes me sad to read such things coming from a leader in your position. So until you are equally willing to ‘listen up,’ please stop making such embarrassing and divisive statements.”
The Belhar Confession calls on people of faith to stop demonizing the poor and to stand with them in unity instead.