The First Congregational UCC of Albuquerque, through its Ministry Leadership Team, joins with the United Church of Christ Board, UCC Officers, conferences, local churches, and entities of the church to support the Black Lives Matter movement and to condemn all forms of racism, both institutional and individual. We join our voices to those crying out for justice and for reform at every level of American society. We endeavor to not only raise our voices, but offer up our feet on the ground and our hearts and souls in the movement to bring about change.
While it is the recent, horrific murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks that spurred our nation and indeed the world to action, racist acts of violence and oppression have been going on for centuries. The systems of oppression and racism that have defined us since before this country was founded must change.
We acknowledge the ways in which systems of privilege and power have maintained a status quo that we now commit to dismantling. We commit ourselves to the work it takes to truly see and then undo these systems within our own lives in an effort to create a safer, more just and equitable world for all of us and for future generations. We understand that this is true not just in the moment of horror or uprising, but each and every day.
We will not rest from our efforts to uproot the tenacious systems that bind us to the sin and continued practice of racism. We are created in love in God’s image and, thus, we are all manifestations of God’s love. Who we are is who God meant us to be; not better, not less than, but God’s true image. Beloved.
Background for Racial Justice Statement
As the leadership body of First Congregational United Church of Christ, we are called upon to consider whether our church should make a statement opposing racism and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
The United Church of Christ’s history is replete with instances of work with and on behalf of slaves, Africans, African Americans, and other minority communities. As early as 1700, Congregationalist minister Samuel Sewall wrote the first anti-slavery pamphlet in America, “The Selling of Joseph,” laying the foundation for the abolitionist movement that came more than a century later.
In 1839, enslaved Africans seized control of the schooner Amistad. They were arrested and held in a Connecticut jail while the ship’s owners sued to have them returned as property. Congregationalists and other Christians organized a campaign to free the captives. The Supreme Court ruled the captives were not property, and the Africans regained their freedom.
Between 1862 and 1877, the American Missionary Association started six colleges: Dillard University, Fisk University, LeMoyne-Owen College, Huston-Tillotson College, Talladega College, and Tougaloo College, all historically black colleges and universities that continue to offer excellence, access, and opportunity in higher education.
Most recently, on June 6, 2020, the United Church Board issued a statement condemning racist actions: “The United Church of Christ Board (UCCB) stands with the UCC Officers, our Conferences, local churches and entities of the church during this moment in history. We cannot be silent as one more black person is murdered unjustly, and the nation erupts with both anger and deep sorrow. We are called to recognize once again systemic racism, especially in law enforcement, by evoking the names of murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn.; Ahmaud Arbery in Glenn County, Ga; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.; Eric Garner in New York City; and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. There are also equally poignant stories that did not spark mass protest, like Botham Jean, a black man sitting in his own apartment eating ice cream, shot and killed by a police officer mistaking that apartment for her own; Philando Castile, killed by police during a traffic stop in the car with his girlfriend and her daughter; Atatiana Jefferson, shot and killed in her own home by a police officer as she played video games with her 9 year-old nephew. We also know of two near-incidents just this week involving calls to 911, falsely claiming threats from a black male. In Central Park, a black male simply asked a white woman to leash her dog, which is required in the park. A white man also threatened to call the police on a black man he presumed to be trespassing in a Minneapolis gym in which all tenants of the property have access to the fitness center. While these later two cases did not end in tragedy, they demonstrate how African Americans and other people of color are commonly threatened by the authorities, held in suspicion by their neighbors, and subject to biased police action.
“We cannot remain silent. God calls all of us to speak out. As Christians, Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. God created and loves people of every color. And yet we create economic, political, and social barriers that oppress African Americans in every sector from housing and education to healthcare and criminal justice. The COVID-19 pandemic magnifies these disparities. We know that black and brown people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. This moment calls us all together to speak up, stand up and show up. “And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). This is our time to show our solidarity with all who live at the margins of our country because of their identities. We are called now to build a strong anti -racist commitment in our church so that we can show that Black Lives Matter in the kingdom of God. It is time to see ourselves as God sees us. Jesus is risen and alive in each one of us. May we use that strength to be agents of change.”
In a statement called “Why ‘Black Lives Matter,’" the UCC reminds us that: “Our faith's teachings tell us that each person is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and therefore has intrinsic worth and value. ... This is an obvious truth in light of God's love for all God's children. But this has not been the experience for many in the U.S. In recent years, young black males were 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police than their white counterparts. Black women in crisis are often met with deadly force. Transgender people of color face greatly elevated negative outcomes in every area of life.
“When Black lives are systemically devalued by society, our outrage justifiably insists that attention be focused on Black lives.
“When a church claims boldly ‘Black Lives Matter’ at this moment, it chooses to show up intentionally against all given societal values of supremacy and superiority or common-sense complacency. By insisting on the intrinsic worth of all human beings, Jesus models for us how God loves justly, and how his disciples can love publicly in a world of inequality. We live out the love of God justly by publicly saying #BlackLivesMatter.”