place. For us to have this conversation will help that
awakening in our churches throughout our denomination,”
Latchison said. “Let’s embrace this. Let’s take advantage of
this conversation and let’s invite the Lord to do everything
He wants to do with something like this, and there’s no
doubt that we’ll find a solution.”
Fraser Venter, the lead pastor of Cucamonga Christian
Fellowship and a superintendent of the Free Methodist
Church in Southern California, said the church’s
commitment to diversity should extend beyond celebrating
diversity on Sunday and include addressing disparity on
Monday.
“I think the Free Methodist Church is poised in an
excellent position theologically, biblically and relationally
to do a great work, but it’s going to take a deep work,”
Venter said. “We need to recognize that it is not right that
shepherds have not discipled their people to a depth of
understanding the importance of imago dei” (the image of
God).
Venter described Jesus as “a brown, homeless, poor man
who came to change the world and was lynched on a tree
for our behalf.” He added, “Even if I don’t know George
Floyd in the flesh, I have to say he is an imago dei ... If this
is not moving your heart at such a level, then you’ve got to
check your heart and check your relationship with Jesus,
because there is something deeply, profoundly wrong
when we as a nation would just wait and say, ‘Let me figure
out what the crime is before I kind of put a judgment on
it.’”
Bishop Whitehead closed the discussion with a
Franciscan benediction that Brenda Salter McNeil, Seattle
Pacific University’s associate professor of reconciliation
studies, includes in her “Roadmap to Reconciliation” book:
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths, and superficial relationships so that you may
live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression
and exploitation of people, so that you may work for
justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer
pain, rejection, hunger and war, so that you may reach out
your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to
believe that you can make a difference in this world, so
that you can do what others claim cannot be done to bring
justice and kindness to all of God’s children and to the
poor. Amen.+
Visit vimeo.com/426966207 to view the video of the
pg. 20 — lightandlifemagazine.com
conversation. Visit fmcusa.org/bishops061020 to watch
an additional video that Bishop Whitehead recorded to
discuss racial reconciliation. Another online conversation,
“Continuing the Conversation: Disarming Racial Divides
in the Church,” was scheduled for June 28 after this issue’s
layout deadline. Check the August issue of LIGHT + LIFE
for coverage of that event.
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