Resmaa Menakem is a New York Times best-selling, artist, and psychotherapist specializing in the effects of trauma on the human body and relationships in Black families and Black society. His important book , was published in September 2017 and his most recent book, was published in 2022.

is a writer, liturgist, speaker seeking a deeply contemplative life marked by embodiment and emotion. She is the creator of , a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Curator. In her work, she produces and curates content to guide others into deeper musings and embodiment of the faith. She was also a for Advent in 2020.

is a contemporary theologian associated with process theology and womanist theology. She is John and Patricia Cochran Scholar for Inclusive Excellence and Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware. Her memoir reflects on her experience and process around faith, race, and mental health. Her second book, , is included in syllabi in theological schools around the country.

is a dynamic speaker, teacher, author, and reconciliation leader. Her mission is to inspire and empower emerging Christian leaders to be practitioners of reconciliation in their various spheres of influence. Her book, , offers a distinctly Christian framework for addressing systemic injustice. In her most recent book, Dr. McNeil looks to the biblical story of Nehemiah for action-based model for repairing and rebuilding our communities and transforming broken systems. Listen to Rev. Dr. McNeil on The Allender Center podcast.

Jemar Tisby (BA, University of Notre Dame; MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is聽a co-host of the and the author of the New York Times bestseller, 聽and several .

is an African-American Episcopal priest, womanist theologian, and the inaugural Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. She is also the Canon Theologian at the Washington National Cathedral. She wrote which Dr. Ron Ruthruff uses in his course Word on the Street.

is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, and media producer providing inspired leadership on racial justice in America. She is the author of and the Executive Producer of web series

Willie James Jennings teaches systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale Divinity School and is known for his award-winning book .

has 30 years of experience working with grassroots organizations, helping them unleash possibilities and reach their deeper potential. He has a PhD in Clinical and Community Psychology from Boston University, and Med in Counseling from Cleveland University. He is an executive coach, Professor of Practice, and the Associate Director of the Leadership Institute at the University of San Diego.

is a womanist theologian and activist, ordained United Methodist elder, and national and international lecturer. She currently serves as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Meadville Lombard Theological School and Associate Professor of Constructive Theology. Dr. Lightsey is also the author of . You can watch Dr. Lightsey engage with a panel of speakers at our .

is the Neil F. and Ila A. Fisher Chair of Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and the author of . Dr. Brian Bantum was also our keynote speaker at the annual Stanley Grenz Lecture in 2020, .

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As this Pandemic has spread, it has exposed and exploited the wounds and fissures of our society, revealing what has been here all along but many of us have refused to see. The true virus plaguing our country is one of systemic racism, systemic poverty, criminalization of poverty, and our refusal to address these things.*

Before * was even dreamt up, we were on Aurora Avenue here in Seattle, Washington. We were learning, listening, and lamenting. The more time spent, the more moments shared with our unhoused neighbors, the more love was propagated and proliferated and with each new year, this web of connection has grown and so with it has the habitual, exasperated grieving of unnecessary death.

Unnecessary death.

Let me write it one more time鈥�

Unnecessary death.

Watching precious human beings, with a name and a heartbeat, wither away before our eyes slowly or suddenly, is something we have had to learn to bear witness to at . We unabashedly mourn the precious lives lost, the lives our society has named as 鈥渙ther鈥� or 鈥渆xpendable鈥�; the casualties of the exploitative capitalism and consumerism that we have inherited, that has co-opted our churches, our theologies, our priorities and every other aspect of our life.

It is because there are gaping, bleeding wounds in our policies, structures, and hearts that precious human beings die unnecessary deaths every moment of every day.

For us to bear witness to another death due to…

Skin color

Lack of identification

Access to adequate care

Racial Capitalism

Hate Crime

Stigma

Criminalization

Lack of Housing

Gender identity

Victimization

Mental health issues

Sexuality

Diagnosis

The cost of medication

Discrimination

Exploitation

The 鈥渨ar on drugs鈥�

Felony charges

Survival

Food insecurity

You simply cannot understand what is going on in these streets across our nation today until you recognize the compounding weight of unnecessary death and how it impacts precious people.

The hard truth is that every single one of us has accepted the unnecessary deaths of our Black and Brown neighbors for far too long. Despite our good 鈥淐hristian鈥� intentions, we allow death policies and politicians, law enforcement, our own ideologies, fears, and the privileged powers to be the hands of our moral compass, and this cannot go on any longer.

This current movement was infused and animated by folks who have not had the privilege to ignore unnecessary death. They stand on the shoulders of a long line of ancestors. From the homes with a lack of clean water in Detroit, Michigan to 鈥淪teve鈥� from the Commons who cannot afford his diabetic test strips. From Treasure who was murdered two weeks ago to 鈥淒鈥� who was a social worker but is now stuck in the cycle of untreated mental illness and living on the streets. There is a holy lament and call for change. A prophet of our time, Rev. Dr. William Barber, says to mourn in public is to shock this nation鈥檚 conscience. The system is failing our people and millions more every day so the venerable shaking of the fist and rumble of feet pounding these streets, yes, is the right thing to do.

But it must be more than that. We, all of us, must acknowledge our proclivity towards the public discourse of our minds and not the profound revolution of our hearts. For how can you get the power structures of our nation to say 鈥測es鈥� when only your mind is connected and not your heart.

We need to be committed to decolonizing our minds and hearts; allowing the experts (the precious people within our midst, who have lived experience) to lead us, guide us, dismantle us. We must be committed to living into an economy of interdependence. And as we continue on in this commitment, we MUST allow this love to be what takes us to streets and we must take to the streets because our highest calling is to love the thousands upon thousands of precious human beings who have and will die unnecessary deaths. And we must not be silent anymore!

Dearest people, followers of Jesus, you must keep on.

Please keep on鈥�

And may we keep on until there is no more bread line.

The post What Will We (You) Do With the Unnecessary Deaths of God鈥檚 Precious People? appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

For me personally, faces of students keep coming to mind鈥揻rom the UW, Cascadia College, and some of the faces in our community at 天美视频. Students who were brave enough to tell the truth about their experiences in higher education. Students who asked me if I knew the racist history behind a phrase I was using. Students who asked me to account for why there were not more faculty and staff of color. Students who taught me that parts of their identities were silenced when teachers requested that they conform to written academic discourse. Students who were often braver and better at imagining love and justice in the world than me. Students who are still teaching me to see, and to listen.

As your Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning, I am committed to doing the work to make our school more inclusive and more welcoming to students of color. I recognize our need to review our syllabi, curriculum, and grading expectations for the ways in which whiteness is privileged. I am committed to collaborating with OSA to hear the experiences and needs of students of color at our school. I am committed to continuing to listen, research, and learn. Both in our culture at large and especially within our red brick building and all our learning spaces at 天美视频 where we train students to serve God and neighbor through transforming relationships, we want better, which means we need to do better. My commitment is to stay in the hard work, and to stay engaged in conversation and relationship as we do so.

Both in our culture at large and especially within our red brick building and all our learning spaces at 天美视频 where we train students to serve God and neighbor through transforming relationships, we want better, which means we need to do better.

As I sit with faculty during the last several weeks, we grieve and lament the ongoing killing of Black Americans by police, and also the harm done to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color by the system of oppression that is built from the ground up in America. We grieve on behalf of our students, staff, and faculty of color who have experienced individual and collective racial trauma, we also recognize that our institution has not always been welcoming to or supportive of some members of our community.

We did not want to just make another statement. Instead, we want to commit to remain in sustained conversation about how to live into the mission of 天美视频 with greater awareness of and attunement to anti-racism. We believe in the power of words to speak something into being and out into the world, as prayer, as a commitment, as a declaration to which we ask to be held accountable. Yet we also understand that a statement of grief and lament is insufficient. We are called to transforming relationship, and the physical, tangible actions that flow therefrom. We recognize that those of us who are white have much to learn, need to do our work and teach ourselves and one another鈥揳nd follow the lead of people of color. We recognize, deeply, our need to listen, to stay engaged in the conversation and the hard work of self-examination in a sustained way. We have work to do.

We are called to transforming relationship, and the physical, tangible actions that flow therefrom

In the posts that follow in the coming weeks, the Faculty have committed to engage with each other and our colleagues through deep listening, ongoing dialogue, and self-examination. We commit to do this so in light of our call toward transforming relationships鈥揳 call that is at the core of who we are, a call that is the methodology of our mission of serving God and neighbor. As we engage in reflection and conversation with one another in relationship, and as we do so with transparency and in public, we also seek to move toward generative action.

It鈥檚 probably going to get messy. We will work hard to decenter whiteness and elevate other voices. We will invite the voices of our colleagues of color, to speak, to be heard, and we will strive to do so in relationship and in partnership, without tokenizing people of color or merely performing inclusion. We will need to be corrected. We will likely need to apologize. We commit, however, to acknowledging and resisting and staying engaged in the conversation.

As I grapple with my own whiteness and commit to being accountable, these are a few of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) scholars, leaders, and activists, I鈥檓 listening to and learning from:

• , author of How to Be an Anti-Racist and Stamped From the Beginning
• , author of Me and White Supremacy
• , academic and instructor of online course The Great Unlearn and author of a public address on Revolution
• Alishia McCullough, mental health therapist
• Ijeoma Oluo, Seattle-based author of

鈥淭he opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’ What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.鈥�
鈥� Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

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