With Regard to Racism

2019 Book of Discipline Free Methodist Church USA ¶3221.B

Racism represents a particularly egregious affront to the dignity and worth of persons and its presence is manifest in the life, history and institutions of all nations. Slavery and genocide are grievous stains, warranting collective lament, repentance, and repair. Racial oppression in all its forms continues to exact harm throughout the world, distorting the dignity of persons and God’s love for the great multitude of all nations (Acts 17:26, Revelation 7:9). The Free Methodist Church was itself born out of a desire to stand against the evil of slavery and we continue to recognize the sin of racism and oppose it in all its forms. We do so with the following convictions:

  1. We commit to lament and repent for the ways that we have been complicit in or failed to recognize acts of racial oppression

  2. We commit to an attitude of ceaseless humility and self-examination, recognizing the ease with which our own limitations can make us blind to the experiences and interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4). We shall seek to identify, confess, and redeem thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors that manifest discrimination against a person on the basis of race, ethnicity, or any other distinction between social groups that we create or enforce.

  3. Because systemic racism – the way in which human institutions or structures can both actively and passively preserve patterns of discrimination and exclusion – is less perceptible, but no less harmful than overt, individual racist acts, we commit, not just to avoid or sanction individual prejudicial attitudes and actions, but seek to redeem processes, systems and institutions that continue to perpetuate injustice on the basis of race or ethnicity.

  4. Therefore, in our own churches and denomination we commit ourselves to model the racial redemption and reconciliation we hope to see in the world, proclaiming the transformative victory of Jesus Christ into places of great brokenness, looking forward to the day when all people gather before the throne of God.