Dear Conversation Partners,

      I opened the door of my hotel room in Omaha, Nebraska only to find the weekend edition of USA Today at my feet.  As I browsed through the pages, I stopped at the full-page advertisement that extended this invitation to its entire readership.  “Let’s talk about race.”  As you may already know, it was an invitation offered by our denomination at a time when race and politics have become the subject of intense debate.   The advertisement continued:

On Sunday, May 18, many pastors across our church, the United Church of Christ, will be preaching on race in hopes of beginning a sacred conversation, a dialogue that is needed in our pews, our homes and the hallways of power across our country.

Sacred conversations are never easy, especially when honest talk confronts our nation’s painful past and speaks directly to the injustices of the present day.  Yet sacred conversations can, and often do, honor the diverse life experiences, requiring an openness to hear each other’s viewpoints.

Over the coming weeks, as we prepare to speak from our pulpits and organize follow-up conversations with our 1.2 million members, we pray that effort will be an important step toward a holy and reconciling dialogue within our church and for our nation.

I affirm wholeheartedly our need to address racism in its varied and more subtle forms.  However, and this is where some of you may disagree with me, I also think the comments of  Jeremiah Wright, especially before the National Press Club in Washington, do not reflect the spirit of taking steps toward “a holy and reconciling dialogue.”

Case-in-point.  This afternoon I mustered up the courage to start a conversation with a very dear co-worker of mine in the office where I work in Center City.  As women we have been able to lament the kind of sexism that exists in our country where women still only earn 73 cents to every dollar that a man earns doing the same job.  Together we are outraged by comments that ‘a woman can’t be president,’ that regardless of the candidate, still speak to the way many Americans think about the ‘place’ of women in our society. 

As women who work with senior citizens, we have groaned together at the way the media stereotypes aging adults and the impact this “ism” is also having in the realm of politics these days.  We lament the ways in which ageism has become ‘the acceptable discrimination in the workplace.’  Some of you reading this letter may know a “mature” employee who was ‘downsized’ for no other reason than the company wanted to hire a younger worker at a lower salary with fewer benefits. 

This afternoon, however, when I broached the subject of race, the conversation came to an abrupt end.  She simply said, “I’m with Jeremiah Wright and I stand behind him and everything he says.”   She is African-American.  I am Caucasian. 

 As I sit here this evening I am deeply saddened that, in the moment, we could not find a way to listen to each other.  And as I sit here this evening I am also disturbed by the tone, tenor, and content of Jeremiah’s words and message that, in my assessment, have not served the idea of “Sacred Conversations” which require us to hear each other’s viewpoints.

In my experience difficult conversations can happen only when we come to the table with a willingness to acknowledge the intensity of our feelings around a given subject and then set them aside in such a way that allows us to listen to each other’s experiences.  Difficult conversations, in my experience, can happen only when we come to the table with no hidden agenda and when we can refrain from jumping to conclusions, casting judgments, or becoming defensive.  Sacred conversations are never easy, but they are necessary if we are to grow into the New Testament vision for the church:

There is no longer Jew or Greek,
there is no longer slave or free,

there is no longer male and female;
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  –Galatians 3:28

I am hopeful that here at St. Luke’s we can move beyond the political rhetoric of our time to a place of deep faith and spirituality where we can enter into a holy and reconciling dialogue on issues of race, as well as other controversial subjects we find difficult to discuss.  On a personal level, I am praying for a way to re-open the dialogue with my co-worker.

In a spirit of discernment I offer these thoughts,

Pastor Chris