e-vo for Tuesday, June 16

Dearest e-votees,

Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine.

The following is a description of the day set aside to commemorate them from www.sundaysandseasons.com:

Emanuel Nine, martyrs, died 2015

On June 17, 2015, Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Lee Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson were murdered by a self-professed white supremacist while they were gathered for Bible study and prayer at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (often referred to as Mother Emanuel) in Charleston, South Carolina. Pastors Pinckney and Simmons were both graduates of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary. A resolution to commemorate June 17 as a day of repentance for the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine was adopted by the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on August 8, 2019. Congregations of the ELCA are encouraged reaffirm their commitment to repenting of the sins of racism and white supremacy which continue to plague this church, to venerate the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine, and to mark this day of penitence with study and prayer.

Peace,

Karl

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Dear e-votees,

Sometimes we can look at the systemic flaws in other systems (government, other families, other denominations, other nations, other cultures) and be oblivious to, or worse yet turn a blind eye to, our own flaws, our own sins and our own devastating acts that traumatize or end the lives of others.

• The Emanuel Nine were killed by Dylann Roof who was a member of an ELCA church in South Carolina.
  
• Dennis Rader (the BTK serial killer) was a church council president of an ELCA congregation in Kansas.
  
• Dylan Klebold (one of the two perpetrators of the Columbine High School shooting) was an ELCA youth in Colorado.  
  

It is easy to point to 9-11 and make disparaging remarks about Muslims.  It is easy to point out the horrific child abuse perpetrated and systemically hidden in the Roman Catholic church.  It is easy to villify others who do unthinkable acts and to call down judgment upon them.

The truth is that we, too, are a fallen people.  Given the right pressures, encouragements and opportunities we can condone, enable and enact horrific deeds.

Our ELCA church comes from the heritage of Germany.  Our beloved reformer, Martin Luther, wrote some despicable things that were used to support the grievous mistreatment and murder of millions of Jewish people by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.  We need to know and repent of our history.

All of this to say:  our hands and our traditions are not without blemish and culpability.  Our souls and our unredeemed selves are not without deep flaws and capacity to engage in horrible and dehumanizing behaviors.  We have sinned against those made in God's image in thought, word and deed.  By what we have done and by what we have left undone.  Lord have mercy.

We are at a crucial point in the history of race relations in this country and around the world.  Part of being on the right side of history moving forward is looking honestly at how we have been, circumstantially, unknowingly or with complete complicity, on the wrong side of history.

I don't expect we will have truth and reconciliation boards here in the U.S. as were brought to bear in South Africa during the dismantling of apartheid.   I do know, however, that there is a place for all of us to participate in truth-telling, truth-hearing and the reconciling that can ensue.

God, help us never to forget those who have been silenced by gunshots, nooses, knees to the neck, prevention of access to the voting booths and the broadcast microphones.  Help us give our broken selves and our complicity to you.  Stir us to be just, loving and full of life-giving reparation and repentance.  Amen.