Since March 29, the start date of Derek Chauvin’s trial, 64 people - approximately 3 people each day - have died at the hands of law enforcement in the United States. One officer being held accountable does not come close to rectifying the loss of Black and Brown lives nor does it erase the fact that the United States has a serious problem with policing. We also can’t view the institution of policing in isolation when the whole system is guilty.
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Several years ago, I started an end-of-year personal ritual of listing the significant things that brought me joy and growth as well as pain and loss – the smaller details of life that became meaningful for me during the previous year. Creating these lists has helped me acknowledge aches, find resolution and learn life lessons to enter the new year with hope, strength and gratitude.
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As a pastor and person, Jim was shaped and gave expression to the vision of a just and peaceable world as championed by two of his “heroes”: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Clarence Jordan. Jim and Faithe were active supporters of the work of the Baptist Peace Fellowship-Bautista por la Paz, attending peace camp for a number of years and regularly supporting its work with their gifts.
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“Normal” is not our destination. This virus has irrevocably severed our future from our past. And what arrives is up to us.
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Your “Wall” brought us together, 200 of us, Baptist Christians of all ages, Mexicans and Americans, but also Canadians and Cubans, Caribbeans, South and Central Americans. Your having proclaimed this despicable “Wall,” we had to cross it.
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The following report is from Asaf Vera Baltodano, member of Shalom Baptist Church, student at the Baptist Seminary in Mexico City, and the most recent Youth and Young Adult (TYAYA) representative on the BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz board of directors.
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Deb Norton and Jonathan Sledge are longtime members of BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz who live in Raleigh, NC. They are members of Pullen Baptist Church, a BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz Partner Congregation. Deb works as a medical doctor in Raleigh and is on the board of directors of AMOS Health & Hope, an organization ran by missionaries Drs. David & Laura Parajón, that "exists to improve the health of impoverished communities in Nicaragua by working alongside them in health, education and development." As both were children of missionaries, Deb and Jonathan have traveled for much of their lives. Deb grew up in Kenya and the midwest United States while Jonathan spent his childhood in Peru and Louisiana. Both have lived in Raleigh for about 30 years.
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Anna Burkett is from Granville, Ohio and recently moved to Maryland to teach Spanish to middle schoolers. Anna grew up coming to Peace Camp.
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Luz Amparo works in Cali, Colombia with Red de Mujeres Comisión de Paz / The Network of Women Peace Commission (CEDECOL), an organization working to end violence against women. CEDECOL contributes to the elimination of violence against women through Church Ministries to: 1. Promote prevention and protection strategies for women survivors of violence. 2. Encourage initiatives of social research that make visible the reality of violence against women. 3. Insert in political and ecclesial decision-making spaces to recognize women's leadership and the fulfillment of their rights.
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Selected by American Baptist Home Mission Societies (ABHMS) board of directors from nominations submitted by clergy and laypersons across the United States and Puerto Rico, a number of American Baptist clergy and lay leaders will receive awards for significant faith-based work. Many of them are members and/or friends of BPFNA!
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The following story is part of the Vocation of Peacemaking series where we asked members and friends of BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz to write brief essays on their peacemaking work. Each story is a wonderful reminder that there are as many ways to live a life of peace as there are people, and that we can act for peace in real and important ways wherever we find ourselves. This essay comes from Eh Nay Thaw, a member of Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky and a student at Centre College who frequent attends at the BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz Summer Conference.
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The incidents in Ferguson and New York have not only highlighted longstanding racial tensions, but have also laid bare the disparities facing black citizens throughout our country. While these cases raise questions about the prevalence of racial profiling and police misconduct, they also reach far beyond that, stressing ongoing issues of economic inequality, housing discrimination and unequal access to adequate education. And it rises from the deep fear and despair that clings to walls of inner-city tenements, and reeks from the tar paper shacks that still dot the Old South.
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Peace, we know, is rooted in justice. We are beyond grateful for our dear friends and colleagues who work for it. See what some of your fellow peacemakers have been up to - just within the last four days!
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The following story is part of the Vocation of Peacemaking series where we asked members and friends of the BPFNA to write brief essays on their peacemaking work. Each story is a wonderful reminder that there are as many ways to live a life of peace as there are people, and that we can act for peace in real and important ways wherever we find ourselves. This essay comes from Kate Fields, a 2nd Year at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, TX and a young adult in the BPFNA's Companioning Program.
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We walked behind the bold red Baptist Peace Fellowship banner, which provided a space for us to gather and to keep up with each other during the march. We walked on the hard surfaces of street and sidewalk that beat my feet while my heart was singing, singing with wonder at the diverse community that had come together, singing with hope.
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This essay is the first in a series called Vocation of Peacemaking where we asked members and friends of the BPFNA to write brief essays on their peacemaking work. Stories come from students, activists, teachers, parents, pastors, lay people, and retirees who work for peace in their jobs, their communities, their families, their volunteer time, and their neighborhoods in a wide variety of ways. Each story is a wonderful reminder that there are as many ways to live a life of peace as there are people, and that we can act for peace in real and important ways wherever we find ourselves.
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BPFNA Founding Director Ken Sehested made these remarks at a memorial service for Glen Stassen held on June 21, 2014 at Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville, KY.
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Modern biblical scholarship has enabled critically thinking Christians to understand what the historical Jesus actually said and what was tacked on later to serve the interests of Rome and early church leaders, but those original messages remain politically inconvenient today.
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Gandhi read the Sermon on the Mount when he was young, and I think it influenced his development of the strategy of nonviolent direct action. It was a basis for his whole life. He said, "The Sermon on the Mount went straight to my heart," and was especially delighted in the section which begins: "But I say unto you, that you resist not evil; but whosoever smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." He wrote, "A life based on Christian truth was precious and indispensable to me, [but] the Church offered me rules completely at variance with the truth I loved."
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A Peace Pole was unveiled at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC on March 24, dedicated to Fr. David Valtierra, former chaplain of the campus Newman Center. BPFNA Operations Coordinator Evelyn Hanneman offered the following ecumenical prayer at the dedication service. Other prayers were offered by a Catholic priest and a Native American in the Catawba language. This Peace Pole joins over 100,000 of them in 180 countries around the world. Many are at Baptist churches.
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