In the wake of immigration sweeps in Los Angeles that provoked protests, faith leaders from across Southern California gathered to hold a prayer vigil calling for peace and solidarity with immigrants. Listening in on a prayer from the vigil can help us hear the pain of this community and join with them in calling on God for justice, peace, and healing.
In the Just Neighbors Sermon Series, in addition to learning about redlining, we also learned about racially restrictive covenants that specifically excluded Black people and other racial groups from buying property. In 2023, the Washington State Legislature passed the Covenant Homeownership Act to help people who have been impacted by this discrimination to become homeowners. Since then, more than 400 homebuyers in Washington State have received assistance with down payments. You can read about how this program is healing injustice in this Seattle Times article.
This spring, BelPres has been walking through out "Life Together" document which outlines the principles that guide our life together in Jesus. All of these principles guide the work of the Justice and Racial Reconciliation Team, but we particularly resonate with #10: "We share with God's people in need, pursue justice for the poor, the vulnerable, and the outsider, and stand together against evil systems."
If you missed Anthony Ballard's sermon on this point, you can find it here: The Two Feet of Love. And if you've had trouble finding the Life Together document on the BelPres website, here's a direct link: Life Together.
By Pam Hinrichs
This is the fourth installment in a four-part series examining what the Bible says about justice. In this installment, we'll offer some concluding thoughts on justice. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.
Concluding Thoughts on Justice
Ultimately, doing justice is an act of worship, an offering to God, in the way God wants to be worshiped by us. God declared to his people, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" (Isaiah 58:6). This verse is full of doing, an example of the action God commanded us to do in Micah 6:8.
Here are some highlights from Troy's talk.
On May 21, Bethany Community Church hosted their annual speaker event on racial justice. Troy Jackson spoke on the intersection of faith, racial justice, and political engagement. We invite you to watch his talk, followed by a panel discussion featuring Christians from around the Seattle area who are living it out.
By Pam Hinrichs
This is the third installment in a four-part series examining what the Bible says about justice. In this installment, we'll look at how Christians can do justice. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
How Do We Do Justice?
The Lord instructed Zechariah to "Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other" (Zechariah 7:9-10). God calls us to action. Administer is a verb, it is doing something about injustice. The Lord also tells us something about the nature of the justice to be administered. It is to be "true", genuine, not just in form but in substance. The Lord is calling for deeper investigation and thought. Acting justly is thinking critically and deeply about the marginalized, asking how the system, law, or policy affects them and what is equitable.
Equal Justice Initiative has released a new report, Unreliable Verdicts: Racial Bias and Wrongful Convictions. The report documents how excluding Black people and other people of color from juries can increase the chance of a wrongful conviction, especially in death penalty cases.
The report cites an incident from a 2017 trial in Renton, WA, showing that our region is not immune from this type of bias. Section 5, entitled Profiles in Exoneration is a particularly powerful section filled with stories of people who were wrongfully convicted by non-diverse juries.
Reports like these help us to better understand where bias and discrimination persist in our systems of justice so that we can advocate for changes that will make the system more fair for everyone.
By Pam Hinrichs
This is the second installment in a four-part series examining what the Bible says about justice. In this installment, we'll look at what God asks of us as believers. You can find Part 1 here.
God's Requirement To Do Justice
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40). The first commandment is about our relationship with God and counters our tendency to worship something other than the one true God. The second commandment is about our relationship with each other, each of us being made in the image of God and counters our tendency to 'play God' in the lives of other people, especially when we perpetuate injustice.
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