As shared by the Church of the Brethren Newsline on October 25, 2017, during the fall Mission and Ministry Board (MMB) meeting, conservative leaders from the Church of the Brethren likened Brethren Mennonite Council (BMC) to a white supremacist group.
The violence of white supremacy is antithetical to the principles of our peace church, and we’re unable to fully express our grief and anger over the conflation of the advocacy and community building work of BMC with white supremacy. Contrary to this comparison, there is no moral equivalence between a group which advocates for minority groups and for the marginalized and a group bent on furthering the dominance of a racial majority. The reference to white supremacy – and the very nature of secretive, invite only gatherings – fails the litmus test of basic decency and, as the BMC response says, ”perpetrates sentiments of hate, anxiety, and exclusion.”
We need to come together across ideological differences and denounce white supremacist violence, actions and threats including kidnapping, slavery, terrorism, even genocide, and which are not limited to history books. The supporters of white supremacy continue to gather publicly, even since Charlottesville. Just days after the MMB meeting in question, on October 28, a “white lives matter” rally took to the streets of Shelbyville, Tennessee, and chanted “blood and soil,” a reference to a key domestic policy for the Nazi Party (‘blut and boden’), a chant also used in the infamous rally where Heather Heyer was murdered.
We must not minimize the struggle of people deeply affected by white supremacy. It is not enough to personally avoid racism, we must be willing to confront our own privilege and engage actively in anti-racism. We must join collectively in the shared work of increasing the acceptance, increasing the love, and increasing the dream Martin Luther King Jr preached about those decades ago.
Compelled by our faith in the one who visited Samaria and spoke to a women by the well, who touched the lepers, who ministered to the gentiles, who healed on the sabbath, and who so frequently stood with the disenfranchised and marginalized of his time, we voice our deep appreciation for the faithfulness of BMC, our LGBTQ+ sisters, brothers, and siblings, and for all who work with or live within marginalized communities.
Our most recent Annual Conference affirmed the desires of the Leadership Team and the Council of District Executives to turn our attention forward, and work towards a compelling vision for our shared life and work together. We must confess, then, our inexpressible pain that we continue to see an ongoing obsession with assailing the character of a ‘significant minority’ of the Church.
Even so, let us be clear. Open Table’s vision for the future of the Church of the Brethren includes every sister, brother, and sibling willing to participate in the communion of faith in Christ. Supporters of BMC, supporters of Brethren Revival Fellowship, and every shade between, we would wash the feet of any person sitting next to us at the table.
May our Lord’s grace and peace abound for all, increase to abundance, increase to the day it is fully realized for all.
Respectfully,
Pastor Matt Rittle,
on behalf of the Open Table Cooperative board
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