Journey Toward Racial Justice
. . . 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 22:37-40
FUMC Richardson is one of 15 congregations in the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church implementing an active anti-racist agenda in response to Bishop McKee’s 2020 challenge for racial justice action. “We must acknowledge that racism remains a painful reality within The United Methodist Church,” Bishop McKee said. “Good work has been done across the years to name and combat racism in the North Texas Conference, but, in many ways, we are still in the early stages of our journey toward racial justice. We have work to do.”
FUMC Richardson has established a Racial justice Task Force to lead the church on this journey. The task force consists of a diverse group of people who responded to Clayton’s August 2020 call to serve on the task force. Clayton’s invitation included these inspiring words: “Compassion, respect, and inclusion are core to our CHRIST values and they challenge us to not be silent. We must find relevant ways to engage in respectful conversations about race, be unashamed to engage in advocacy for racial justice, and continue meaningful mission in our community to offer help and hope.”
The Mission of the FUMCR Racial Justice Task Force is to identify racial inequity and injustice within our church for the purpose of proposing necessary change responsive to these issues. We support this effort so that we can fully live out Christ’s long-term purpose for FUMCR, locally, regionally, and globally.
Anti-Racism Resources
Take steps in understanding and discussions surrounding race relations.
As we go into the unknown future that God has for us, I'm more and more convinced that the church is called to be an anti-racist force in the world, not just neutral, but that we are actively anti-racist, advocates against racism. We have to learn how to listen to the stories of our brothers and sisters of color. We have to learn how to hear their laments, their cries, because they're telling us something right now: that our silence is complicity, that when we are silent, we are part of the problem. The Church of Jesus Christ has to be an anti-racist church to build spiritual unity for the future. -Dr. Clayton Oliphint in this video
