Resolution on Civil Rights Remembrance: 44th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America -- Revised
This is my revision of this.
Whereas, last year and the year before marked significant anniversaries in the Civil Rights movement: 2014 was the sixtieth anniversary of the United States Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education and the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and Freedom Summer, and 2015 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the Selma-to-Montgomery March; and
Whereas we were asleep at the wheel and missed both anniversaries, and
Whereas most ministers in the Presbyterian Church of America were either not born in 1965 or else were sitting at their desks in prayer-free public schools, and
Whereas, the Presbyterian Church in America did not come into existence until 1973, and
Whereas, the 30th General Assembly adopted a resolution on racial reconciliation that confessed its covenantal, generational, heinous sins connected with unbiblical forms of servitude, but failed to deal with the covenantal, generational, heinous sins committed during the much more recent Civil Rights era (cf. Daniel 9:4-11); and
Whereas, the 32nd General Assembly adopted a pastoral letter on "the Gospel and Race" that was produced under the oversight of our Mission to North America committee, but that also failed to acknowledge the lack of solidarity with African Americans which many Southern Presbyterian churches displayed during the Civil Rights era; and
Whereas, our denomination's continued unwillingness to speak truthfully about the failure of the Barthian-dominated Presbyterian Church in the United States in 1965 to seek justice and to love mercy during the Civil Rights era somehow significantly hinders present-day efforts of the PCA for reconciliation with African American brothers and sisters in the PCA; and
Whereas, God has once more given our denomination a gracious providential opportunity to show the beauty, grace and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ by showing Christ-like love and compassion towards the greater African American community; and
Whereas white hand-wringing for the racial sins of their grandparents is a way of life in liberal arts college-educated circles -- except for engineering majors -- and
Whereas it's a whole lot cheaper to pass a resolution than it is to ask advice from inner city pastors about what would really do some good, and then donate time and money -- but especially time -- to lend a useful helping hand, and
Whereas everything truly Presbyterian and Reformed gets referred to some committee and buried for at least five years, so we really are not risking much, one way or the other,
Be it therefore resolved, that the 43rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America does recognize and confess the PCUS's covenantal and generational involvement in and complicity with racial injustice inside and outside of our grandparents' churches during the Civil Rights period; and
Be it further resolved, that this General Assembly recommit ourselves to the task of truth and reconciliation with our African American brothers and sisters for the glory of God and the furtherance of the Gospel; and
Be it finally resolved, that the General Assembly urges the congregations of the Presbyterian Church in America to confess their own particular sins and failures as may be appropriate and to seek to further truth and reconciliation for the Gospel's sake within their own local communities, so that we don't have to feel guilty about Strom Thurmond anymore.