Standing Up the Hate: The Charlottesville Clery Collective and the Lessons from August 12, 2017 gathers firsthand accounts of members of the Charlottesville Clergy Collective recalling their experience in resisting white supremacist violence during that “summer of hate” and seeking to repair the damage in the following months and years. Here is what happened as we remember it, and here is how August 11 and 12 changed us and our congregations forever.

Excerpt from the Introduction:

The “summer of hate” of 2017 revealed to many of us the remnants of slavery in our community and highlighted the necessity for repairing the toxic results of what many see as America’s original sin: the enslavement of millions of people of African descent. Racism is a systemic problem that has poisoned the structures, institutions, and foundational assumptions of the United States. Therefore, no one institution or segment of society can singlehandedly address the challenge of racism. Doing so calls for a level of trust, collaboration, and multifaceted strategies among diverse populations, institutions, and communities that span and bridge many divides, including racial, ethnic, political, socioeconomic, and religious lines. There is no single strategy for healing racism and no one perspective on which all can agree. However, we are all called to play our part to bring about the “Beloved Community,” a phrase used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to describe a society where “caring and compassion drive political policies that support the worldwide elimination of poverty and hunger and all forms of bigotry and violence.”

I created a discussion and action guide for our book Standing Up to Hate: The Charlottesville Clergy Collective and the Lessons of August 12, 2017. This guide is mainly intended for a non-Black audience seeking to engage in reflection, discussion, and action after reading the book.  This guide does not ask questions at the end of each chapter or section. Instead, readers are encouraged to read the whole book and then use this discussion guide for self-reflection and group sharing. 

Use this guide with this “Racial Justice Action” chart (see below) that can help you and/or your study group/congregation/organization locate where you are in regards to your racial justice journey. This chart is meant to be descriptive in helping participants localize where they are in this journey. It is not meant to be prescriptive in telling people where they ought to be. However, this chart describes the racial justice journey for many of us in the Clergy Collective, starting with internal action (awake/aware and acquaint) and moving toward more external actions like allyship, advocacy, and activism.

You can unsubscribe at any time.