“You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment and the second is like it You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37-39

Jesus teaches in all four gospels this mandate as the first or most important commandment. This command applies to all our neighbors, no matter the color of their skin, the language they speak, their nationality or religion.

I am proud to serve in a denomination the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that has made clear in their policies where we stand as Lutherans. Below is an example of one of our statements about racism, it is not the first or last but one among many.

The ELCA’s social policy resolution, “Condemnation of White Supremacy and Racist Rhetoric,” adopted by the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, states: “As persons called to love one another as God has loved us, we therefore proclaim our commitment to speak with one voice against racism and white supremacy. We stand with those who are targets of racist ideologies and actions.”

As church, together we must work to condemn white supremacy in all forms and recommit ourselves to confront and exorcize the sins of injustice, racism and white supremacy in church and society and within ourselves as individuals and households.

“The members have the same care for one another, If one member suffers all we all suffer.”

I Cor 12:25b & 26a

We grieve along with the families of George and Ahmaud and confess our complicity in systematic racism and commit ourselves to eradicating this sin from our churches, community, and world.

Shalom,