Two Cents Tuesday:
Roots For Churches
Host + Interviewee
Melanie Cave — Roots for Churches
Richard Reddie — Churches Together in Britain and Ireland
Interview
Backstory
Before I answer the fourth question as a pseudo-consultant, I need to take you back to a Friday afternoon in the spring of 2007, so you understand how traditional—and unconventional—ideas come to my mind.
Precisely 17 years and nine months ago, I was in my office reading emails and scrolling the internet.
At the time, I was working with an esteemed nonprofit dedicated to advancing immigrant rights.
(During the two years I worked at this nonprofit, I functioned as a policy and advocacy coordinator, a youth organizer, a special events coordinator and an administrative coordinator. While there, I earned a valuable education in policymaking, which prepared me for the eventual pursuit of a master’s degree in public administration.)
Keep in mind that the year prior, I co-founded and managed a leading statewide, youth-led advocacy network that rigorously pursued educational policy reform at the local, state and national levels. So, from 2006 to 2007, I either launched or participated in advocacy initiatives with my (former) students to increase awareness of their plight in the public and political arena.
That Friday afternoon, the former was at play.
Before the workday’s end, I somehow noticed a news update from my alma mater; I can’t recall if an email entered my inbox through a university newsletter, or if that afternoon, I happened to be searching for information on my alma mater’s website. Regardless, the university’s update intrigued me.
Per the update, the university recently built and named a building within its law school in honor of a politician whose last name I immediately recognized; two of that politician’s grandchildren happened to be Republican congressmen who were renowned in my home state.
Now, as a (strategic) event planner, I was in the business of optics.
So, it wasn’t unusual that within a few seconds of reading the aforementioned update, my mind instantly thought, press conference.
I wanted to execute a press conference for two reasons.
First, it would bring much-needed, newsworthy attention to the DREAM Act and the work of our organization.
And second, even though the DREAM Act was a bipartisan bill, many voters affiliated with the Republican party were not fond of undocumented immigrants—be they adults or children—due to conservative rhetoric stereotyping said immigrants as criminals or job thieves. So, having two Republican congressmen express to the media and their conservative constituency why they supported the DREAM Act—and doing so in a law building recently dedicated to their grandfather—made much sense to me.
(In my delusional mind, I felt there was a chance—no matter how small—that these congressmen might agree to a press conference if I suggested that we hosted it in the newly constructed building that honored the contributions of their family’s patriarch.)
I hurriedly walked over to my executive director’s office to quickly recap what I had just read, then boldly communicated what I felt we needed to do.
My director loved the idea, and without hesitation, they gave me the green light to contact the congressmen’s offices on the organization’s behalf to inquire about hosting a press conference.
I excitedly returned to my office to prep phone calls and emails.
My first call was to one of the congressmen’s offices.
I noted to the staffer I’m an alumna of the university that recently named a building in honor of the congressman’s grandfather, and I was calling on behalf of an immigrants’ rights organization that was interested in hosting a press conference with the congressman and his brother at said building, as they supported the DREAM Act.
To my shock, after back-to-back calls with the staffer, it was suggested we host the press conference that coming Monday morning.
I now had 48 hours to plan a press conference with two renowned political players plus my students, some of whom I imagine hoped to relax over the weekend.
Long story super short: we did it.
I was grateful to the congressmen for speaking their compassionate truths; I was proud of my students—those who worked tirelessly to create posters plus assist with logistics, and those who devoted much time to crafting their speeches; and, my director was proud of us all. The press conference accomplished what it was meant to do.
Trying to secure two federal-level politicians for a press conference on short notice—and on a hunch—is not easy to accomplish.
Also, being a brown-skinned woman working under a beige-skinned director who believed I was a human being birthed with an intelligent mind was not the norm for me in the workplace.
(My experience in America has consistently shown me that the darker-skinned you are, the dumber you’re assumed to be, whether you’ve earned a master’s or a doctoral degree from a renowned or unknown university.)
To have an idea enter my mind on a Friday afternoon and to see it come to fruition on a Monday morning was an a-m-a-z-i-n-g feeling.
What I didn’t know then that I know now is this: an intuitive conviction paired with fast-acting visionaries and divine alignment can create one moment that positively impacts the lives of many.
WHY WE STILL NEED A BLACK HISTORY MONTH
To be fair, we have come lightyears away from slavery, Jim Crow laws, and other overt displays of racial hatred.
But tolerance is still a far cry from reconciliation. The mere fact that we remain relationally separated most of the time, only coming together for an event or cross-cultural seminar, shows how far we need to go.
The proof of this is that we do not have a collective restoring effect in our society. We have limited the degree to which G-d’s presence will flow in us and through us because if what we call unity is not transforming individuals, churches and communities, then it is simply sociology with a little Jesus sprinkled on top.
…G-d does His best work in the midst of unity.
In fact, so essential is the issue of oneness in the Church that we are told to be on guard against those who try to destroy it (Romans 16:17). G-d has intentionally reconciled racially divided groups into one new man (Ephesians 2:14-15), uniting them into a new body (Ephesians 2:16), in order that the Church can function as one (Ephesians 2:13). When the Church functions as one, we boldly brag on G-d to a world in desperate need of experiencing Him.
My Two Cents
In the RFC interview, Director Melanie Cave asks Director Richard Reddie, “How do we speak constructively with someone in your church who objects or complains about the fact that we’re doing Black History Month in church?”
My two cents? You don’t.
At least in the interim.
Depending on the mediator’s hue, it can be impossible or challenging to reason with a beige-skinned individual who feels annoyed, threatened or angered by the thought of a church devoting one day—let alone one month—to celebrating stories of collective redemption, restoration and reconciliation from image bearers long believed to be subhuman in the eyes of beige-skinned men and women.
In a Guardian article entitled, “The history of British slave ownership has been buried: now its scale can be revealed,” David Olusoga states that “Few acts of collective forgetting have been as thorough and as successful as the erasing of slavery from Britain’s ‘island story.’ ”
Because I’m educated on how the inventions of race plus racialized identities came about, and what parts of the nervous system contribute to a delusional anxiety around these constructed concepts, I can understand—though I do not accept—why millions of beige-skinned individuals residing in countries that profited from selling, whipping, beating, choking, lynching, drowning, (gang) raping and murdering brown-skinned humans would readily dismiss commemorating a heritage or history month.
In the Soul sphere—that is, the sphere that does not racialize (and “genderize”) a human Soul, yet acknowledges that racialized constructs have damaged millions of Souls in need of deep healing—this resistance makes no sense.
However, in the racialized sphere—that is, the sphere where millions of humans deeply believe that imaginary racialized identities hold authentic meaning, so much so that these identities become their g-d or their golden calf—this resistance makes perfect sense.
If you are publicly or privately worshiping the invention of whiteness, then naturally, celebrating a racialized (Black) history month will trigger you. That being said, if a concept or activity “threatens” one’s sense of social “superiority,” then in one’s dangerous imagination, any “threat” along the imaginary hierarchy ladder must be stopped at best or terminated at worst.
It’s critical to comprehend how the infiltration of sin within our Earth space interacts with unprocessed trauma, human-manufactured projects (e.g., race) and nervous system sensitivities that permeate multi-hued church communities throughout our floating bubble.
In asking Director Reddie the aforementioned fourth question, Director Cave added examples of rebuttals that one might encounter when explaining to certain church folks the significance of celebrating a racialized history month; those defenses range from “Is this a leftist or woke agenda?” to “This isn’t about the Bible, this is history.”
If one’s church does not commemorate International Women’s Day or Remembrance Day, then I don’t believe one’s church needs to commemorate any heritage or history months, unless its leaders feel inclined to do so.
If, for example—as I’ve seen via social media—one’s church digitally commemorates International Women’s Day (reminder: like race, gender is a marginalized construct and a woke one at that), or Remembrance Day (last I checked, commemorating fallen soldiers who fought in a historical conflict is not a biblical mandate for the modern age), yet conveniently dismisses commemorating a heritage or history month, then the spirit of bias is at play. And again, within the racialized sphere, this makes sense.
The Tignon Strategy
Now, back to the question at hand: “How do we speak constructively with someone in your church who objects or complains about the fact that we’re doing Black History Month in church?”
The key phrase for me in Director Cave’s question is “in church.”
Although I would need to ask Director Cave a series of questions to better understand the issues at hand, if I’m simply going by the information presented in this interview, then I would opt out of a debate session with the laggards and instead opt to commemorate UK’s Black History Month through a Tignon Strategy. #IYKYK
If commemorating a heritage and history month in the physical space of a church is the primary problem for a cohort of churchgoers, then hosting an event outside of the church walls is a decent solution.
(One benefit of doing this is that you can alert local media of this event plus attract diverse audiences who regularly attend church, as well as persons who’ve sworn off the Church.)
In this case, I’m a fan of using soft influence (formerly “soft power”) to honor the untold stories of trials and triumphs of enslaved persons of African heritage and their descendants, while patiently disputing and dismantling the sin- and segregation-centric ideology of whiteness through truth-telling, and through embodying unity as one corps in Christ.
In other words, go for a show-and-tell method to draw in Christians (and non-Christians) who appreciate the collective transformation that such a commemoration can bring about, and let Christ heal the hearts of the naysayers.
If you’re in a position to influence the launch of a racialized Black History Month celebration that honors humans who preserved their dignity in the face of dehumanization, then you’re going to need a few forward-thinking players to be part of your team for a talk-of-the-town event.
One common denominator I’ve noticed among many heavily prejudiced persons and barely prejudiced persons I’ve conversed with throughout the decades is this: an appreciation for the cuisine hailing from my (constructed) cultures.
As a former dinner party curator, I often used food to bring diverse people—of shared or contrasting hues—with diverging opinions to the dining table. The purpose? To connect with strangers, and to challenge each other’s comfort zone through informative conversations that confounded stereotypes.
So, unsurprisingly, in researching church-based exhibitions plus food festivals held during October, my first recommendation for two or three like-minded church communities would be this: join forces to host an exceptional, influential and transformative event honoring the racialized Black British chefs who’ve contributed to—and reshaped—England’s culinary landscape.
To see the mockup of an invitation I drafted for a hypothetical event, click here.
Last Words
I know that a culinary event isn’t going to resolve our Satan-sponsored skin color divide in one sitting or one million sittings.
Even so, a creative and mildly challenging event can launch critical conversations amongst empathetic and compassionate Christians of the beige hue on what it looks like to actively model Christlikeness and cultural humility in a complexion-obsessed world where a segment of the global population—who do and do not identify as Christian—desperately wishes that darker-skinned humans were never created in G-d’s image.
I am from a colorist family where, in 2024, I am still dealing with siblings and parents who despise that I was born with a darker hue; so, they humiliate me—and women who phenotypically look like me—with no remorse.
At some point in life, I had to learn to severely limit interactions with psychologically perilous, verbally violent and hostility-laden humans—of any hue and faith background—who chose to project their unprocessed pain, trauma or grief onto darker-skinned women, instead of launching a Soul-softening healing journey.
Skin tone bias is our “global evil,” to quote Seema Hari. And, it will continue to exist until this biased balloon is punctured.
So, you and I have a choice.
(By “you,” I’m addressing empathetic, compassionate, humble and self-aware beige-skinned Believers who understand the severity of our skin color divide, and seek to unite with their brown-skinned brethren in bringing heaven down to this brokenhearted Earth.)
We can continue hosting the evil elephant in our global dining room—a choice that I suspect comes with a packaged deal of earthly and eternal implications.
Or, we can learn to love one another as siblings in Christ—not always an easy task—by building our spiritual appetite for The Great Banquet to come.
In hope and hardships,
Your melanin-rich neighbor