The RMS Office of the Bishop in partnership with leaders across the synod has created a community discussion guide to engage challenging topics as people of faith. Each week we will share a personal reflection on that week's featured social statement.
Do You See Us?
Ihoby Rakotomalala
I identify as brown. My people hail from Africa. I attended a Lutheran college and a Lutheran seminary. I’ve completed candidacy except for ordination because I have not yet been called...I’ve been searching for call for over a year and a half now. As I write this, demonstrations have been happening around the United States on the account of a black man named George in Minneapolis whose neck was pinned by a white police officer and whose fate was sealed by white society at birth by the color of his skin. Prior to that, a young Black man named Ahmaud was jogging and was shot by two white men in Atlanta.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, do you see us?
Lutherans who are descendants of Norwegians, Swedes, and Germans, do you see us black Lutherans, Indigenous Lutherans, Indonesian Lutherans, and all of us who sit on the spectrum of
“white”? Why are you still making jokes equating lutefisk to our denomination? Why not stretch that feast to include Ethiopian injera bread, Mexican tortillas, or Lakota fry bed? Do you remember your mixed, multicultural, and immigrant children who watch how you react to protests? Please stop reacting. Instead, respond. This social statement was written in 1993. Much has happened since then – one of our own shot 9 black church members, we wrote an apology letter to our African-descent siblings, we took a stand on immigration and became a sanctuary church, several of us marched peacefully with our Native American siblings during oil pipeline controversies, and recently Bishop Eaton spoke boldly against white supremacy after Ahmaud died. In some ways, I can’t walk all the way with you when you prayer walk around capitol buildings...because I’m still not recognized by our institution as a rostered leader. You pick and choose when you want me. And. I know you’re trying.
If you see us, help us repair or fund our dilapidated buildings and groups. If you see us, speak with us about our understandings of lived, God-breathed resurrection-resilience in the face of blatant denial of our identities. If you see us, please replace “I’m sorry” with “I’m ready to sow and weed now.” May you be as bold as Hagar, a fleeing Egyptian slave, who first dared to name the Holy One as El Roi: “the God who sees me.
this is beautiful as a cradle lutheran of scandinavian descent lutheran parents I married a first generation mexican immigrant who is in the minority in our border city church, in our very white church in a city of 80% mexican americans, in our white church which doesn't often see through any lens than their own
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