The Raceless Gospel Initiative at Good Faith Media will host its first webinar, “Introducing the Raceless Gospel,” on Feb. 24, 2022, at 12 p.m. CST / 1 p.m. EST. The webinar is free, but registration is required.
Led by Starlette Thomas, director of the initiative and host of The Raceless Gospel podcast, the virtual gathering will bring together participants who are called to the work of reconciling the North American church’s history with race by interrupting the narrative that justifies the continued segregation of sacred space.
Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” Often quoted, but never questioned as to why it remains true, Christians in North America have a lot of explaining and work to do.
The webinar will not provide another history lesson but will serve as an opportunity for reflection on questions like the one posed by mystic and theologian Howard Thurman in his seminal text Jesus and the Disinherited.
Thurman asks, “Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin?”
The church in North America has yet to provide an answer.
There will be no finger-pointing, but participants will be invited to consider the internal work of baptism and the external implications of a baptismal identity as named and explained by the Apostle Paul to the Christian communities at Corinth, Galatia and Colossae.
“By taking Christians to the waters of baptism, we are invited to examine ourselves as members of Christ’s body and to question why these color-coded labels stick to our skin,” Thomas said.
During this online gathering, participants will be invited to examine their personal relationship with race and how it has influenced their understanding of faith.
More than anti-racism but anti-race, the webinar posits baptism as a means of addressing the problems with dividing the body for the sake of power and privilege and challenges our color-coded divisions.
Described as “faith seeking understanding — without race,” The Raceless Gospel Initiative aims to interrupt regularly scheduled church programming by addressing the taboo trinity — race, religion and politics.
For more about the initiative, click here. To register for this online experience, click .
Reflection and resources at the intersection of faith and culture through an inclusive Christian lens.
