August 12 Anniversary Interfaith Worship Service

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INTERFAITH WORSHIP SERVICE STUDY GUIDE

Click here to download a PDF of this study and discussion guide.

Written by Michael K. Cheuk
Copyright 2020 by the Charlottesville Clergy Collective

This guide provides suggested readings and discussion questions to complement our Interfaith Worship Service, “RE-IMAGINE: A More Truthful History and Memorials to Justice,” that premiered on August 12, 2020 on YouTube.

This guide is not meant to be completed in one session or even in a couple of sessions. Just as there are no shortcuts to spiritual growth, there are no shortcuts to racial awakening. We hope small groups will agree to engage in this study and conversation over an extended period of time.

Feel free to divide this guide into as many sessions as needed for your context. Add additional readings and resources from your own faith traditions. Include additional questions that may resonate better in your community. In other words, do not slavishly follow this guide!

OPENING QUESTION:

What were/are some responses that you’ve heard regarding the taking down of Confederate statues in Charlottesville and elsewhere?

GRAPPLING WITH QUESTIONS:

What is the meaning of a public statue?

Read:

“What Does It Mean to Tear Down a Statue? We asked an art historian who studies the destruction of cultural heritage.” By Jonah Engel Bromwich, published 6/11/2020 in the New York Times.

Questions: What are your responses to art historian Erin Thompson’s thoughts about … 

• statues as a way of solidifying an idea and making it present to other people?
• people rebel against the ideas represented by statues by taking them down?
• her comparisons between what anti-Confederate monument protestors are doing in the US and what the Islamic State did in destroying monuments in Palmyra?

What version of history is not represented in these Confederate monuments? 

Read:

Was Robert E. Lee Opposed to Confederate Monuments? By David Emrey, published 8/23/2017 in Snopes.com.

• Question: What are your responses to Robert E. Lee’s opposition to proposals to erect Civil War monuments and memorials, including some devoted specifically to the Confederacy?

How Charlottesville Got that Robert E. Lee Statue. By Bruce W. Dearstyne, published 9/3/2017 in the History News Network.

• Question: What are your thoughts about the inauguration of the Lee Monument in Lee Park on May 21, 1924? It was held “during a gala Confederate reunion in which the monument was draped in a large Confederate flag that was pulled away by the three-year-old great-granddaughter of General Lee, Mary Walker Lee, to great cheers.”

How the US Got So Many Confederate Monuments. These commemorations tell a national story. By Becky Little, published 8/17/2017, updated 6/12/2020 in History.com.

There are hundreds of Confederate monuments across the US — here's when they were built. By Leanna Garfield and Anaele Pelisson, published 8/18/2017 in BusinessInsider.com.

This map reveals 1,747 monuments and other Confederate symbols of America’s racist past. By Michael Grothause, published 6/11/2020 in FastCompany.com

• Question: What are your thoughts about the inauguration of the Lee Monument in Lee Park on May 21, 1924? It was held “during a gala Confederate reunion in which the monument was draped in a large Confederate flag that was pulled away by the three-year-old great-granddaughter of General Lee, Mary Walker Lee, to great cheers.”

 

• Question: What history and whose history are neglected in these Confederate monuments?

How did these Confederate monuments affect African Americans?

Read:

Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee Sculpture and our Heritage of Hate. Published 8/17/2017 in Blaservations.

• Question: Paul Goodloe McIntire donated land for five city parks: Lee (in honor of Robert E. Lee), Jackson (in honor of Thomas “Stonewall Jackson), Belmont, Booker T. Washington, and McIntire (named by the city in his honor). Were you aware that African Americans were NOT allowed in any of the parks other than Booker T. Washington Park?

 

• Question: How well do you think African Americans in Charlottesville were represented in the city government that decided to establish these parks?  

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

Question: What are your thoughts and responses to hearing these testimonies?

• Reverend Carol Carruthers Sims recalls growing up white and freely roaming all over  Charlottesville and the University.

• Apostle Sarah Kelley recalls the places she was not allowed to go as a child, and being mocked and taunted by white gatherings at Lee Park as she walked along Market Street to go to the Paramount Theater.

• Deacon Don Gathers recalls the traumatic experience of counter protesting the Unite the Right rally on August 11-12, 2017.

• Rabbi Tom Gutherz recalls the shocking experience of the same Jew hatred that killed members of his family during the Third Reich violently proclaimed here in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. 

“SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD”

The photos interspersed within the dance show the progression of . . .

• The arrival of the first enslaved Africans at Point Comfort, Virginia in 1619

• The Richmond Slave Trail, led by the Elegba Folklore Society

• The selling of enslaved Africans here in Charlottesville, as marked by the “Slave Auction Block” sidewalk plaque in Court Square.
  • Read “Humans Were Sold Here.” By Jalane Schmidt in Medium.com.

• The brutal history of enslavement and lynching documented at National Memorial for Peace and Justice (“The Lynching Museum”) and The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration (where one sample of the soil from the site of the lynching of John Henry James in Charlottesville/Albemarle County is stored). Both the memorial and the museum are part of the work of the Equal Justice Initiative.

• Finally, a sample of pictures and names of black victims killed at the hands of law enforcement. 
  • Read “Say Their Names: Black Lives Matter, Their Lives Mattered.” By Sandra Barrett in Medium.com. This article lists the names of black victims who are now famous because they were killed at the hands of law enforcement. This is not an exhaustive list of every black victim killed by police.

Question for white people: Imagine where you would be now if your white ancestors were enslaved, raped, robbed of their property and their labor, denied housing and employment, and incarcerated and murdered with impunity for the last 400 years? 

Question for white people: How would you respond if white people were then labeled -- as a people -- “lazy,” “thugs,” and “dangerous”?

THE PAST AND PRESENT

“We don’t need monuments of steel and stone to remind us of our country’s heritage of slavery, because that heritage is present in the bodies of American descendants of slavery. WE are the living memorials to this history.” 

Question: What do you think about this claim? 

Read:

Writer and poet Caroline Randall Williams’ 6/26/2020 editorial in the New York Times: “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument.”

Watch NBC News’ interview of Caroline Randall Williams, published 7/2/2020.

Question: Given the generational trauma and pain experienced by American descendants of slavery, what does it say about their strength and resiliency that empowers them to survive and even thrive in American society today?

A MORE JUST FUTURE

Removing these symbols of white supremacy is a necessary step toward a more just and equitable society. But it is NOT sufficient in and of itself. If we do not also work on dismantling the unjust systemic and structural inequities that continue to negatively impact black communities today, the dismantling of all Confederate statues and monuments will be for naught. 

The worship video names some of the ways systemic racism is still present today in our health, employment, community, housing, criminal justice, law enforcement, financial, education, and governmental systems.

Read:

“What is systemic racism? Here's what it means and how you can help dismantle it.” By N’dea Yancey-Bragg, published 6/15/2020 in USAToday.com.

“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, published 6/2014 in The Atlantic.com.

Question for white people: What is the next step that you and your congregation can make to dismantle systemic racism?

“Dear White People, Please Stop Pretending Reverse Racism Is Real” by Manisha Krishnan, published 10/2/2016 in Vice.com.

“Sure, black people can be racist, too.” By John Blake, published 9/22/2019 on CNN.com interviewing Ibram X. Kendi about his book How to Be An Antiracist.

Questions: How do Krishnan and Kendi understand “being a racist” differently? Which group of people is the intended audience of each article? What can all groups of people take away from both of these articles?

Listen:

“In Conversation: Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem” in On Being podcast with Krista Tippett

Question for white people: Discomfort is a portal to new awareness, but many people don’t want to be uncomfortable. What are ways discomfort can help you identify and work to dismantle systemic racism? 

Question for white people: The onus is not on those affected by racism to teach white people what to learn. The onus is on white people to do the hard work themselves of identifying their learning edges and blind spots. How can white people take responsibility for their learning?

• Take the initiative to Google questions you have about race . . . and note the various responses of individual authors.
• Visit this archive of 163 years of The Atlantic’s writing on race and racism in America, by Gillian B. White, published 6/16/2020.
• The Charlottesville Clergy Collective has a webpage of resources.

Question for white people: Black organizations (like the NAACP), movements (like Black Lives Matter), and local congregations have and are providing leadership in anti-racist work. How can you join in what they are already doing instead of reinventing the wheel?

RELIGIOUS READINGS AND PRAYERS

Betül Toprak, a member of the Muslim Community, read a verse from the Qur’an — the sacred text of Islam. It is from the Surah Al-Nisa (the 4th Surah), and it is the 135th verse. It is a verse emphasizing that every individual must not only be just, but they must stand out for justice, even if it is against their own interests. …  This statement is a reminder to myself of how I should position myself in conflictual situations. It tells me that no matter who is involved, no matter what interests may be involved, I should take the side of justice and advocate it. It also tells me that I should not be a bystander, and only act when I am affected by a particular injustice, but to always stand out for justice and be its advocate. We should stand out for justice no matter what, and Allah will be the one protecting us, our kin, our interests when we objectively stand for justice.

• Question: Why do you think the verse is telling us to disregard whether the situation in question is related to yourself, your parents, your kin, or whether it involves the rich or the poor?

 
Sharon Beckman-Brindley of the Insight Meditation Community of Charlottesville states that Kuan Yin (Avalalokiteshvara) is the representation of the Buddha qualities of enlightened compassion for the struggles and sufferings of all beings. She hears all and, when called upon, she responds with wise and whole hearted guidance to bring all beings everywhere to full healing and freedom.

• Question: As we cultivate our responses to centuries of violence and injustice, how do we find room in our hearts, our relationships and our communities to respond to separation in ways that do not just burden ourselves and others with more division and hatred?

 
Rabia Povich of the Inayati Universal Sufi Order read a Sufi poem, After the Darkness There are Many Suns, which was written by Mevlana Jellalludin Rumi, a 13th century Persian poet, Islamic Scholar, and Sufi mystic. He wrote a six-volume masterwork, the Masnavi, that opens with the eighteen line verse: “Listen to the reed and the tale it tells, How it sings of separation...” After the Darkness is from book 3, lines 2922-2925 of the Masnavi.

• Question: How/where do we find hope even as we are aware of 400+ years of discrimination and oppression toward Africans, African Americans, indigenous people and people of color that continues today?

 
Manouchehr (Mike) Mohajeri, a member of the Baha’i Faith, shared a prayer for humanity, given by Abdu’l-Baha in the early twentieth century. Abdu’l-Baha was the son and successor of the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, Baha’u’llah. Abdu’l-Baha’s given name was Abbas, but he chose to be called Abdu’l-Baha which means the servant of Baha’ or Glory. He, together with his father and the rest of his family, suffered banishment and exile from his homeland of Persia to Baghdad first and eventually to the Holy Land (Palestine, then and Israel, today). All of that suffering was brought upon them through the intrigues of Muslim clergy (religious supremacists!) when he was between the very sensitive ages of 9 and 24. Later in his life, after he was freed from prison, he traveled to the West and spent about 8 months in 1912, in the US and Canada for a visit with the western Baha’is and on a speaking tour. It was in this country where he very deeply felt the long-sufferings of the black people and prayed fervently for the unity of the human race as a whole. … This prayer is a daily reminder for me to further develop an understanding and loving heart, cleansed from any trace of prejudice and supremacist feeling.

• Question:  What is it going to take for the members of the human race to get rid of the spiritual disease of supremacy (be it racial, gender, national, religious, etc.) and become united as members of one family?

 
Linda Olson Peebles, Interim Lead Minister of Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church - Unitarian Universalist, offered a prayer that she wrote. She was inspired by the interfaith clergy on the streets Aug 12, 2017, who faced the militia and Nazi hate groups. 

• Question: “If it is in our power to shine light into the world, how can we do that in real ways in our everyday lives (in the face of hatred, injustice, bias, pressure to be complicit, etc.)?

 
Cynthia Power of the Charlottesville Friends Meeting paraphrased a passage from the Journal of George Fox. Fox was the founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the mid-17th century. The actual quote is:  “Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places...then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone…”  Friends have neither creed nor scripture. When asked what they believe, they frequently mention “that of God in everyone.” … The idea of “that of God in everyone” clearly says to me that we are all equal, deserving of the same rights and benefits. This is the basis of my most strongly held values.

• Question: As we work together for racial justice, how can we incorporate the Quaker notion of answering that of God? Is it compatible with other faith stances?

Jess Kerman of Congregation Beth Israel brought a teaching from: 
Talmud Bavli Shabbat 55A: 
And Reish Lakish said: The letter tav is the last letter of the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be God, as Rabbi Ḥanina said: The seal of the Holy One, Blessed be God, is truth [emet], which ends with the letter tav. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: The letter tav teaches that these are people who observed the entire Torah from alef through tav. 
and Pirkei Avot 1:18:
Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel used to say: on three things does the world stand: On justice, on truth and on peace, as it is said: “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zechariah 8:16).

• Question: What does an imbalance of justice, truth, or peace look like? How do we seek balance between justice, truth, and peace?

LIVING INTO OUR CALLING

The photos interspersed in the dance show:

• Memorial and statues at Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, AL, located across the street from 16th St. Baptist Church, the target of white supremacist terrorism when it was bombed by the KKK in 1963, killing four young girls. The park served as an assembly spot for activities of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other groups in the Civil Rights movement. Today, this public park contains emotionally powerful sculptures depicting the civil rights struggle in Birmingham. This park is an example of how Market Street Park in Charlottesville might be re-imagined to include statues and memorials to commemorate the contributions of Black Americans and to solidify the idea of a more just and equitable future.
• The response of the Charlottesville faith community in response to the KKK gathering in July 2017.
• Pictures of the Black Lives Matter marches in San Francisco, CA, Miami, FL, and Newcastle, PA, after the George Floyd killing. 

Our worship service ends with an empowering song and dance, because the history of Black Americans cannot be reduced to words like “trauma” and “pain.” The themes that run throughout this history are resiliency, resistance, persistence, faith, and most of all, joy!

Read:

“American culture sees Blackness as the damage it did to us, not the joy we take in ourselves.
One cannot fully understand Blackness in America without understanding the joy that we derive from being Black — and why.”  By Donald Earl Collins, published August 9, 2020 in NBCnews.com.

Collins writes: “Quite simply, there is no American joy, no American culture, without Black joy, and no Black joy without Black pain from and resistance to American racism and exploitation.”

Questions: 

• How can we have the eyes to see and celebrate Black joy? 
• How can we contribute to Black joy by our resistance to American racism and exploitation?
• What is the next step for YOU to live joyfully into your calling toward justice and beloved community?

NEXT STEPS

One next step beyond reading, studying, and discussions is to join organizations to take action toward systemic racial justice. Below is a short, non-comprehensive list of racial justice organizations to check out. Many of these organizations have local chapters for you to get involved in whatever ways you can.

Black-led racial justice organizations

• Poor People’s Campaign - Rev. William Barber
  
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
  
• Black Lives Matter
  
• Showing Up for Racial Justice has a more comprehensive list compiled by leadership from the Movement for Black Lives.
  
• A Partial Map of Black-led Black Liberation Organizing
  

Other organizations are committed to supporting black-led organizing and anti-racist activism

• Congregate Cville
  
• Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
  
• Beloved Community Cville
  
• Check out the Racial Equity Resource Guide to find organizations are working within the field of racial equity and on a variety of issues and topics.