John 13:34-35 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

On Sunday, September 27, during a service of worship and praise to God, the Sharpe Road Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC was attacked by individuals who posted racist slurs, pornographic images, and threats on their Zoom platform.

All followers of Christ deplore such hateful racist actions, but we confess as white Christian leaders we have remained largely silent and inactive in the face of such threats to the wellbeing of our sisters and brothers in Christ and fellow citizens of color. We pledge that we will be silent and inactive no longer. We commit to being in solidarity with all who have experienced racial hate speech and to condemn clearly and without hesitation all white supremacist ideas, threats, and abuse. White Christians, white churches, and white church leaders have allowed our brothers and sisters of color in Christ to experience racial injustice and abuse without our visible support and action. We will no longer remain silent; we will no longer be inactive in working to eradicate this evil from our churches and our nation.

These evil attacks on our brothers and sisters at the Sharpe Road Church of Christ are the result of the white supremacist ideology that has infected our nation since its beginning. We acknowledge white supremacy as a power and principality of Satan. It is anti-Christ. It is a tool of the Evil One to divide, steal, kill, and destroy through the belief that white people and white civilization are superior to all others. We condemn the idea of white superiority and we commit to destroying it and its effects wherever we find them.

We confess, however, that we cannot condemn these acts committed against the Sharpe Road Church of Christ without acknowledging that we too have those powers and principalities at work in us and our churches. What happened to Sharpe Road Church of Christ is not simply an isolated act committed by “those evil racists.” As white church leaders, we acknowledge that it is a reflection of the sin in our own hearts. We have not realized the depth of its roots. We have not eradicated its seed from our tree. Addressing the structures of inequity and injustice requires both internal and external work

And thus, as we condemn the acts of racial abuse our brothers and sisters in Greensboro have faced, we also commit to doing the hard work of shining the light of Christ in the dark shadows of our souls, to lamenting and confessing our sin, and to following through with the fruit of repentance and reconciliation.

As we continue that work, we stand with our brothers and sisters of the Sharpe Road Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC in utterly condemning the abuse they faced on Sunday.

May the God of love and justice work in us to demonstrate now what will be the reality in the new heavens and the new earth. May the world see in us “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language” standing in solidarity on this day and all that will follow.