We reformatted our initial Brown-tables sessions into twenty-one days of awakening, reflective thinking and growing our capacity to foster healing and change.
For the month of April, Independence Hill Baptist Church along with Jonahville AME Zion Church will be hosting the detox! To participate, join us each Wednesday at 6:15pm at IHBC. Childcare is provided! Please feel free to join us.
We are awakening to our collective creative power to heal and change the world. The world will shift quickly when we walk as the light-bearers we were created to be. This requires us to lead the way in dark areas where naturally no one likes to venture. Race/ism is one such area. We’ve been taught that if we don’t talk about race and say we don’t see color, racism will go away. Instead this ‘colorblind’ approach has left us void of language and power to confront the darkness of racism as it has continued to divide and conquer us—even in our sacred spaces, like the church.
Race/ism is an American invention that affects how we think about virtually every aspect of our society and culture—and yet we struggle to talk about or even define it. We can be part of the solution for racial healing. We can be the light that drives out the darkness. However, as we seek to transform the world, we must first allow ourselves to be transformed.
The Apostle Paul told the Romans,
Do not allow this world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind. As a result, you will be able to discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete. (Romans 12:2)
Likewise, we need to be aware of how we have adopted a worldly ideology that seems to have a stronger influence in and over our lives than our faith. To be a part of the solution for racial healing, we need to understand race/sim and how it has controlled our lives and thoughts—most often without us even recognizing it.
The 21-Day Race Ideology Detox will help us see the evil stronghold that has defiled our unity with each other and left us too fearful to confront it. It will bring awareness and understanding. It will prompt us to challenge our thoughts and actions that have contradicted our faith without us realizing it. It will help us unite against the force that has divided us. It will serve as a foundation for further and deeper healing and exploration. This detox will equip and empower us to talk about race/ism, so that we can address and eradicate it.
During the detox, we will
- watch RACE-The Power of an Illusion, a series which investigates race in society, science and history;
- answer a series of *reflective questions that help awaken us to our thoughts and actions—conscious and subconscious—related to race;
- and engage in guided activities and discussions facilitated by Team Brownicity.
*The reflective questions encourage you to renew your mind. The model is borrowed from Dr. Caroline Leaf’s program for overcoming toxic thinking.
Race ideology and our faith are at odds. Often our thoughts that are unconsciously driven by race-associated-fear override our faith. Because we are unaware of this non-conscious association, without thinking, we act out of fear instead of love. We act against love! But as Dr. Leaf reminds us, we can change our thinking. We can uproot the beliefs that have been planted into our thinking by race ideology. We can renew our minds!
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