Call for reparations as a healing act of repentance

A white professor at a historically Black university considers reparations for slavery and segregation an essential act of biblical repentance that can lead to racial healing in the United States.

If white Americans take the risk of stepping into the “river of repentance,” they will find “standing stones at the bottom,” Joel Edward Goza told participants at the No Need Among You Conference.

The Texas Christian Community Development Network sponsored the Oct. 23-25 event at the Gaston Christian Center in Dallas.

Goza, an ethics professor at Simmons College of Kentucky and author of Rebirth of a Nation: Reparations and Remaking America, acknowledged he initially resisted the idea of reparations.

“I know my history,” he said, noting he is the descendent of slaveholders, Confederate Army veterans and ardent segregationists.

However, his research led him to a dramatic conclusion: “We have committed tangible crimes.”

The effects of those crimes continue to be felt in the United States, Goza asserted. He pointed to the income gap between the races, as well as the high rate of incarceration among African Americans.

“We pay for our racial crimes every day,” he said.

Reparations represent more than “dollars and cents,” he insisted.

“It’s an opportunity to create a fundamentally different democratic future,” Goza said.

Before change occurs, the dominant white culture in the United States must engage in a sometimes painful examination of its history. White Americans need to question preconceived ideas about race and lament injustice, he asserted.

“Are we ready to question the assumptions that got us here?” he asked. “Without mourning, we can’t mature.”

Healing deep wounds caused by racism may seem impossible, but God can “make the impossible inevitable,” he asserted.

“Hope is real. We can move from a posture of protectionism to a posture of penitence,” he said.

Christians can embrace a future grounded in praying for the coming of God’s kingdom, where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven, Goza said. “God can make things different.”

‘Love people into the kingdom’

Individuals who have deconstructed an inherited faith that seemed irrelevant can reconstruct a vibrant faith built on the vision of God’s kingdom, said Terry Kagle, family service and volunteer coordinator for Abilene Habitat for Humanity.

Kagle, who spent four decades in congregational ministry in a variety of roles, distinguished between the church and the kingdom of God.

“The church is within the kingdom, but the kingdom is a lot bigger than the church,” he said. “The church has instrumental value, but the kingdom has intrinsic value.”

Kagle challenged Christians to “lean into the kingdom” and “love people into the kingdom.”

“We show we love God by loving people—all of them,” Kagle said.

While some churches may exclude some people, God’s kingdom is broadly inclusive of people with all their differences, he said.

“Go big. Go wide,” he urged. “It’s the most important thing you can do.”

Coyletta Govan, founder of DFWCITI (Communities in Texas Impower) Women, similarly challenged Christians who are concerned about community development to have a broad perspective.

“Minister to the needs of people without judgment, and do it in ways that keep their dignity intact,” she said.

Poverty is deeply entrenched, pervasive and “highly infectious,” she observed. But rather than looking at problems, she encouraged Christians to view the poor as people created in God’s image.

“Their plight is your purpose,” she said. “If you can see them, you can serve them.”