Hillside Presbyterian Church, USA believes and proclaims that “Each life is created in God’s image, therefore Black Lives Matter.” Genesis 1:27
Though God loves all his children equally, here in America people of color have not often felt that love from the wider community. For decades blacks and people of color have decried the injustices inflicted upon them in the “justice system,” the institutionalized, economic racism, violence and oppression meted out to that community every day. This is why it is not enough to say that “all lives matter” as we can clearly see that Black lives are systemically devalued by society - from Emmett Till to George Floyd. “All Lives Matter” will be true when Black Lives truly matter.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” therefore, Black Lives Matter (Declaration of Independence).
As disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, and followers of God’s command to love others as we love ourselves we boldly proclaim that we are all created in God’s image and that Christ died for every one of us. With God’s love in our hearts for all His children we refuse to be complacent or complicit while black members of our community are systematically marginalized. As followers of Jesus’s way of love we speak out and work to make sure that justice and equality become the norm and not the exception. We take to heart the scriptural injunction:
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.
For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command:
Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:20-21)
Hillside’s ministries and programs support communities through the HPC Food Pantry, and Vacation Bible School, the Dekalb County Drug Court, Voter Registration, the Georgia Justice Project, the shelter for homeless women and children. We have been fulfilling our call to do as our Lord requires: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8)
We fully embrace the 224th General Assembly’s 2020 Recommendation “Responding to the sin of Racism and a Call to Action.” ( https://www.pc-biz.org/#/search/3000727) We take special note of the call for Presbyterians to “hear and heed the Gospel imperative to love God, neighbor, and self by living out a deeper commitment to active participation with Jesus Christ in the work of building God’s kingdom through….. Energetic, intelligent, imaginative and loving involvement… building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty.” The General Assembly offered this poem for reading, reflection and meditation.
A knee on a neck laying bare for all to see the evil of
callous, soulless, entitled, power
choking the life from God’s beloved
just, because.
We know what we must change
will we church?
We have written many true, significant
sometimes even sincere words.
We have confessed: Belhar, C’67, Barmen …
Enough words? Never enough witness.
We know we must change.
Will we, church?
Kairos
Hillside Presbyterian Church declares that we will lead the change as we live out our calling as witnesses to Christ’s love and as members of one body – the all-engulfing beloved church of Jesus Christ where all are welcome and valued. In this present world of inequality and injustice we proclaim the love of God as we state unequivocally: “Black Lives Matter.”
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