here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nOur colleagues\u2019 statement was a \u201ccall for action in light of the current state of social justice\u201d in the United States, a recognition that even as many things have changed, many things still remain the same: racial oppression and injustice still exist, only in different forms\u2014a prison industrial complex, not plantation slavery, for example\u2014and wearing different masks. The call was broad, and extended to civic leaders, government officials, and indeed \u201call freedom loving Americans,\u201d asking us to recommit ourselves to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019\u2019s vision of a beloved community where all citizens experience liberty and justice, not just some.<\/p>\n
Our African-American sisters and brothers also issued a very particular call to theological school presidents and deans. They wrote, \u201cWe invite our colleagues\u2014presidents, deans and leaders of all divinity and theological schools\u2014to arise from the embers of silence and speak up and speak out as the prophet of old, \u201clet justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream\u201d (Amos 5:24). We encourage you to endorse this statement by responding in your own particular context to our theological call to action with curricular programs, public forums, teach-ins, calls to your congressional leaders, writing op-ed pieces and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the face of such a call, we, the undersigned, cannot keep silent. We want to make a public response, both acknowledging the justice of that call and also confessing our failure to live into it as we ought. As leaders of primarily white institutions, which serve primarily white churches, we recognize that all too often we are blind to our own privilege. While we confront racism in a variety of vigorous and prophetic ways in our schools, we recognize that our efforts need to be more consistent among all that we do throughout all our theological education institutions.<\/p>\n
We confess that the fear of being uncomfortable or making others uncomfortable has contributed to render some of our efforts inadequate. There are times when we are silent when we should speak out. There are times when we avert our eyes, and stop our ears. And yet, in this Kairos moment, we find reason for hope. We are grateful for our African-American colleagues who encourage us and call us back to faithful proclamation of the gospel. We are grateful for all those in our institutions and churches who have been and continue to be prophets for racial justice and freedom.<\/p>\n
And, most importantly, we are grateful for the presence of Jesus Christ in the world, who, through the power of the Holy Spirit has led us this far by faith and continues to show us visions of the kingdom of God, empowering us to work to make those visions a reality. Colleagues, we have heard you. Your words have not fallen on deaf ears. We recommit ourselves to the prophetic work to which you call us, and promise anew to raise our voices with yours, and make the work of racial harmony and inclusive love a work we share together in strength and joy.<\/p>\n
In Christ,<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Ginger Barfield, Associate Dean, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Rick Barger, President, Trinity Lutheran Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Michael Cooper-White, D.D., President, Gettysburg Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Amy Current, Dean for Vocation, Wartburg Theological Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Diane Hymans, Acting Academic Dean, Trinity Lutheran Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Craig Koester, Academic Dean, Luther Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Kristin Johnston Largen, Interim Dean, Gettysburg Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. David Lose, President, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Esther Menn, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Craig L. Nessan, Dean, Wartburg Theological Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. James Nieman, President, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Stanley N. Olson, President, Wartburg Theological Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Winston Persaud, Acting Academic Dean, Wartburg Theological Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. J. Jayakiran Sebastian, Dean, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Clay Schmit, Provost, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University<\/p>\n
The Rev. Brian Stein-Webber, Chief Administrative Office, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Robin J. Steinke, President, Luther Seminary<\/p>\n
The Rev. Dr. Alicia Vargas, Interim Dean, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On January 17th, 2015, a large group of African-American presidents and deans in theological education posted \u201cAn Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of Theological Schools in the United States.\u201d The text of that letter can be found here Our colleagues\u2019 statement was a \u201ccall for action in light of the current state of social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On January 17th, 2015, a large group of African-American presidents and deans in theological education posted "An Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On January 17th, 2015, a large group of African-American presidents and deans in theological education posted "An Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-08T07:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-30T00:30:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html\",\"name\":\"ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-08T07:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-30T00:30:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\"},\"description\":\"On January 17th, 2015, a large group of African-American presidents and deans in theological education posted \\\"An Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\",\"name\":\"Guest Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice","description":"On January 17th, 2015, a large group of African-American presidents and deans in theological education posted \"An Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice","og_description":"On January 17th, 2015, a large group of African-American presidents and deans in theological education posted \"An Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2015-02-08T07:59:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-30T00:30:56+00:00","author":"Guest Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Contributor","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html","name":"ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-02-08T07:59:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-30T00:30:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2"},"description":"On January 17th, 2015, a large group of African-American presidents and deans in theological education posted \"An Open Letter to Presidents and Deans of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2015\/02\/elca-seminary-leaders-respond-to-open.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ELCA Seminary Leaders Respond to Open Letter Call to Action on Matters of Race and Social Injustice"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2","name":"Guest Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}