Dear First Church family, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ,
This past year has made each of us more aware, perhaps more than at any time in our lives, of our common humanity. This year has also shown us the hurt, heartache, and loss that societal-wide events can cause. In the midst of learning to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve also seen the devastating consequences of systemic racism, a pandemic in its own right. This week, as we read accounts of the mass shooting in Atlanta, GA, we may have been inclined to label these murders by a domestic terrorist as gun violence. However, members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community know this tragedy isn’t singular, but represents a pattern: attacks on the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States are up 150% over the past year.
For some of us, it might be tempting to think that this kind of racism doesn’t happen in Seattle, or if it does, that it’s infrequent. Sadly, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Just this month, we’ve seen members of the Asian American community targeted in racially motivated attacks. And we’ve seen an Asian American church vandalized and threatened. And this is just the what makes the news. It doesn’t tell the full story of the daily harassment, and threats the AAPI community in Seattle faces.
Asian and Asian-American leaders of The United Methodist Church recently wrote an open letter calling for solidarity with the AAPI community. Here are two paragraphs from that letter and a link to read more:
“According to Stop AAPI Hate, 2,800 incidents of racism and discrimination targeting Asian Americans have occurred since March 2020. Russell Jeung, the chair of the Asian-American Studies Department at San Francisco State University and one of the leaders of “Stop AAPI Hate,” said that, according to the organization’s data, people 60 and older were disproportionately targeted with physical violence, as were women. In New York City, violence against Asian Americans has risen by 1,900% in 2020.
These acts of hate are neither sporadic nor haphazard. They reflect a larger systemic trend of anti-Asian American animosity brought on during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been exacerbated by documented xenophobic policies and racist rhetoric disseminated by the previous Administration. Politically charged racist rhetoric has fomented the hate against Asian Americans…This dangerous scapegoating is fabricated and must stop.”
Source: https://greaternw.org/news/asians-and-asian-americans-of-the-united-methodist-church-condemn-the-rise-of-anti-asian-violence-in-the-u-s/
The same white supremacy that caused the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor – and so many other names we know, and don’t know – is also responsible for this escalation of violence against AAPI persons over the past year. As Christians, we are called to denounce white supremacy in all its forms. Our baptismal call, both inside the church and outside in society, is to name that each person–inclusive of all ethnicities, nationalities, gender identities, sexual orientations, colors, creeds, sizes, shapes, economic statuses, and statuses–is created in God’s image and should live life with God’s love and without fear.
We encourage our community to stand against acts of racism–whether state-sanctioned, or an offhanded microaggression–to stop bias where it starts and to foster communities of mutuality and care. We hope you will join us in reaching out with a note of care or affection for the members of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community that you have a relationship with–and to allow them the space they need to grieve and process a hard year, and an even harder day.
In closing, we invite each of you, in the long, dark nights of doubt and fear, to turn to God who is beside you at all times, closer than a breath, and who works through the night to create space in our hearts and minds to respect and cherish all others.
Blessings and see you Sunday online at 10:30am for Lenten worship.
~Pastor Yvonne & Pastor Jeremy