Spirit in Action
Building Bridges Anti-racism Training
We visit with 3 people connected with the Building Bridges anti-racism training sponsored by the Lutheran Human Relations Association. Marilyn Miller is Executive Director and Kenneth Wheeler is President of the Board of the LHRA, both persons of color, and Geri Murtaugh is a past participant of the Building Bridges training and is the Coordinator of Youth and Family Ministries for the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA.
- Broadcast on:
- 04 Oct 2009
- Audio Format:
- other
[music] Let us sing this song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpsmeat. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sync deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. [music] Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world That we may dream as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along Today for Spirit in Action, we'll be looking at the building bridges anti-racism training Sponsored by the Lutheran Human Relations Association And we'll speak to three people connected with that training. L-H-R-A will be sponsoring a building bridges anti-racism workshop on Friday and Saturday That's October 23rd and 24th, 2009 At the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Racine, Wisconsin So I thought some of you might benefit from a peek at that training Its methods, its participants, and its results In the invaluable work of identifying and reducing racism in our country We'll talk today to Jerry Murtaugh, a youth and family coordinator of the ELCA Who took the training a few years ago Kenneth Wheeler, President of the Board of L-H-R-A Which sponsors the training But we'll begin with Marilyn Miller, Executive Director of the Lutheran Human Relations Association And one of the trainers for the workshop Marilyn joins us by phone from Milwaukee, Wisconsin Marilyn, thanks for joining me for Spirit in Action Well Mark, thanks for inviting us You've got a big event coming up Tell us about what the event's going to consist of You've done these kind of trainings before, haven't you? Yes, these trainings have been going on since 1994 So yes, they've been going on for a while What it is, is a day and a half Introductory training to the conversation of learning to be an anti-racist person So for a Friday night, October 23rd We start out with a meal, community fellowship time together And then we spend about three hours in dialogue and conversation and activities And then on Saturday, the 24th, we'll come back together again We start out with a count of no breakfast time And then nine to four is actual work time Where we will again pick up where we left off Talk about some of the issues and topics that one needs to be aware of If you're going to really learn to stand against racism Give me an idea of some of the kind of topics You'll be discussing that we'll be going into this conversation Say Friday night, what do you start talking about? We are a faith-based organization And so many times this work is offered from a Christian faith-based And so we do use the Bible as story and teacher We don't have to use it, but in this session we are using That gift and tools And so on Friday night, we start With first of all helping people understand the beginning of the story And for us, the beginning of the story is creation We talk about creation and we talk about the gifts of creation And the fact that diversity is a part of creation And so we lift that up and have some conversation about that And then we share our own story Because a lot of times people don't get a chance to talk about their own background Or where they came from And so we invite people to talk about their own journey And then we pretty quickly get into a conversation about So what happened? Because if we were still there At the very beginning we wouldn't have these stripes and misunderstandings Because there was great love and equality in the beginning But then the pain of comparison starts to happen And so we take off using the Matthew 20 text And we talk about what happens when we compare ourselves to one another And so that's a pretty big portion of the dialogue And then we talk about how do we apply that in our lives today So that's what we start with on Friday night You work for something called the Lutheran Human Relations Association So I'm assuming that you're Lutheran Is this kind of gathering that's only good for Lutheran? Will we only be discussing the theses nailed on the door? Or is it good for a wide variety of Christians and maybe non-Christians? Yes, I am Lutheran and the organization was founded by members and pastors Of the Lutheran Church of Missouri Senate originally But it is open to all people It's just that people have to understand We are going to use that tool of the Bible And that's going to be a part of our conversation So as long as people are open to that, anybody is welcome and invited to come And it's certainly not, we're not here to argue theology If people want to do that, they need to participate in something else Because here we're coming to figure out how we can learn to walk together and think together And vision and dream together and so people from any Christian background feel very comfortable We've worked with a wide number of denominations and groups so not just Lutherans And often there are many different denominations that are in the room We've even had friends who are from the Islam family and our Jewish friends That we have dialogues with and meetings with that do the work with us As long as people are open and willing to hear the stories and listen to them and learn from them Anybody can participate We encourage people who are at least in high school and above Because it's a little harder for middle school and lower Primarily because many times they don't have as much life experience that they can really understand at this point And be able to point to examples of things like racism and sexism and classism in their life So it just gets a little harder when the participants are too young But from high school on up, they've had experiences that they can clearly identify This is specifically labeled as anti-racism training on the notice I received about it You mentioned just now, sexism, classism, other forms of discrimination that seriously hurt people Are all of these addressed in your training? We don't address all of these in the training in depth We do lift up all of these concerns Particularly one of our exercises that talks about the making of an "ism" Because people need to understand how these things got set in place Our focus work is anti-racism work But certainly we do help people understand they're connected And that when you deal with any oppression and learn how to break that down It helps to prepare you for breaking down other oppression I'm still trying to get a picture of just how this can change people Do you want people who know they are racist or maybe don't know they're racist But they have strong racist attitudes Coming to this session is as good for them or is this for people who are already significantly along on the journey? We believe that anybody anywhere on the journey can benefit from doing the work in collaboration with community Certainly we would invite someone who is struggling with trying to identify am I a racist? Or how do I participate in racism? Because people need to understand It helps us and our society in general the more clarity we all have And I guess I would just say the invitation is open with the understanding that When people come that they come open to learn If somebody's coming to argue, say, "Well, I'm going to make my point" And everybody else has to sit and listen and, you know, the heck with the rest of you all Then this is not the training for them Let's start out with a kind of a basic question And it's one that floats around our society I imagine it must come up in your training Just recently on the news we heard Glenn Beck saying that the president of this country is racist So the question is what is racism? That's a really good question When we talk about racism We talk about some kind of racial prejudice against a group of people Plus the use of power against that group of people And the system that that power holds in place And that's the clincher because you have to talk about systemic power And a lot of people want to identify racism or describe it as personal But racism is far beyond the personal We spent the last 40 years trying to do that in our society And when we look at the statistics Very little has changed as a matter of fact It has gotten worse for specific groups of people in this country Especially people of color So it's important that we understand When we're talking about addressing racism We have to address the systemic power and the institutional power That is over people And that is consistently perpetrated on people That's what we're talking about when we talk about racism This is again where it gets very fragile in the conversation So when somebody tries to call the president a racist The problem is the president is a man of color Where the system does not support that group of people He does not have the institutional power The institutional power is still in the institution Which is predominantly run by white people in American society I take it that you're African American, I can't tell I hear an accent that I might identify as that You've grown up with the experience I think of a system in this country Which is racist, which has prejudice Which assigns second class status to people who have a lot of African heritage in their blood Can you talk about specific examples, your own Or perhaps something that you can share from the sessions that you've done training with I assume confidentiality is part of the process So I know you can't talk about people's real names or anything But what can you share that can give people a peek into what racism is like? I'll give an example actually from a training that we did a while back It was with some teachers and it was a private school setting As we were doing the training, there's a point where we get to, I mentioned before, share our stories And so I identify myself as an African American Now that does not mean that everybody that looks like me identifies themselves that way And that's, again, where we get into struggle because we want to put everybody in a box Well, anyway, as we were having conversations and I think I was sharing my story And I started out talking about my family coming from the south and me being an African descent person This gentleman gets up and very angrily gets into my face and tells me I have no right to call myself an African American Because I was not born in Africa And he had friends who were born in Africa And they're the only true people who can call themselves African Americans I mean, he was extremely angry He was so angry, he was shaken by the time he got done You can imagine me, I mean, I think the man had to be six feet, three or four And I'm five feet, three And he's standing over me literally hollering in my face That I have no right to name myself Of course, I have to stay calm because I'm trained And give him a chance to say what he needs to say And then he basically stormed out of the room I mean, I felt assaulted Here's someone who based on a small slice of his experience Assumes that only that group of people who chooses to name themselves that Can name themselves that I don't have a right, that was racist to me Yeah, I mean, I was just one of the training experiences that I've had And then as a young person growing up in the city of Milwaukee You know, I can remember when I was graduating from high school And I was a very good student, a very strong student And nobody talked to me about going to college If it had not been for my pastor at the time Who said, have you thought about college? I mean, you're getting ready to leave high school My parents didn't have the privilege to go to college So this was not something that they necessarily understood all the pieces to Now they definitely encouraged getting a good education But they didn't have any experience with applying to college And looking for college and all those kinds of things They had to do all that stuff on my own Why wasn't I talked to about going to college? Because I was a very good student That's what you're supposed to do with good students And back then I always had to remember, you know, what time it was Because it was still a time in our society where women were not encouraged To think outside the box Pretty much you were told you could be a secretary, a teacher, or a nurse I mean, those are the things that kind of were on the table That people talked about, but people didn't talk about Women being engineers and being doctors And it was just a different time, of course Now, thank goodness things have opened up considerably But it's not all done yet So again, for me, I sit back and I look at it and say, why didn't somebody Think it was important to tell me about college And I just wonder, you know, what was that about? I'm sure in this training that you're doing the building bridges training You run into a lot of well-meaning people Who end up finding out that, oh, I did participate in racism Can you talk about an example of that? Unfortunately, the example you gave me before about the man who confronted you He walked out, the communication ended, the dialogue ended I'm sure sometimes you have very successful dialogue Can you give me an example of that way? Sure, and you're very right that when people come into the room We see everyone in that room as gifts We come with good hearts and good intentions But along the way, we have learned some things that often get in the way of justice and equality And even living out that goodness It's interesting because we're a face-based organization So we do a lot of work with churches and congregations Often we work with congregations where, let's just say, they want to do some kind of outreach ministry And so a group of well-meaning people will get in a room And they start talking about this important need in the community That they have to address, and it has been any number of congregations So specific congregations who, this is their intention They're going to help the community, they're going to do something for the community And so they do this anti-racist training because they want to get a little bit more understanding about how all this works And they really don't want to make any mistakes And that's a big issue because they don't want to say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing So they are willing to be in the room and have that conversation And then we start to talk about where's the process at this point And when they start to describe the fact that they got in a room together A small group of well-meaning good intentions like people To plan for somebody else what they need is where we start out getting in trouble Right off the bat And so we've had to help congregations to see that First thing is you don't get in a room by yourselves and decide anything for anybody That's the problem There's a lot of assumptions that you're using when you think that you can determine what somebody else needs or wants So we have to walk them through a process of understanding That's why you have to be in dialogue with people And then to be in dialogue with people What does that mean? What does that look like? How do you do that? And those are the kinds of tools that we can help groups to attain So we've helped a lot of congregations to take a step back And you know, I'll be honest with Mark We do this work and we walk with some congregations for several years And it's hard because a lot of times people don't really want to hear what we have to say to them And so some congregations ignore us And they go on and they try to do it a different way anyway Five years later, they're still struggling Because they have not been willing to address the racism Marilyn, can change really happen? Have you seen people who've done 180 degrees? Have you seen congregations that turned around and they didn't know why they weren't integrating They didn't know why people weren't coming back But they did your training and now it's a different life for them Have you seen that happen? Well, I can give you one example of a congregation that's probably been on this journey I'd say at least ten years I remember back early when I first started We went over and did a training with their congregation with members of their council, leaders, the pastors So they were looking intentionally at the fact that they are a multicultural congregation Because they're a multicultural They really had to look at things a different way You can't just do business as usual They have two additional languages in addition to English We've worked with them over time They went on and did additional trainings with other groups It has taken that much time, but today we can look at progress there For example, before everything was just very separate in the congregation between the groups But now they are intentionally having joint worship services People have integrated the different councils that are there The different committees that are there So, yes, progress has been made But there is still room to grow Well, thanks so much Marilyn You've been working with the Lutheran Human Relations Association for about ten years now This building bridges work that you're doing is so necessary Such an important work of spirit in our society Thanks for joining me for spirit and action Thank you so much Mark for having us [Music] Mr. and Mrs. Goldstein moved an next door to us The neighbors were in digging They put up a quiet bus The neighborhood had gone apart And they had worked so hard So I steamed out back to the fence And watched them do the art People have laughed their life And sang out loud And up just like the rest of the crowd A little different from you A little different from me A life like the man who walked through the Galilee A little different from you A little different from me A life like the man who walked through the Galilee A little different Music from Lobo Perhaps best known for his song Me and you and a dog named Boo But this song about the isms Like racism that hurt so many people We just spoke with Marilyn Miller Executive Director of the Lutheran Human Relations Association And trainer for the building bridges Anti-racism training coming up On October 23rd and 24th 2009 Donna Messine, Wisconsin Check the L-H-R-A website That's L-H-R-A dot O-R-G For more info Before we speak with Jerry Murtaugh Who took the workshop We'll speak with the President of the Board Of the L-H-R-A Which sponsors these workshops Kenneth Wheeler Kenneth joins us from Milwaukee, Wisconsin Kenneth, I'm so pleased you could join me For a spirit and action Well, thank you, it's a pleasure to be with you Your President of the Lutheran Human Relations Association How long have you been doing that? And what is this Lutheran Human Relations Association? I've actually been President for about two years And Lutheran Human Relations was an organization that started about 50 years ago And it was started at a time when the racial intentions in this country were pretty high And Andrew Schultz thought That it was important for the church To sort of wade out into this issue in a very public, faith-filled way Trying to get our churches to be involved As a bridge builder, as a place of reconciliation To address this huge issue that was dividing our nation And that was dividing people So what kind of things do you do? I mean, it started 50 years ago I hope the country is in a much different place today than it was 50 years ago Can you take much of the credit? I would say that this organization was a major force in helping to eliminate some of that racial tension Clearly, as you indicate, the world is different in many ways We can look at the number of just sort of legal changes that have happened in this country And we can point to, you know, the passage of the civil rights bill We can point to the number of black elected officials both nationally and regionally We can point to the fact that we now have, for the first time in the history of this country, an African-American president So all of those things are clearly an indication that our country has moved in a very different direction But I would also say that this issue is one that is still before us Maybe not in the sort of violence ways that it was 50 years ago But probably much more subtle We're still dealing with issues of race in this country And I think all the more reason that this organization has to remain in place You know, I've heard from some people who said that Well, now that we have an African-American president, it means that all of this is behind us Well, clearly, that's not the case As I look around, and as I read, and as I listen to, you know, even the public debate around health care And some of the violence that I've seen, I've been troubled by that Because I've heard clearly, in some instances, not so subtle language around race and racism But I think clearly some of this violence is being fueled by, as Jimmy Carter said You know, there's a segment of our population that just clearly will never get used to the idea of having an African-American as a president And what we see reflected in society, I think we also have in our congregations of faith You know, Dr. King said when he was alive that Sunday morning, the 11 o'clock hour is still the most segregated hour of the week And that's true, and so it means that we've still got some work to do What got you into this position? I can't even tell if you're, you know, if you're black, white, or some other color of the rainbow Why are you motivated to be participating in this? What's your faith base for working on these very important issues? Well, let me answer that in a couple of ways. When I grew up in the South, I'm African-American, I grew up in the South In the 1950s, I grew up in the last stages of segregation So I've been on the receiving end of some of that violence and probably more than I care to acknowledge So I've seen the ugliness of that, but I also grew up in a household where there was a very strong faith tradition My mother would often say to me that no matter how ugly life may be out here in the world, God calls us to live differently And that you can never ever, or words were, you can never ever let the hatred that you see and experience so damage your soul That you want to hate other people, and so I grew up with that kind of teaching And I guess I've always had this sense of justice and fairness that no individual should ever have to experience the kind of hatred that I witnessed as I was growing up as a child I think it was not only damaging to those of us who were the recipients of that, but I think it was also damaging to the people who were sort of dishing this kind of hatred out You're located in Milwaukee. The organization is called the Lutheran Human Relations Association, so I'm assuming you have a wider than Wisconsin focus How many congregations are you affecting? How many are affiliated with you? Is it only Lutheran now? It's primarily Lutheran. We are a national organization. We have probably about six, seven hundred people that are on our mailing list Probably our greatest impact though is with congregations in the Greater Milwaukee area, the Greater Milwaukee Senate And that's all of southeastern Wisconsin, and that totals about 139 congregations I think maybe half of those congregations have gone through the LHRA training, building bridges as well as we also do cooperative work with crossroads which is another organization that deals with the issue of race tearing down racial barriers And so we've done some joint work with them as well But one of the things that I've just been pleased about and I was talking with our executive director Marilyn Miller about this not long ago As I've witnessed and I've been in the Senate now for about 22 years and within the last six years It's been amazing to see the number of congregations every year and the number of people who end up coming to the workshops that LHRA does at our Senate assemblies I walk into the room and the room is packed with people 60, 70, 80 people who are in that room to learn about the work that we do And I think they're there because I think that people really do want to live in a world that's not so shaped by racism I think people really do want to live in a world where people will experience fairness and justice And I think that that desire, at least as I read it, that desire I think is one of the primary reasons that so many more people now, probably more than ten years ago even, are filling those rooms I always have to ask the question and I think we always have to ask the question as an organization You know, when people go through that training, whether it's the two and a half day training, whether it's a longer training At the end of the day, what difference will it make in not just in their own lives But what difference will it make in the lives of the congregations that they are a part of Because one of the things that I think we stress is it's not enough just to see this as another tool But this really can become a way for an individual or a couple of individuals to go back to their congregations And begin to say, you know, let's really put into practice this gospel that we claim to live by Let's really begin to work at tearing down those barriers that still separate us Let's do something to turn this Sunday morning, the eleven o'clock hour, as the most segregated hour of the week Let's do something to turn that around What is religion's role in this work? I think some people were turned off to religion because religion, a lot of congregations were not keeping up With the gospel truth that we have right in front of us, we can see Jesus' attitude How do you leverage that change? How do you leverage the power of the gospel to make it have real effects in our world? That's a wonderful question, and I would answer it this way because I think, and I've said this That were it not for the fact of my faith convictions, I would not be involved in this work It would be very easy, I think, for individuals who have been victimized by racism To simply say, to heck with it, I'm not interested But it is that faith piece, it is, and I hate to use this because it sounds cliché-ish, but I'm going to say it Because I think it really does get at why it is so important that faith communities are not just involved in this work But are leading this work, and that is we ask the question, so what would Jesus do? And if we looked at the gospels, and particularly how Jesus himself reached out to include those who were on the French Those who have been victimized in so many ways, that he really set the pattern For how it is that we as faith communities ought to be living together as people of God And no, it's not popular, you know, and when you're dealing with the issues of race and racism I mean, I think we're dealing with some deep stuff, we're dealing with perhaps some things we've heard in our families About other people, we're dealing with even how we have been shaped by that sort of socialization process And, you know, if you hear something long enough, and you live with that thing long enough You sort of begin to believe that maybe that's the truth And so I think when the church steps out in that sort of leadership way Will let me embrace by everybody, I don't think it will be Because we are, in a sense, going against the grain, we're going against that which may not be popular But I also believe that we've got the will of our faith, the tradition of our faith That says we don't have any other choice This is what we ought to be doing, we ought to be not just participating But we ought to be leading in this work Leading in this vision of what the kingdom of God ought to look like Well, I'm pleased that the L-H-R-A has you as President to help lead this charge Kenneth, you grew up in the South Have you been through this training? Has it opened your eyes to internalized oppression that you were buying And before you go through this training, before you see things in a different way Has it been a journey for you too? Oh, absolutely, and yes, one of the things that, and this is why I want to use this word victim Again, victimization again, because as an African American person living in this country If you end up hearing, as I did in the South, if you end up hearing that you are inferior, that you are And even if you don't hear the word, if you see the symbols of your inferiority everywhere You know, whether it was the sign or the drinking fountain or the restroom Or whether it was, you know, just the custom that nobody had to speak But that you somehow knew, in fact, I don't even know how I learned this But I must have learned it because I did it And that was when a white person was walking down the sidewalk And if you were walking towards them, you had to get off of the sidewalk And allow this person to pass before you proceed in on your journey And so if you live with that kind of stuff for long enough You begin to believe that there's something wrong with you, you are inferior No matter how intelligent you may be, that has affected your soul And so what LHRA, the training, did, and particularly in even just naming internalized oppression Just to name that is to give you a handle on something that you knew was there But you didn't know quite what it was You just knew that something was there You knew that something was wrong with your thinking And so that became an incredible gift Now, there are times when you fall back into those patterns of thinking And I think that's why there is sometimes we react with such anger towards things Is because we may not necessarily be angry at a particular person But we are remembering a situation, and you know, memory is a powerful thing And so when you remember that thing, something triggers that And you may find yourself back in that sort of internalized, oppressed mode And so every day that you go through life, I think, and I love the fact that you use the word "journey" Because this is about a journey It's a journey for African American people and people of color I call it a journey of recovery And I love that because it's very similar to growing up in an alcoholic household My father was an alcoholic, so I never drank, my mother never drank But we were nonetheless affected by what my father did And so there was a craziness there I think it may be true that a good majority of Americans may not be racist But we live in a racist house And so we are affected by that racist house And that's the piece that I think we've got to uncover In such a way that we'll bring freedom to everybody who lives in this house And it's quite a dysfunctional house we have here sometimes When you do the work with racism, I'm sure that you end up running into a lot of other isms That are plaguing society Does the Lutheran Human Relations Association only deal with racism? Or do you get off into the correlates the other ways that society is hurting and that needs fixing? We do, you know, the major focus clearly is on racism But we're very clear that you cannot address one without also addressing the others They're very related They're very much related And that's why I think a few years ago we decided to say, look, it's not just race in this country That is problematic But it's also class, it's also sexism It's also being uncomfortable with those who are gay and lesbian So we've taken some pretty, I think, direct and good stands around all of those things Because we see them as being of one piece It's a seamless connection, I think And that has not always, you know, that stand has not always been received Well, by a number of our constituency But as a justice organization, we just believe that we have to speak Wherever there is injustice, wherever people are being violated, wherever their spirits and souls are not being honored But we have a responsibility to speak on behalf of those individuals And then to provide resources, you know, clearly one of the major focuses of our work is education And so giving people tools in terms of how to talk about hard issues I don't believe that people necessarily just don't want to do this But sometimes people don't have ways to address this So I think to provide resources like building bridges, you know, like our newsletter, The Vanguard Which deals with a variety of topics all the way from ecological justice to dealing with immigration, you know, whether it's race, whether it's health care I mean, all of those things are very much related And we want to give voice to some of those things and clearly tools in the hands of our congregational members So that they can become more informed and more engaged in some of these issues In a way that's going to be productive and not destructive You've got some great work that you've been doing and that you're going to continue to do it I want to remind folks that the Building Bridges Anti-Racism Training being sponsored by Lutheran Human Relations Association Is being held on October 23rd and 24th This is Spirit in Action, my name is Mark Helpsmeet You can come to my site, northernspiritradio.org Where you'll find a link to the L-H-R-A site and information on the Building Bridges Training Thanks so much Kenneth for joining me for Spirit in Action Thank you very much for having me, it was a real pleasure That was Kenneth Wheeler, President of the Board of the Lutheran Human Relations Association Website L-H-R-A dot O-R-G Which works against racism and other isms that hurt so many people In particular, the L-H-R-A sponsors anti-racism trainings Like the one coming up on October 23rd and 24th That's a Friday evening and all day Saturday in Racine, Wisconsin Our next Spirit in Action guest is Jerry Murtaugh Who took the training a few years ago She is the coordinator of Youth and Family Ministries for the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the ELCA Also joining us by phone from Milwaukee Thank you so much Jerry for joining me for Spirit in Action Thank you for having me today I was told by Marilyn that you are one of the people who's gone through the Building Bridges Anti-Racism Training When did you do that? I did that in my second year of youth ministry in 2004 And why did you do it? While being a youth and family ministry leader in a suburban congregation I felt the urge to help kids and families in our upper middle class community Become more aware of people who lived just 20 minutes away from them In our central city community and in the churches The ELCA churches that we were partnered with so to speak I just felt like we needed to have a better connection And so I noticed this training in a newsletter And thought I'm going to go check this out and see what it's about And what I can bring back to the congregation and to the kids and to their family That would help us do that Did you have prior experience that sensitized you to racial issues? I would say I did When I lived in Ohio actually growing up My mother was an advocate for Mexican neighborhood And she with her five kids took us there And I remembered her standing up for the unjust things that were happening in the community They needed cleaner water, they needed better homes and some things like that So I think my mom probably was the one who introduced people who were other than white to us as children And she worked at a seminary and also had some other friends who I think introduced her to different ethnic and racial identities I would say that's the start of it I think the tenants of just wanting to get to know people and to understand diversity came through my mom And her always telling us that everyone was God's child and everyone needed to be treated equally with love and respect Were you raised, Luther, and also? No, actually I wasn't. I was raised Catholic and I've been a part of the Methodist church I had friends who were Jehovah's Witnesses and was exposed to that Non-denominational church of Christ So I have a diverse background and faith relationship that I've had over my life One of the things that I think happens, Jerry, when you take anti-racism training like the building bridges training You become aware of aspects of how you've lived out your life Was either benefited from racism or were complicit in some way in racism Did that happen to you when you went through the training? Absolutely. I went to a two and a half day workshop Prior to going through building through bridges And that two and a half day workshop was focused on learning about the history of racism in the United States I came away from that training really understanding that I received very little understanding about the history of racism in our country When I was in school at all, none of it, that frustrated me and actually angered me To the point where I was mad that I wasn't taught a whole story of our history And I was also upset at myself that for my lifetime I never took the initiative to find out more about what this whole racist journey was about For the lives of other people who lived in my city and my community and went to church with me and were front of mine And so yes, I think that that training really opened my eyes and has challenged me to look differently at those things Of course, we learn about our racism just by having the world develop around us Yeah, I grew up playing games where you go ini minimani mo And then in there we tossed in the N-word and Brazil nuts we knew under the N-word as well Did you end up discovering things like that in yourself as you got further attuned to how we live out racism in our language? I do believe I'm still learning that to be honest with you I'm learning it in myself, but I'm also noticing it in the language of the young people that I work with Of the older people and the families that I work with as well But for myself, yes, I do find myself thinking and rethinking things that I think I was just brought up with You took the training with building bridges some years ago How is the Jerry Merta of post-training different than the Jerry Merta of pre-training? One thing that I've learned through the training and through my relationships with Maryland and other leaders in this church Is that there still is a lot of racism and other isms going on And personally it's changed me in that if I want to know something about someone I know that it's through building a relationship with that person That counts most in getting rid of isms in my own life And until I take the steps to be in a relationship with someone in a friendship with someone Or having them to my home or going to their home or learning more about them I don't think that the walls and the barriers can be broken down Since you went through this training, has that changed the diversity of your friends? Has that changed how many people of color are in your immediate entourage? Yes, definitely And right now there's a young lady who I have been mentoring And she and I are learning from one another about how to get through life And what we can do in relationship with one another She helps me understand her life And the things that go on in her life that are very different from my life And I help her understand my life and my community And so, yes, that's a one-on-one thing that I'm doing personally But, yes, with Maryland and with the pastors in our congregations Who are people of color? With my young people that I educate through confirmation or through youth ministry I find myself challenging myself and them To get out of what we know is our comfort zone And to go places and learn about other people You're a synod coordinator for, I think, some kind of youth services What specifically do you do? And does this draw on your anti-racism training? Do you have a good mix, racially, that you're dealing with? In my job as a synod coordinator Actually, I am a support person and a resource person And a liaison for all of the youth and family ministry leaders In our 141 congregations Some of those are volunteers, some of them are pastors Some of them are paid staff I am their support person I am the person that encourages them in the work that they do in their congregations So, yes, I see this ministry as the coordinator Of one that will build and challenge youth leaders and pastors To attend this training To have young people attend with them To have more conversations in their congregations About what partnership means between our central city churches And our suburban and urban churches Which isn't just writing a check or serving a meal So that is part of what I see God has given me In this leadership role as a way to further the work That I've personally and professionally started through these training programs One of the focuses that I have as the synod coordinator Is I manage a grant for raising up future leaders in our synod And what that does is send some adults who mentor and are involved In youth ministry through youth certification school And it kind of equips them to help equip parents And young people how to connect faith with their life And in this last year of this grant that we've been funded My focus is to offer this free training And this connection to youth ministry in our synod To adults of color in our central city churches Because we have no paid youth leaders right now In our central city churches And that's not an equal thing for our church to be doing Because we do have very many paid youth leaders in our suburban and rural congregations And so I want there to be that opportunity specifically and intentionally For people that are working with young people in those churches And so that's one focus that this position allows me Is this building bridges training valuable for people of color too? Or is it only for those of us who are pigment challenged? No, it's for everyone And what I really like about the building bridges workshop That's different from the two and a half day workshop that focuses on history Is that building bridges uses scripture And talks about the history of the church And how we need to relate to one another the way Christ has shown us And so for me this is a really good tie-in and is good for all of us All of us to do together So how would a person of color benefit from taking this workshop? What changed would that bring in their lives? From what I've experienced in the other trainings that I've gone to and in the building bridges What's most important is for people of color and white people to hear each other And hear each other's answers and understand one another And that can't be done unless you're in the room together Can you tell me any experiences you've had personally or that you've witnessed Where you saw people really do the 180 really come to awareness Have light bulb gone on and then change their lives dramatically I can, I have a very different Chris, her name is Who was a part of the congregation that I was serving as a youth leader When I went through my initial training And the training touched me and I told my pastor who I was working with in partnership there And Chris about this training And we all went together to the building bridges training From the training sessions that Pastor and Chris went to but I'm going to focus on Chris Chris had no experience at all with anti-racism work She had never loved her suburban surroundings Or been involved with anyone, any persons of color at all before this But she became very involved as our liaison to our partnership church in Milwaukee So she went from never having any experiencing to changing her whole life In that she was our liaison Not only that she decided to have joint membership at both churches And so she could bring back to us names and faces And things that needed to be done in the partnership We would invite our partner churches to come to our church and we go to their church She made that partnership much more relational As well as inviting people Not only that she changed her whole work She was a home health nurse that she now does School nursing at some of our central city schools And so I've seen that change her whole life drastically One of the things that I think one becomes aware of When you go through racism sensitivity increase Is that the world is defined by those in power and in the US here at this point in time That usually means white people And so the Van Jekyll Lutheran Church of America where you work Has been defined I think in the past largely by white people As you become sensitive to the diversity within the church How has the culture been changed? Have you been listening to, well maybe we better do it this way Because in our inner city churches Maybe they're saying that this kind of culture works better for getting the message out What kind of changes have been happening in the ELCA Because of this increase in sensitivity? I would say that there is an increase in sensitivity But we have a very, very long way to go I know Milwaukee as a whole is still thought of as a very racist community And the ELCA is a very non-diverse church yet I would say that I do see some small steps being made in that voices are heard We have an anti-racism team that works on these issues In our church which is a small group of very dedicated people Who have been trying to do this training and have that voice In everything that we do as a church for 20 years Being a part of that team, I feel exhausted for them And how diligent they've been in the face of us not being able to change very quickly As far as my work goes, whenever we have an event, a youth event, a cross-generational ministry event It's always in the forefront of my mind to gather people to find out What would make you feel more welcome instead of just thinking about myself And what I'm used to or accustomed to And so those are the kind of changes that I see But it's very slow and coming and be very honest with you in that And it probably is occasionally very frustrating to be pushing And then people say, "Well, we don't see the need for this, but you're seeing the need" Absolutely. The other part for us as leaders of young people Is to talk to young people who just want to deny that racism even exists in the world anymore Or other isms for that matter because they're not talked about or communicated Or they don't get to approach that subject with one another And so to have more places for young people to come together and just discuss these things is important as well And how are you providing that in the Milwaukee area, the Greater Milwaukee area, Senate? We do work with the same group, Lutheran-human relations that does building bridges And just last year in February we had a breaking down the isms retreat for high school students Where we had some of those same facilitators come in and facilitate conversations Between a diverse group of young high school students It was definitely a black, white conversation We wish it would have been more than that because we have Latino and Mung congregations as well But breaking down those barriers mostly with the adults in the Latino and the Mung communities Is harder than having the young people be open to the conversations So we have some congregations who are really working hard at this But there's a lot of history and barriers that need to be broken down Or need to be at least the door cracked open so we can present and do some of this discussion with young people Thank you for joining me, thank you for being on the forefront in terms of trying to lead our communities to be more intolerant To be more understanding and to build a stronger sense of spirit in all peoples Thank you so much Jerry Thank you That was today's final spirit in action guest Jerry Merta Coordinator of Youth and Family Ministries for the Greater Milwaukee Synod Of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America And we also spoke with Marilyn Miller and Kenneth Wheeler, Executive Director and President of the Board Respectively of the Lutheran Human Relations Association All involved with the building bridges anti-racism training sponsored by the LHRA Find a link to the upcoming October 23rd 24th workshop via my site NorthernSpiritRadio.org The theme music for this program is Turning of the World performed by Sarah Thompson This spirit in action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website NorthernSpiritRadio.org Thank you for listening I am your host Mark Helpsmeet and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light This is Spirit in Action With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along With every voice, with every song, we will move this world along And our lives will feel the echo of our healing (upbeat music)