Voices of Color – Christians United (VOCCU)
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"Phrases like “same-sex-attraction” and “struggling with...” are homophobic dog whistles from anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies that are so extreme they believe that even identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual––even without acting on your attractions––is sinful, and being transgender is altogether off the table." -Alex M. Griffin
"EJI’s museum documents the historical connection between slavery, lynching, and modern mass incarceration. But hearing statistics are one thing, and hearing stories are quite another." -Haley Gabrielle
The emotional and physical labor of contraception falls heavily on people who can get pregnant. We not only have more numerous and more effective options compared to people who can impregnate, but we are also blamed socially for our negligence if we do become pregnant. -Haley Gabrielle
Living as a woman of color in America, it was not long before I realized that American Psychology was more harmful than helpful to Black people in America because it interprets the life of Black people from the perspective of how and where white America sees and places Black people and that until this was rectified by Black folks rising up to initiate the study of the psychology of Blacks contextually and then cross-culturally, the 'regular' psychology practiced in America is not helpful to non-whites and the non-white experience in America.
"When we imagine the early followers of Jesus, we must imagine them beyond an ethnic binary of Jew/Greek and beyond a sexual binary of male/female. God’s people has always been diverse, before, during, and after the days of Jesus, and God’s people continues to be diverse today." -Haley Gabrielle
"Women cooked And cleaned up after husbands and after children But Elizabeth didn't So she wasn't woman enough" -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
The veracity and efficacy of the Gospel are not measured by how many people did not receive it, but by the transformation in those who do believe and receive it. In the same way, we must look for the veracity and efficacy of gender and racial equality not by measuring those who neither accept nor practice it, but instead in those who believe, accept and practice it. -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"The claim is that Anthony wanted White women and not Black men to have the vote. I have not been able to find evidence for this claim. I think that Anthony was racist in an entirely different way. Anthony chose to employ racist tactics in response to her colleagues’ claims that she should stop fighting to correct sexism." -Nikki Holland
"One of the ways that people of color communities have yet to do right by women of color, is having men of color stand with women of color in the gender equality conversation." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"Oppression isn’t a competition, but it would be disingenuous to pretend that women of color and white women experience patriarchy and misogyny in the same ways." -Ally Henny
"If one is constantly presented with a negative image of a community and that image is fed with hateful rhetoric, it eventually normalizes any violence done to that community." -
"To my son, it was the first time he saw black people not as thugs, drug dealers, gang members, or sex workers. He saw people that looked like him that did amazing things. He didn't see the hood. He saw a nation. He saw a hero. He saw that we aren't just what the media wants us to be." -Shevone Torres
"Everyone wants to be respected. Everyone needs to be respected. Respect should not be gender based. Respect is reciprocal. When respect is accorded to both men and women, regardless of gender, we will have better homes and communities and also raise respectful kids." -Edith Durojaiye
"If we are becoming truly human like Jesus, this must be characterized by a boldness and courage to love one another, despite the history between our various people groups or even one another." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"As I began to learn more about racism and the systems of oppression, it was like I was discovering a whole other world that I had previously not known existed. I had been able to live in my white bubble, unaware of the experiences of POC all around me." -Jenn Lynn
"We also have a relationship of equality and mutuality, in which neither of us is defined in our roles or abilities by our genders. It was important to us—and to me especially, as a woman and as someone who thinks deeply about gender equality in both my professional and my personal life—that our wedding reflect our egalitarianism." -Haley Gabrielle
"... although not all Black churches typically ordain women as ‘pastors,’ they nevertheless respected me as ‘a pastor,’ addressed me as such, and gave me the full accord with their male ministers, and outside of my denomination male ministers, they have been the most accepting of me, my call, and my leadership." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"Black people of color have taken a word that was used by colonizers and slave owners in a derogatory manner to describe their ancestors and turned it into a greeting and a term of endearment and friendship within their community. This is seen as a method of gaining back some of what was taken from them." -Zanetta Holley
"Our well-meaning North American psychological bent towards the communities of color tends to address the effects of risks our communities face without ever really addressing the injustices that creates those effects." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"As the black community grapples with the effects of incarceration on generations of black men, we now have to grapple with the incarceration of black women and the fact that colorism and the disdain for blackness is a contributing factor to who enters prison and how long they stay there." -Onlielove Alston
"If true love means fighting fair and honestly, while maintaining value and regard for one another, then neither me, nor people of color need to reduce ourselves and our voices in order to get along with Caucasians. Neither do we need to compromise our worth or hide our pain at our boundaries being breached in order to belong in the community of God." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"What we need is an accurate understanding of the distinct challenges that racism can pose for various ethnic groups, and the goal of eliminating racial disparities with an open mind to where and how they may occur." -Haley Gabrielle
"Just when I was about to give up hope of the possibility of reconciliation and a relationship with my sister, He was there!" -Zanetta Holley
"Children of color all over the world are the face of philanthropic organizations and programs that constantly focus on the economic plight of the individual families without giving a thought to changing the systems that create the poverty in those communities." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"Not every person is called to fight for every cause, but every person is called to be more than sensitive when confronted with injustice. " -Ernest Lewis, Jr.
"The issue of absentee fathers has been projected upon African-American communities in America as an issue of the moral failure of African-American men, when in reality, it is a drastic combination of patriarchy and the violent consequence of racism on the Black community." -Rev. Tega Swann
Join us at 8pmEST on Wednesday, May 30, for a heartwarming interview with our Egalitarian Guest of the Month, Dr. Mimi Haddad. Click/copy&paste link to join the conversation https://zoom.us/j/690724356
"In the United States, black and brown people are not and will never be "equal" until America deals openly with it's ugly past and most importantly, until white America accepts their part in this history: the truths that are left out of our school books, in internet searches, etc.." -Zanetta Holley
"Mutuality is about being 'seen' and 'affirmed' as inherently worthy and equally equipped and imbued by God with knowledge, integrity, honor, skills, worthiness, etc., and being 'brought into' the space where one exists and functions with others in that paradigm of equality." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"As I continue in my research, I remember that although the imported Christ infiltrated Cuba, the indigenous Jesus can be still be found beating in the hearts of 'los humildes'—the truth and the beauty of this Jesus somehow still penetrated the island of my ancestors, my family." -Kat Arma
"Being an ally means the actual practice of "mourning with those who mourn" and "rejoicing with those who rejoice." In order to mourn with those who mourn, you must go to the house of mourning! [Even Jesus did that!]" -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"Existing while black is neither a crime nor a threat, but unchecked bias will result in injustice towards black and brown people and even cost them their lives." -Elizabeth Quashie
"When women open their voices to cry out in labor that new, liberated life be allowed to come forth from places of oppression, women are engaging in motherhood." -Rev. Oghene'tega Swann
"The Shunamite woman stands in the canon and reminds us of both the age-old struggle to suppress Black women and other women of color and the righteous resistance such women must put forth: dark am I, and lovely. Our blackness is not an apology. It is a declaration that we are made in God's image." -Rev. Tega Swann
"...the question of what it really means and how much it truly matters for the woman behind the facade to live free, redeemed, and empowered in her calling within and outside the Church." -Elizabeth Quashie
"It is the responsibility of older generations to affirm the contested and globally ridiculed aesthetic truth of the girl of colour. The older generations must say to the younger generations "you are beautiful." -Farikanayi
"When a man clergy sleeps with women in the church and steals money from the church coffers, he’s transferred and the issue is covered. But when a woman clergy raises her voice over justice issues, she’s negatively labeled and ostracized in ministry. And the punishment for such women clergy is heavy. " -The Very Rev. Muture
"It is important to know that we attend seminary for a reason. Not just to grow in our respective fields of study but to be practitioners of justice." -Stephen L Robertson
Oga's wife. Oga Madam. Pastor's wife... All these are terms that are used to represent women as shadows and extensions of their husbands, but there are no similar titles for men. One doesn't hear: Madam's husband. Madam Oga. Pastor's husband. From the homefront to the work place, the story is the same: no matter how… Continue reading Don’t Rob Oga’s Wife To Pay Oga
"It's a despicable human practice that the most despised group in a despised people group are the women of that people group. For some strange reason, dishonoring the women of a despised tribe is proof of how low that tribe is. No wonder enemy groups degrade the women of their opponents through rape. Yes, women always have it worse when it comes to any marginalized group!" -Rev. Tega Swann
"While patriarchy bears much weight on Western society, its fullest effects are seen in many parts of the non-Western world, particularly in places where women are not even allowed to show their faces in public, or in other places where infants are aborted when found out to be female." -Kat Armas
"So my question is: if we’re equal enough to die side by side, why aren’t we equal enough to stand side by side in all spheres of life???"
"That’s God’s special ingredient for girls and women. You don’t like it? We didn’t write the recipe, we just followed God’s directions. You sound pretty ungrateful; you get to eat amazing pie! If you have complaints, take them up with God. He wrote the recipe." -Julie Taylor
"...any woman given the right circumstances will fight for what is valuable or important to her. The fighter in her is unfortunately and sometimes thwarted by her circumstances...As long as there is separation between us and our sisters who are still battling with basic needs, we will never speak the same language." -Farikanayi
"So, I can say that I am dark, yet lovely without going out of my way to imitate a style of beauty that is not indigenous to me." -Farikanyani
"But I’ve been served communion many times by men whose wives came to church with black eyes. As a teenager, I heard several pre-communion devotions from young men who harassed, coerced, and assaulted girls in the congregation. At least one girl told of being groped and forcibly kissed at church, but nothing was done. The perpetrator was later asked to speak during Sunday morning services again and again while that girl, no girl or woman ever was." -Dr. Tara M. Tuttle
"The revelation of who God is carries into our lives both as single and married folks, and not just as married folks. Thus, we do not lack full representation of God only to gain it when we become married. Instead, God reveals the fullness of His being to us both in singleness and in marriage." -Rev. Tega Swann
In responding to the Shay-nay-nays of North America, I also began to be conscious of the havoc that the Westernization of Christianity has wreaked on people of non-Western cultures.
