RACE & JUSTICE
Our Race and Justice Team
We are honored to be a diverse group of believers in Jesus Christ. We recognize that the history of racial injustice in the United States—especially the oppression of Black Americans by White Americans—creates significant barriers to coming together as one in worship. We believe that God has given us a unique opportunity as members of this diverse family to rely on God’s grace and to intentionally build relationships that reflect His heart. The Lord loves justice. Therefore, He invites us, by the power of His Spirit, to confront racism in the church, our communities, and our nation through recognition, repentance, and reconciliation.
To respond to this challenge we have assembled a team of Freedom Church leaders to address the impact of racial inequality on our members—especially those who are the descendants of enslaved Black Americans—and to cultivate an environment of true biblical love in our church family. We believe that facilitating difficult discussions across racial groups and developing practical action steps in our church and community will lead to healing and growth.
Our group consists of our Lead Pastor, Gabe Bouch and the other members of our Pastoral Team: Jeremy Moore, Worship and Creative Teams Director and Dave Hess, Campus Director. Joining these full-time staff are the following volunteers.
• Elizabeth Moore. Liz is a dedicated teacher and brings her passion for justice and truth to the issue of racism. She relentlessly advocates for a demonstration of the love of Christ across racial boundaries. Liz is a leader at our Cherry Hill location.
• Jessica Fowler, MD MPH. Is there any group in Freedom Church Jess is not involved in? She serves primarily in our Philadelphia location, but she occasionally hangs out in Cherry Hill as well. Jess brings a wealth of institutional information, leadership, and focus to the group. She is well-informed and masterful at building consensus.
• Elisa Zinn and Paul Zinn. The Zinns are Freedom pioneers and key leaders at our Cherry Hill location. Elisa is a dynamic speaker and a member of the Worship Team. Paul (along with Jess) is one of the stars of our Sunday “Virch” broadcasts, bringing timely exhortations and inspirational challenges week after week. Paul and Elisa have leaned into uncomfortable conversations in both personal and professional spaces to promote the work of racial healing.
• Theresa Noye and Henry J. Noye, Esq. The Noyes are both ministers and long time members of our Philadelphia location. Theresa is the Director of Eastern University’s Office of Multicultural Initiatives. Her invaluable perspective is built on a strong foundation in scholarship and her practical knowledge of best practices regarding racial reconciliation. Henry, an experienced attorney, has well-honed skills in strategic analysis and, like his biblical hero, the apostle Paul, a good helping of zeal.
Revelation 7:9 states: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb….”
The heavenly vision is nothing short of a diverse community of people representing every nation, culture, and language. Therefore, we are committed to creating an environment in which we love and worship together in health and harmony to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. When God’s people come together in unity and faith, all things are possible!
Statements from Pastor Gabe
May 29, 2020
Dear Freedom family,
My heart is heavy. I find myself swinging from anger to sadness to shame, and back again. George. Ahmaud. Breonna. It would be tragic enough if their lives and their deaths were isolated experiences. But they are not. They are the shared story of millions of our brothers and sisters—brothers and sisters in our Freedom family. And the embarrassing reality is that I don’t know this story very well. It’s more comfortable to ignore it.
I know there are many other stories at Freedom—stories that need to be heard and understood and mourned. But no story has defined our nation, and the church in our nation, more than the one that is painted in black and white. Do you know this story?
With very rare exception, every generation of white Christians in our nation has ignored the story. Somehow we never seem to notice that things are not right. The brutal deaths are always outliers and exceptions. And we, of course, would never do anything like that.
Or would we?
History tells us that the vast majority of white Christians were more than happy to maintain the status quo. We owned slaves. We embraced segregation. We sat on the sidelines during the Civil Rights movement. Any obstacle our colored brothers and sisters faced was always their fault.
The temptation is to distance myself from the failures of the past, but that just leaves me even more susceptible to repeat them in the present.
I have been doing a lot of thinking, reading, and soul-searching the past few weeks. We have a beautifully diverse, gifted, and passionate group of men and women at Freedom Church. But we are not yet what God has called us to be. We haven’t really seen our brother. We don’t really know our sister. We have much more to learn about striving together for the faith of the Gospel. The prophet still calls out: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Off and on for over a year, but more vigorously in recent weeks, a group of nine leaders at Freedom Church has been wrestling through these topics. It’s been pretty raw. There has been anger, frustration, tears, confusion, fear, and doubt. It’s unscripted and messy. But God is in it. At times we’ve experienced grace, hope, and glimpses of unity.
My prayer is that, by God’s grace, our whole body will take this journey. God has called us to be one, as Jesus and the Father are one. Our team of nine is diligently working on ways to help facilitate this journey for more people at Freedom.
I have a long way to go. We have a long way to go. But nothing is impossible for God.
In hope,
Gabe
History and Goals
2020 has been a historic year. We have all witnessed the far-reaching impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: interruption of daily activities and social interaction once taken for granted; billions of dollars lost from our nation’s economy; and the devastating consequences in the healthcare industry including the widespread loss of life and the severe strain on our medical personnel and facilities. On top of all this we have experienced a global outcry for racial justice unlike anything in modern history.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is, in some respects, novel, the issues of racial inequality that have been crystallized by the recent tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, to name a few, are not new. Sadly, they are emblematic of the history of slavery in America. To fully embrace our calling to pursue justice and to walk in unity in the present, we need to understand something of the painful injustices of our past.
The United States’ slave trade began in 1619, when approximately 20 enslaved Africans landed in the British Colony of Jamestown, VA. According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, during the 341 years of “slave trading,” approximately 388,000 Africans were taken from their homeland and brought to North America to work as slaves. By 1860, the U.S. had a population of 3.9 million enslaved people of African descent. Slavery was legally abolished in the U.S. with the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in December of 1865. Thus, for 246 years slavery was legal in this country.
Even with the passage of the 13th Amendment, however, the daily conditions of life for African descendants in America remained unjust. For example, in 1857, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393, that the Constitution was not meant to include citizenship for Black people. That did not change until the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States–including former slaves. Though now citizens, African-Americans still could not vote in the nation they were forced to build. It was not until 1870 and the ratification of the 15th Amendment that Black people received the right to vote.
After the passage of these crucial amendments many states, especially in the south, enacted purportedly “race neutral” laws aimed at perpetuating the oppression of Black people. These included the infamous “Jim Crow” laws which were enforced from 1877 through the mid-1960s. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as “separate but equal.” In the 1930s, the Federal Housing Administration refused to insure mortgages in and around African-American neighborhoods, a practice known as “redlining.” This incentivized White people to avoid buying homes in these areas and caused Black-owned homes to lose value. The result was deeply segregated neighborhoods and a loss of wealth for African-Americans in both the north and the south.
It was not until 1954, when the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Bd. of Ed. Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, that “separate but equal” was determined to be inherently unequal and discriminatory against Black people. Legislative efforts continued throughout the 1960s including: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which legally ended the institutional segregation of the Jim Crow era; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, aimed at undoing systemic efforts to keep minorities from voting; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which made it illegal to discriminate against Black people in renting and selling homes.
This is just a brief sketch of the legal background to the issue of racial inequality in America. Our Black brothers and sisters in Christ also have countless painful stories of their own personal experiences with injustice based solely on their skin color. We must stand together and act against racial injustice in the name of Jesus. Based on the extensive history of this issue we know that our task is formidable, but we also know that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength! As a starting point, we have adopted the following Race and Justice Goals for Freedom Church:
- To address the race-related barriers that prevent the people of Freedom Church from worshiping together, serving together, and embracing Christ’s mission together in genuine love, understanding, and unity.
- To mobilize the people of Freedom Church to serve the people of Philadelphia and the surrounding region who are underserved or suffering (at least in part) due to past or present racial injustices in the United States.
- To promote justice and sacrifice for the benefit of our brothers and sisters as fundamental values of our church community and Spirit-empowered witness to the world.