June 3, 2020:
Our Call to Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly with God
During these turbulent days, we share the grief over the loss of George Floyd and of life after life of African Americans and other people of color taken by violence. We denounce the oppression of structural and sustained racism in our country and elsewhere. Additionally, we denounce the lawlessness that puts innocent people in danger and drowns out the legitimate messages from peaceful and courageous protest.
Our purpose is “to empower the church in the achievement of its God-appointed missions,” and we believe the church has a powerful voice to offer in the public square. It is a voice that recognizes the sacred worth of every human being regardless of skin color, nationality, economic status, gender or any other difference among us. It is a voice that vehemently proclaims the dignity of all people. It is a voice of civility, spiritual aspiration, hope and faith to a world overcome by despair and fear.
Our faith and TMF’s core values of servanthood, competence, integrity and courage require that we not only speak our beliefs but make them visible in practical and powerful ways. Our pledge to you, and to ourselves, is that within each of our ministries, whether financial or leadership-based, we will closely examine our practices and unconscious biases. We will persistently ask how we can leverage our connections and experience to address generations of racism and injustice. We will do all we can to accelerate the trajectory in our Grants Ministry toward narrowing the economic, educational, and health disparities in under-resourced communities. Consistent with our belief that “conversation is the currency of change,” our Leadership Ministry will continue to host conversations with a diversity of people seeking to build communities where all can achieve their God-given potential. And with humility, we will listen more than we speak.
“Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” This is both our gift and profound responsibility. A long-standing hope for a more just and compassionate world has yet to be realized. But rather than dwell too long on the past, our focus will be on an increased, more effective effort for the future. We hope you will join us in this challenging but critical work of helping bring about the world of God’s imagination and resolving the barriers that keep us from that better world. It can and must begin anew, with each of us.