Isabel Wilkerson is the author of the award-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. In a recent interview by Krista Tippet on the podcast On Being, Wilkerson said:

Our country is like a really old house. I love old houses. I’ve always lived in old houses. But old houses need a lot of work. And the work is never done. And just when you think you’ve finished one renovation, it’s time to do something else. Something else has gone wrong.

And that’s what our country is like. And you may not want to go into that basement, but if you really don’t go into that basement, it’s at your own peril. And I think that whatever you are ignoring is not going to go away. Whatever you’re ignoring is only going to get worse. Whatever you’re ignoring will be there to be reckoned with until you reckon with it. And I think that that’s what we’re called upon to do where we are right now.

This week’s course in Charleston takes a hard look at our nation and its history of white supremacy. It is necessarily important for our national life together, for our faith communities, for our own souls, to take account of where we are and where are going, no matter how painful it is. The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to search the heart and be in community with each other.

I invite you to reflect on ways you are in relationship with people different from you and how we might all contribute toward our city growing in peaceable relationships with each other.