RA church photo

RA Meets Wednesdays at 6pm in the Fellowship Hall. Dr. Carol Stanley (pictured above) facilitates the meeting. Come see. All are welcome!

Racists Anonymous Story

Concord, NC, Thursday, July 21, 2016— Could it be that we are all just a little bit racist? A local congregation in Concord, NC asks itself this question because many people sense a surprising resurgence in racism in America.  Could this be the reason that wherever we go, racism always seems to be there as well? Could this be the reason that racism, religious and ethnic intolerance seems to appear in nearly all nations where ethnic and religious differences exist? Could it be that racism is a primitive behavior like cannibalism, except for some reason, we’ve not quite yet overcome racism?

Pastor Nathan King wants his congregation and the community to give these matters serious thought. They have established a Wednesday Night Racist Anonymous Group that operates under the same principles as Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-Step programs. Dr. Carol Eales Stanley, a member of the congregation and a local psychologist, leads the group. According to Carol, “The first night went very well with a diverse group of attendees.” She says the group, open to the community, plans to meet each Wednesday evening at 6 pm at the church –Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC), 38 Church Street N, Concord, NC.

“The first step may be the hardest of all,” says Carol, “admitting that we have a problem. Racism is all around us and yet nobody claims to be a racist.” According to Pastor Nathan, “It’s not much different than when we were children. Mama would come in and ask us children who had done some mischievous thing or another. The answer was always the same, ‘I don’t know. Not me.’”

The second step is to come to the realization that we cannot handle this problem alone. And the third step is to turn it over to God or what some simply call a Higher Power. There are other steps of course. These are just the beginning.

The founding group in Sunnyvale, CA was launched by UCC Pastor Ron Buford at the Congregational Church of Sunnyvale with lay leadership. Pastor Ron says that with great lay leadership over several months, most of its diverse participants have come to recognize their own racism, its powerful grip on our lives, and the need to turn it over. Thousands of RA groups across the nation have the power to change the world – one person at a time, one day at a time.

The goal of RA is not to change others. The goal of RA is to, with God’s help, eliminate racism in ourselves. After all, isn’t this the way Christianity itself began to spread — Confession, Repentance, and Faith? The hour-long meeting is open to the community.

The group meets each Wednesday 6pm-7pm in the church fellowship hall. Park on the lower level and use that entrance. All are welcome!

About Trinity UCC

Trinity is a progressive, Christian “social action, social justice church” that knows “God’s love embraces all persons equally, no matter their age, gender, race, life status, beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.” The church is located at 38 Church Street N, Concord, NC. For information about Trinity visit www.CommaChurch.com and Facebook.com/CommaChurch, or, contact Rev. Nathan King at Rev.Nathan@CommaChurch.com. Trinity is a member of the United Church of Christ, based in Cleveland, OH, www.ucc.org.

For more information about RA contact:

Dr. Carol Stanley

drcarolstanley@earthlink.net

(425) 301-2704  (cell)

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