Seeking Shalom: Working Toward Just Atonement
Confession, Repentance, and Restorative Justice
Two Students Reflect on Dr. Jacqueline Lapsley’s Experience with an Audit on Racial Disparity
This past fall, Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation (CSJR) hosted a series called “Confession, Repentance, and Restorative Justice: A Faith-based Perspective,” and the Seminary’s new president, Dr. Jacqueline Lapsley, was the keynote speaker for two events. (October 9th Lecture and October 1oth Conversation)
The broader community had the opportunity to attend a talk during which Dr. Lapsley discussed her work at Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS), where, based on the findings of a historical audit of the seminary’s connections to slavery, she helped lead the institution in transforming its commitments and curriculum to address a history of racial disparity.
Dr. Lapsley opened her lesson with a reflection from Edmund Burke: “We do not draw the moral lessons we might from history.” She also challenged the audience—made up primarily of Seminary faculty, students, and local clergy—to seek to understand the past and, in doing so, begin to attend to the sins of our ancestors. This conscious accounting is vital for the individual Christian, the corporate body of Christ, the Church, and theological education institutions.
Throughout the presentation, Dr. Lapsley referred to her experience at Princeton, detailing what prompted the institution to conduct the audit, the community’s response, and the role the practice of confession and repentance play as a result. Community members wishing to engage more deeply in this work are encouraged to watch the event replay on the Seminary’s YouTube channel.
Union Presbyterian Seminary (UPSem) students have been actively engaged in conversations and learning about the subject of restorative justice, and reflections from two of them are presented below.
A Student Reflection
By Ayesha Edwards
When one thinks of confession, they typically think of it from the perspective of the ones engaging in sinful or illegal acts and the victims. The same holds true for repentance and restorative justice. However, when we, as the Body of Christ, consider how our spiritual heritage interplays with that of our natural legacy, it is imperative that we acknowledge the sins and wrongs of our foreparents, regardless of how socially savvy and sensitive we profess to be. There is profound work that is required to peel back the layers that resist the uprooting of dormant indifference—the layers that remain and manifest in both the current unjust systems and the traumas still haunting the oppressed and marginalized.
Just as we delight in the generational privileges and inheritance passed down from those who have gone before us—whether biologically or as a result of social and political systems—we are at this moment equally responsible for acknowledging and owning the obligation of confession, repentance, and any restorative engagement necessary to ensure that hearts are completely healed across the spectrum of racial and socioeconomic echelons and inequities.
Two of the inspirations behind the audit Dr. Lapsley spoke about in her presentation were faculty curiosity and student concerns. Curiosity emerges only when there is a need to know and understand what is suspected—to wrestle with an internal feeling that will not be settled until the external issues align with the truth of God’s word concerning all of humankind.
But when and how does that curiosity even begin and evolve? What are the various pathways to ensure Godly justice is fanned into full flame from both ends of the spectrum? Until we have all arrived, we who believe in the freedom Christ gives cannot be silent or silenced regarding the need to cue confession, remind us of the need for repentance, and require restorative justice across the board.
A Student Reflection
By Courtney Shudak
Rather than summarizing Dr. Lapsley’s presentation, I would like to reflect on two of the theological focal points she brought to the group’s attention: 1) the use of Christian language in the historical audit and 2) the failure of theological imagination.
I was heartened to hear Dr. Lapsley’s charge that we bring “Christian language” into the institution’s exercise of racial reckoning. Appropriately, we see that a racial reckoning continues to unfold all around us—thankfully not limited to our Christian circles. UPSem’s motto of “For the Church in the World” is a bold charge, and one that is quite relevant in this case.
As we watch our neighborhoods and workplaces approach issues of racial injustice, we know that seminary students and faculty, church members, and clergy engage with this issue from vantage points that are both secular and religious. What does it look like, then, for the seminary to engage with issues of racial injustice? How should the institution’s response differ based on our tradition and faith?
One distinction Dr. Lapsley presented was the use of Christian language in the audit. She shared that the audit (at PTS) was thought of as “an act of confession” and the response to the audit was “an act of repentance.” What striking framing! For Christians worshiping in a confessional church, this is a liturgical rhythm we are well acquainted with—and perhaps one that will guide us beyond paralyzing shame and into a space of grace that enables us to raise our voices with more accountability.
Theologically, confession is an acknowledgment of the reality that Christians must rely on the grace of God. Confession requires telling the truth before God and others. The Church practices this behavior with rich confessional traditions and should be able to humbly model it as we engage in the critical work of pursuing racial justice.
Within our tradition, confession and repentance are sacred works that draw us toward the Holy One and one another. In the reformed tradition, we believe the Church exists as a covenant community on a mission to proclaim the good news of salvation, healing, and wholeness.[1] Without a willingness to practice confession and repentance, we fail to maintain healthy covenantal relationships with our siblings and neglect the missional call of the Church.
Dr. Lapsley explained in her talk that the use of confession “requires that we name the moral failure” (e.g., the abuse of Black bodies and the ways it directly or indirectly supported the institutions being reviewed). To confess requires that we first become aware of our failures, then name the sin and acknowledge it openly. This first step involves humility and bravery, but the time is long overdue for the Church. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to privileged white Christians with words that ring true today: “History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.”[2] It is a privilege to remain ignorant of and complicit in our history’s problematic issues.
There is much to confess when it comes to the ways the Church and theological institutions have centered whiteness and harmed (continue to harm) the BIPOC community. Thus, our confession today is only the beginning (or next step) in a commitment to the continued journey we must undertake together to faithfully investigate the shadowy side of our history and broaden our awareness so that our confession might become more complete. To plead ignorance of the harm we have done is not a faithful or sufficient response to the grace we have received in light of the information we have about our history of moral failure.
Continuing with the framework of Christian language, Dr. Lapsley spoke on the appropriate response to confession: repentance. The thoughtful, informed confession we make must be followed by action! In a culture where “thoughts and prayers” has become a meme, the Christian practice of repentance is a muscle the American Church has allowed to atrophy.
Dr. Lapsley led the group in reflecting on what it would look like to engage in repentance for racial injustices and lectured on the value of repentance. We have inherited this rich tradition from which we can dig deep and find nourishment for our souls, but we don’t often engage in the paired practice of confession and repentance. She referenced John Calvin’s Institutes, 3.3.6:
“First, in the conversion of the life to God, we require a transformation not only in external works but in the soul itself, which is only after it has put off its old habits to bring forth fruits conformable to its renovation. The prophet, intending to express this, enjoins those whom he calls to repentance to make them ‘a new heart and a new spirit’ (Ezek. 18:31). But there is no passage better fitted to teach us the genuine nature of repentance than the following: ‘If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me.’ ‘Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart.’ (Jer. 4:1-4).[3]
This gritty, messy repentance is not for the faint of heart, but it is what our neighborhoods, schools, churches, and our very souls cry out for: “to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.”[4]
Having considered the contributions of Christian language—particularly confession and repentance—to the discussion of racial injustice, I turn now, in closing, to a concept Dr. Lapsley introduced that I found particularly poignant—even haunting. Within the confessional practice, one of the specific failures cited in the PTS audit was “a failure of theological imagination.” I was struck by this reminder of what a gift our imaginations are and the importance of stewarding this gift within the theological realm.
Imagination is so important that it is incorporated into the vows made by elders in the Presbyterian Church! Many of the findings from the PTS audit were acts that, regarded in the context of their context of their time, might be seen as fairly moderate but are clearly offensive to our ethics today. Dr. Lapsley therefore asked us to consider areas where we are being “moderate” today about things our descendants will look back on with disgust.
What are we still choosing to be unaware of? What are we simply not willing to see?
In Walter Brueggemann’s Celebrating Abundance: Devotions for Advent, he includes a beautiful prayer about expanding human imagination that I consider an antidote to these failures of theological imagination. Brueggemann evokes the Holy One praying, “Break open our imaginations…that we might see a world decisively shaped by your fidelity. Aid us in relinquishing control to receive your newness.”[5]
May we have the courage to dig in and face the shadowy histories within our lives, churches, and theological institutions.
May we have the humility to confess the failures as we understand them today and continue to expand our confession and awareness.
May we be drawn from confession to repentance, invigorated with an enthusiasm to seek creative ways to reconcile with our siblings.
May we do all this with a theological imagination that appreciates the expansive and gracious God we worship. Amen.
Footnotes:
[1] Book of Order 2023-2025, The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Part II, G-1, Congregations and Their Membership.
[2] “Letter from Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.].” Accessed January 30, 2024. https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html.
[3] “John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion: Christian Classics Ethereal Library.” Accessed December 15, 2023. https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes/institutes.v.iv.html
[4] Isaiah 58:6 (NRSV).
[5]Brueggemann, Walter, and Richard A. Floyd. Celebrating Abundance: Devotions for Advent. First edition. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.
Ayesha Edwards is currently pursuing a dual degree in Christian education and public theology at Union Presbyterian Seminary. She is a lifelong learner and educator whose commitment is spreading the message of Jesus Christ while advocating and engaging in matters of social justice. Her primary interests include dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and education reform; addressing the needs of orphans and widows; human trafficking; women and leadership; and issues related to human needs and rights such as food security, housing, and voting rights.
Courtney Shudak is a native Texan and a recent transplant to beautiful North Carolina. She is studying in the Master of Divinity program at the Seminary. Courtney is passionate about ecumenical work and bridge building. Outside of work and school, she is an avid marathon runner and enjoys recovering outside with a good book or sharing a tasty meal with friends.
