Evolving Faith Donates $10,000 to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund as Part of Commitment to Human Flourishing

October 5, 2020 - (ATLANTA, GA) The mission of Evolving Faith is to cultivate love and hope in the wilderness, pointing fellow wanderers and misfits to God as we embody resurrection for the sake of the world. To that end and in this moment, we have been engaged in a process of building out our Commitment to Human Flourishing, both in posture and in policy, as a vital expression of that mission. We believe it is impossible to deconstruct and reconstruct a faith that works for not only ourselves but for the whole world unless we engage in the active work of dismantling white supremacy, decolonizing our faith, and embracing a fully inclusive community for everyone, particularly for Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPoC), the disabled, and LGBTQIA+ people.

Commitments have to be more than verbal or intentional. It has to be more than a black square on Instagram or a hot take on Twitter, warm feelings in our hearts or a stated intention for “someday.” It must be actionable. It must be measurable. It must require financial investment and be aimed squarely at our systems of power and privilege. A lot of organizations and churches are leaning into diversity and inclusion, which we celebrate and honor, but we want to push further into belonging and hospitality. These are meaningless words unless they are accompanied by action.

As an organization, over the past year we have developed practical initiatives to reflect that Commitment to Human Flourishing. We believe in being “for” things rather than simply “against.” We are “for” human flourishing, even as we know our commitments are tiny steps in a long road toward fulfilling that promise. We’ve already put many of these items into place and you’ve seen their evidence already. They involve action items around education, prioritizing our spending with BIPoC, LGBTQIA+ and Disabled-owned businesses and partners and inclusion, and the addition of a disability consultant to ensure our events whether in person or online are fully accessible. We’ve got ongoing initiatives around representation and platforming, community listening and engagement, future dreams of shared spaces and retreats and meet-ups. We know we won’t get this right every time and we want you to know we remain committed to listening - to God, to one another, to you, and to the world.

We haven’t announced all the details because we’d rather show what we’re doing as it’s being done rather than say we’re going to do something. But also, we’re in process. We’re listening, we’re learning, we’re growing, we’re discerning. Over the past few days, as we’ve thought and prayed, we decided it was time to announce the first financial gift that Evolving Faith will make as part of our Commitment to Human Flourishing.

Evolving Faith has donated $10,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. We want to invest in justice, in remedying some of the persistent inequalities that, so many centuries into the American experiment, still plague this society. Justice is a core expression of love. President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP LDF Sherrilyn Ifill joined us at our 2020 Conference and we believe the work that Sherrilyn and her organization are doing is worthy of more than just our good wishes. It is our honor to support the premier civil-rights law organization in the US in fighting for racial justice and equality in this way.

The entire Evolving Faith community is part of that gift, and it is only one component of the ongoing work we’re doing to embody our best hopes for this good and weary world.

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