Alex Marshall-Brown was sitting on the grass of St. Paul's First Lutheran Church (WELS) in North Hollywood, around the corner from the church I serve, St. Matthew's (ELCA)-NoHo. She is black. The church volunteers who told her to leave were white. The racist and prejudiced words and actions of the church representatives were all caught on film. I am angered and profoundly saddened by this latest example of racial inequity in my neighborhood, especially because it was propagated by followers of Jesus Christ who teaches love, hospitality and equity. But I am also heartened by the response of community members who are continue to pressure institutions--including the church--to eradicate racist and prejudiced attitudes from their structures and their minds. Here my statement to the community in the wake of the incident:
Dear NoHo Community, I am writing tonight not only as the pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church (ELCA)–NoHo but also as a community leader very engaged in the life of our neighborhood especially around homelessness and issues of justice. The simplest way I know how to say what needs to be said tonight is this: there is no room in NoHo or in the Gospel of Jesus Christ for racism. None. Period. Today I became aware of an incident of racist non-hospitality on the campus of another church in NoHo, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Preschool. When a black young woman, Alex Marshall-Brown, was sitting on the grass on the church campus, white church representatives posted no trespassing signs to get her to leave, made assumptions that she was unhoused and deserved removal, and accused her of threatening them. The interaction devolved into a sequence of racist and prejudiced statements and actions by the church representatives. As it should, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Preschool has begun the process of repenting of its representatives’ words and actions, apologizing to Ms. Marshall-Brown, and declaring its commitment to equality and hospitality. But there is so much more that needs to be done. And not just by St. Paul’s. No church community is perfect. But any church that claims to be Christian must denounce racism and must do the work of analyzing and eradicating those patterns and structures in church life and in the attitudes of people of faith that promote and sustain racism. Central to Christian teaching is the conviction that all people are made in God’s image and are equal before God. (“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” [Galatians 3:28]) At St. Matthew’s—NoHo we are actively undertaking the process of identifying vestiges of blatant and unwitting racism in our faith praxis. I invite members of the NoHo community to engage with me and the people of St. Matt’s in this work of freeing one neighborhood institution dedicated to love, grace, restoration and justice from the bonds of racism so that we can ever better witness to the dignity of all people and God’s vision of justice. See the St. Matt’s FB page for more info: @stmatthewsnoho or email me: stmatthewsnohopastor@gmail.com. No city community is perfect either. There is no question that there is work that needs to be done in our neighborhood to further eliminate racism in housing access, education and employment, law enforcement and judicial practices, to name just some of the most obvious areas of communal life. The best way I know how to do that work is for people committed to justice to get engaged and use the “levers of democracy” like elections and city council and the neighborhood council system, along with grass roots community organizing to create change. One space available to the community to address issues of racism and how it intersects with public rights, safety and law enforcement is the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee of the NoHo Neighborhood Council. At its next meeting on Thursday, July 23 at 6:30pm on Zoom, you are invited to join a discussion and planning session on racism and its impact in our neighborhood. See the NoHo NC website for more info: nohonc.org. (Full disclosure: I am VP of the NoHo NC and chair of its Public Safety Committee). Tonight I grieve over the most recent example of racism in our midst. But I am also hopeful. Today it has been inspiring to interact over social media and email with outraged activists seeking decency, equity and change—(even though they mistakenly identified my church as the site of the incident!) I am hopeful because most of the people I know in NoHo agree: NoHo is a corner of LA that is committed to creating a neighborhood of equity and justice for all. To all of you, this is my wish: Be safe and well. Act with kindness. Pursue justice. Build a healthy community for all. Sincerely, Rev. Stephanie Jaeger, Ph.D.
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