Introduction on all of us. I not only reveal failings of theological and church contexts but also reveal my own shortcomings as I have searched for firmer grounding within these spaces. If we are to be made whole, we must speak the truth as we have experienced it, being transparent about our collective pain even as we await the Spirit’s resurrecting power. Testifying was also prophecy. People would stand up and speak what God revealed to them about the community in terms of its present and future. The testifier reminded us not only to wait on the Spirit but also to work toward the building of beloved communities. This involved vulnerability and openness. We had to be open to what we were getting wrong and repent. Repentance was not simply a verbal apology. It was metanoia, conversion. One turned from one’s ways when one’s actions broke covenant with community. In this book, I call theological education to repentance by being truthful about the racist character of the theological enterprise even in the midst of its growing racially diverse landscape. Frank Yamada, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS), notes that the number of black, Latinx, Asian, and Asian North American students in its schools has increased dramatically. By 2040, there will be no majority white (or any) population but a diversity of different sizable populations in the United States. This demographic shift is already becoming a reality for ATS schools. The average seminary student is no longer a young white or European male who is a full-time, residential student. Student populations at ATS schools are increasingly diverse, as students of color “have increased collectively from 30 to 45 percent of the total of ATS students over the past twenty years.” Moreover, 20 percent of ATS schools already have a majority of racial ethnic presence in student populations. Yet this increased racial diversity doesn’t mean that structural racism has ended. It has merely morphed into new, more subtle forms. For instance, faculty diversity has grown, but at a much slower pace than student diversity, which means that structural racism does
3
