Richmond, Virginia Affiliate Group
The five affirmations that frame the Risking Peace report come out of a discernment process begun in 2010 that involved about 100 congregations and presbyteries. The affirmations increase the PCUSA’s teaching of nonviolence for social transformation, while also recognizing how implicated most US citizens are in structural violence (the “isms”) and the violence of several long-term wars. The report includes a careful reassessment of Jesus’ nonviolence in relation to the Reformed tradition, Just War, and Just Peacemaking approaches.
A 1963 protest placard in the Smithsonian collections could almost be mistaken for any of the Black Lives Matter marches of today.
In 1844, all black people were ordered to get out of Oregon Country, the expansive territory under American rule that stretched from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains.
