Racial Justice Monitors?

The Coffee Shop
1

*A pastoral colleague finds it “Orwellian.” He is describing the proposal before the church council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to appoint “racial justice monitors” for its meetings, according to an ELCA press release. *
“Racial justice monitors” for the church council was presented “as a mechanism for accountability” in the council’s ongoing commitment to address “scandalous realities.”

The above from http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=784

Now I’m all for proactively rooting out a problem. Do the Evangelical Lutherans have a racism problem? What are these “scandalous realities” they talk about?

2

This kills me…

Meanwhile, as described in the press release, a “racial justice monitor” will “provide observations on the process of deliberations of the council.” That, as the ELCA presiding bishop, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, elaborated, means a “racial justice monitor” is “not a judge that sits and issues a verdict” but acts as a “mirror,” raising “provocative questions” at the end of each meeting about how “the role of white privilege,” clearly enjoyed by the white members of the council, may have affected “the context of the meeting.”

Spot