By Deacon Karen Matthias Long
In the late mid 1980s I was recruited by the Division for Parish Services of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to write confirmation curriculum. At the time I was aware that young people were reading less and that many learners were visual learners. So, I decided to incorporate short comic strips as part of each of the ten lessons on the Ten Commandments.
I had four key characters in each chapter and I provided instructions for the illustrator – I wanted the pastor to be an African American woman. I wanted the three young people in the comic strip to represent a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
I was flabbergasted and horrified when my editor told me that the pastor could not be an African American woman. The reason? Those who use the curriculum will not be able to relate to an African American woman as a pastor. It never occurred to my editor that our predominantly white church absolutely needed to see this representation of a Black woman as a church leader. How would the church change if we continued to use the same old models of church leadership – predominantly white and male?
I expressed my outrage in a letter to my editor and copied her boss. It was only when I told them that I wanted my name removed from the project and that I would not complete the writing that my editor acquiesced. I have to admit that this wasn’t easy for me to do as someone who has a history of conflict avoidance. (Can’t we all just get along?) But, nobody ever said this work would be easy! I went beyond my comfort zone in order to address this and at the risk of sounding preachy I think that’s what we are all called to do.