A United Methodist Insight Editorial | June 17, 2025
What began in outrage and fear has ripened into hopeful resolve: halting as their efforts may be at times, United Methodists throughout the United States are committed to ending racism.
Initiatives spawned in a moment’s heat often extinguish as quickly as they flame up. “Dismantling Racism” isn’t such an initiative. Begun by the United Methodist Council of Bishops on June 19, 2020, after the successive high-profile deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, “Dismantling Racism” has rooted itself firmly in the denomination.
“Dismantling Racism” isn’t the first time The United Methodist Church and its predecessor bodies have attempted to repent of America’s foundational social sin. The birth of the denomination in 1968 was marked by the dissolution of the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction, enacted in 1939 to entice the southern branch of American Methodism into the historic three-way merger of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church.
The Central Jurisdiction’s demise resulted in two major developments: the departure of some ME-South congregations that wouldn’t accept racial integration, and the formation of the General Commission on Religion and Race, intended as a means to monitor and overcome institutional racism in the new denomination. While the Central Jurisdiction provided a strong faith community for Black Methodists during the Jim Crow era, it also stained the Methodist Church’s witness to the all-encompassing love of God in Jesus Christ.
The ensuing half-century since the Central Jurisdiction was eliminated has been one of ebb and flow in racial conflict. Despite the existence of Religion and Race – or “R-Squared” as its most recent logo says – institutional racism still exists in the UMC. Those who doubt that statement need only ask any bishop or district superintendent who has confronted a predominantly white congregation’s resistance to the appointment of a Black, Asian or Native American pastor. Cross-racial and cross-cultural pastoral appointments remain one of the UMC’s thorniest institutional challenges.
Nonetheless, our series “Dismantling Racism: Five Years Later” has opened our eyes to the UMC’s firmly embedded resolve to end racism. The series uncovered a large measure of hope: despite current U.S. political attitudes demonizing people of color and seeking to erase them from America’s past and present, United Methodists are refusing to accept or obey that outright lie.
With even the limited amount of research our small staff was able to conduct, we found the inspiration and impetus to end racism runs strongly through annual conference and local church ministries. Those who lead such ministries are committed heart and soul to confronting racial discrimination in all its forms. Even more, their commitment is reflected in stories of minds changed by education and barriers broken down by revelations of our common humanity. United Methodist leaders recognize collectively that our journey toward racial reconciliation is a long and arduous one, and they don’t intend to give up.
We’ve only begun to tell their stories.
In celebration of finding this hidden treasure of United Methodists’ commitment to building God’s “beloved community,” we’ve decided to collect this series into a document. We see the series as a historical account, a conversation starter, a teaching aid. Most of all, we see “Dismantling Racism Five Years Later” as a testament to the indomitable spirit of United Methodist Christians who, once enlightened to the persistent sin of racism, are actively working to rid themselves, their communities, their nation and the world of the ill-conceived notion that one race of people is inherently superior to others.
We’ll be offering the document free of charge (though being a church-related publication, of course donations are always gladly accepted). Our hope is that the witness of United Methodists devoted to tearing down racism will inspire and encourage everyone traveling the long walk to freedom for all.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news about, for and by marginalized and under-served United Methodists.