In early January I walked through the Sand Creek Massacre exhibit at the Colorado History Museum. As I took in the experience, the atrocities done against indigenous peoples were on full display – broken treaties, forced displacement, and murder. While it was all appropriately confronting, the part that caught my attention and continues to stay with me was learning about Colonel John Chivington. Chivington was a local Methodist minister, Union army officer, and champion of abolition. On November 29, 1864, he led the Third Colorado Cavalry to murder 160 indigenous Cheyanne and Arapaho people who had been redirected to the Sand Creek in Southeastern Colorado. This peaceful indigenous group of mostly women, children, and elders believed to be under the safeguard of the local government were murdered while flying a white flag and an American flag.^[1] 

Once again, a leader from the white/Euro-Christian church, thinking he was on the “right side” of history and God’s justice, murdered innocent indigenous lives without remorse. The justification of human hierarchy within the walls of the church and pushed through the powers of earthly kingdoms in the Name of Christ are vast: the crusades, Doctrine of Discovery, slave trade, colonization, Manifest Destiny, jim crow laws, mass incarceration…to name a few. 

While I do believe God will judge his people on their misaligned desire to set up an earthly empire and not seek first the kingdom of God, it is clear that the white/Euro Christian church needs to stop running from its past, confront its truth and invest in racial healing and transformation efforts. No one can control the evil they inherit but all can and should work to collectively heal itself so generations behind can benefit from shared humanity and holistic flourishing. 

History continually demonstrates that the white/Euro church cannot be trusted to be a part of any leadership in healing what I believe is a racialized Christian nationalism problem. As a white US/Euro-Christian leader, I do not believe we are able to fully see the levels to which human hierarchy has become embedded in our doctrine, practice, and culture. This is why I believe we need to support and submit to a state-led, Truth Racial Healing and Transformation Commission (TRHTC) with leadership from communities whose voices and bodies have historically been and continue to be marginalized. 

In submitting to the commission as perpetrators of injustice and violence, we are able to support the necessary repair our history has broken. If we lose buildings, titles, and resources, then let that be a small payment for the harm caused. Crimes against humanity, based on human hierarchy cannot continue.

A framework for this work is in process. In 2016 to approach racial equity work which connects healing to systemic transformation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation designed Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) with 176 leaders from more than 144 organizations. Since that time, according to data from Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiatives,^[2] throughout the US 92 active TRHT efforts and 57 privately supported Transitional Justice Initiatives in addition to the W.K. Kellogg’s 14 TRHT cities are working today. 

The TRHT framework they established and utilized has five pillars: narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, the law, and the economy. These pillars represent the holistic change needed to ensure that society is transformed. Here, “we embrace our common humanity and in which institutions are inspired to develop policies and practices that ensure sustainable racial equity.”^[3]

During the 117th Congress, Representative Barbara Lee (CA) and Senator Cory Booker (NJ) put forward a concurrent resolution to support the establishment of a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Commission in the United States to “properly acknowledge, memorialize and be a catalyst for progress toward:

1.  Jettisoning the belief in a hierarchy of human value
2. Embrace our common humanity
3. Permanently eliminate persistent racial inequalities”^[4] 

A commission of this magnitude would look at the collective sins of our nation, tell its truth, and work toward repair that sits at the foundation of all its atrocities. Understanding the harm that people have done in violating each other’s humanity, requires truth-telling. Acknowledging the systemic impact and setting up a framework to repair and restore what has been lost is an integritous way forward to heal the deep wounds of the past. 

As the Body of Christ, we need to work to ensure that our love and commitment to the Kingdom of God goes beyond mere words or speech – even if those words are expressed in lament and confession. We must show our love “in action and in truth.”^[5] Confession is a beginning but not the end. The work of repair requires actions that make amends and the TRHT solutions-based framework can be that active next step.

By Michelle Ferrigno Warren

^{Michelle Ferrigno Warren, MPA is the president and CEO of Virago Strategies, a consulting group that provides strategic direction and project management for civic engagement campaigns alongside communities impacted by racial and economic injustice. She helped found Open Door Ministries, a community development 501(c)(3) corporation in downtown Denver, to address poverty, addiction, and homelessness through social programs. She is the author of The Power of Proximity and Join the Resistance.}

---

^[1] Roberts, Gary L. Massacre at Sand Creek: How Methodists Were Involved in an American Tragedy. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2016. pp. 119-138.

^[2] Mapping Support for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation, Bridging Divides Initiative, https://bridgingdivides.princeton.edu/community-resources/trht-map.

^[3] TRHT Framework, National Collaborative for Health Equity, https://www.nationalcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NCHE_TRHTInfoInteractive_REV_MECH.pdf

^[4] Text – H.Con.Res.19 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Urging the establishment of a United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation. Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/19/text

^[5]  Holy Bible. I John 3:18. New International Version, Zondervan Publishing House, 1984.