O God, Our Help in Ages Past ... a prayer of confession for white American Christians in the aftermath of Charlottesville

O God: We, your people, who count ourselves white and American and Christian, come to you with heavy hearts. The evil of white racism - a constant in our history as a nation - has made itself transparent in our land once more. Lord, have mercy on us.

O God, our help in ages past: we confess our sin to you this day. We know that you are God of all peoples and all times and all places, but we are a prideful and stubborn people, prone to claim you as our own. Cause us to recognize and reject the sins of our ancestors in demonizing, dehumanizing and denigrating people of other races, religions, and ethnicity.

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come: We recognize our need of you. Un-blind us to the ways you are working in the lives and histories of our neighbors. Help us to incarnate the great truth that you made manifest in the birth and life and death and resurrection of Jesus: that all people are loved by you. Help us to teach our children well, that they might not perpetuate white racism, our own most distasteful legacy.

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast: Rid our land of the scourge of white supremacy. We ask your protection over all who work for racial justice and reconciliation, and we pray that you would add us to their number.

O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home: Even as we hope for heaven, cause us to condemn race-hatred in its every public expression, and cause us to look deep within ourselves, to those corners of our hearts, where the evil of race-superiority stains our own souls.

Amen.

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