Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Does the Bible Say About Racial Unity? | An Interview with Monique Duson

Episode Date: September 9, 2021

Many Christians are striving for racial reconciliation, but what does that really mean? And how can we achieve that? Co-founder of the https://www.centerforbiblicalunity.com (Center for Racial Unity) and author ofhttps://www.centerforbiblicalunity.com/reconciled ( Reconciled: A Biblical Approach to Racial Unity), https://www.centerforbiblicalunity.com/about-monique (Monique Duson), joins https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/Staff/Teaching-Pastors (Keith) to discuss how Christians should understand and pursue racial reconciliation from a biblical perspective. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit ourhttps://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ ( website) and follow us onhttps://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks ( Facebook),https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ ( Instagram), andhttps://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast ( Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Social Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks ( https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ ( https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter:https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast ( https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast) References https://www.centerforbiblicalunity.com/reconciled (Reconciled: A Biblical Approach to Racial Unity) by Monique Duson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29780253-born-a-crime (Born A Crime) by Trevor Noah https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48994895-reading-while-black (Reading While Black) by Esau McCaulley Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilman. And I'm Patrick Miller. Hey, today on 10-minute Bible Talks, I'm excited to introduce you to Monique Dusan. She is the co-founder of the Center of Biblical Unity. She is a BA from Biola University out in Los Angeles, and she's pursuing a master's from Regent University in Virginia. The reason I'm excited to talk to her is because she has a BAOLA University out in Los Angeles, and she has a master's.

has a new study out. It's called Reconciled, a biblical approach to racial unity. Monique is also one half of the podcast, All the Things, which I've listened to and is a lot of fun, and I learned a lot as I listened to Long. Monique, welcome to 10 minute Bible talks. Hi, nice to meet you. Thanks for having me. So I like hearing about how God has worked in people's lives, and I think it gives a little insight to hear maybe how they came to faith. It tells us a little bit about their story. So could you share your story with us. How did you come to faith in Christ? Well, I grew up for the first 16 years in a home that was not Christian. And in high school, one of my friends invited me to go to youth group.

Now, she said that it was like a teen club. And so I was like completely ready to go to like the club and we were going to go have fun and all this stuff. And when she picks me up, we end up going to like this huge church. And I was like, what in the world is this? And she was like, well, I mean, it's a club for teens. It's called Club E.M. And E.M. stood for Encounter Ministries at the time. And that was the beginning of a very long road with me. I didn't accept Jesus right away. I went and checked it out. I checked the people out. I didn't know what a relationship with Jesus meant or having him as a personal savior or things like that. And my mom was pretty against me going to the church. Why was she against it? Because the church was mainly white. And so she was like,

You know, she had some concerns. But eventually, I accepted the Lord as my savior. And I began a journey in Christianity and a relationship with Jesus. So your mom was concerned because this is a white church. This is interesting because we're going to talk about racial unity and racial division and all that. And we already have a hint that in your past, there was a question in your mind, should I be a part of a white church? Or maybe it was just in your mom's mind. Is that right? It was mainly in my mom's mind. The youth group was predominantly black and brown students and leadership. There wasn't a ton of white students in the youth group, but the church itself, the adults and like leadership and things like that were predominantly white. And remember her telling me, she was like, you know, white people are touchy-feely. Don't go in there and let them hug you, you know, so. I'm with your mom.

I don't want anybody hugging me either. Well, I didn't realize exactly what she was saying at the time. I think I understood some of it. But now being an adult, I can see so much more as to what she was saying, what her fears and concerns were, what her thoughts were. But, I mean, I was at that church for, gosh, 20 years and really enjoyed my time there. Well, it sounds like an interesting church where the adults, at least if I got the description accurate, are predominantly white. The bulk of the church is predominantly white. but the student ministry is predominantly made up of black and brown kids. So it sounds like an

interesting story that probably shaped how you think about race and the Bible and things like that. When I read your study, reconciled, it's obvious that you have a heart to see the body of Christ, Christians, but probably all of culture healed of racial divisions. Where did you get that heart from? What's that rooted in? I think it's just rooted in scripture. You know, I have upheld a certain worldview for a very long time. And as the Lord was bringing me out of this racialized mindset, what my heart drew to was how do we not only defend the faith, but how do we defend the family? How do we stand from one another's family? So my goal or my heart for racial unity is really steeped in the scripture's word about family and how we are brothers and sisters,

regardless of what skin color you bear. Have you seen the biblical principles bring people together, people of different races, ethnicities? Have you seen that play out? Maybe in the church you're a part of or the ministry that you have now, Center for Biblical Unity. How have you seen the gospel bring people together? Well, I think when we get beyond what culture is saying and we truly do get into the scriptures, what I've seen is people open to having different conversations. Right now, I'm leading a recognition.

group, a virtual reconcile group. And we have hard conversations. We have conversations about race or racism, about judgments and, you know, fears and things like that. And when we come together, it's more along the lines of, oh, hey, you have that thought too. I didn't realize that you could have that thought or you would have that thought. I also have that thought. What does the scripture say about forgiveness? What does the scripture say about bearing with one another in love, about giving grace? We talk about all of that. And we can talk about culture and how we see culture doing things that are definitely outside of the scriptural boundaries. And so when we come together and I've seen this not just in reconcile, but I've seen this in the trainings that we do as the scripture goes forward, as the gospel goes

forward as we talk about what it means to love and to uphold or maintain unity that Paul talks about, we see people's hearts coming together. Oh, that's really good. So when you wrote this study, did you have in mind individuals doing it or you just said you're leading a reconciled group. So is that what it's designed for? Help us understand who the target of this is, how people could use it. Well, the target one is for Christians. My immediate goal is to help us as believers understand racial unity, understand what it means to be family. And next, it would be available, and I think accessible to a single person, like wanting to go through it on their own, to study more, or to a group. I think in a group setting, you get to see.

hear the perspectives of other people, and I appreciate that. In the setting of just a single person, it is definitely a Bible study where you can go through the scriptures and see what the Word of God says for yourself. This is not a study where I desire to be before people just teaching, teaching, teaching. I want people to be able to dig into the Word of God. And it was written with my ministry partner, Krista. And she's a theologian. And as a theologian, both of our goals, was to get people into the word, not becoming reliant upon my face on a video to teach you and say, well, this is what you must believe. No, dig into the word and see what the scriptures say. Well, I know for sure, having read it, that you deliver on exactly what you're saying.

When you go through this study, it's full of scripture. It's very inductive. You're looking it up. You're kind of asking yourself, hey, what does scripture command me to do? What's it calling out in my life? What direction is it giving me? So I loved that about it. So let's just keep digging in on this topic, especially from a biblical point of view. Racism is a word that is thrown out a lot. I find that people mean different things by it. Not everybody has a common definition of racism. When you think about racism, can you give us a biblical perspective on it or just experience

from your own life? What is racism? So from a biblical perspective, there isn't a word in scripture, racism. There isn't a scripture that says, thou shalt not be a racist. what we can do is we can look at different sins and kind of piece together the issue of racism that we see today. So ethnic partiality, the issue of partiality favoring one person or being partial to one person over another because of their ethnicity. Slander based on ethnicity or skin color hatred based on ethnicity, murder, based on ethnicity, all of these things based on someone's ethnic cultural background or skin color. Yeah, it's kind of interesting that there's not a racist, do not be racist command, but all the sins that we could commit against one another can also be committed against someone because they are different from us.

Yeah. So I can commit a sin against someone because they are white. I can commit a sin against someone because they are black or brown. It is the attitude of the heart in that person that I think scripturally we would say this makes up this sin. Now, in my own experience with racism, I used to be like a raging racist. I have an ethnic slur for every people group on the planet. Where did you learn those ethnic slurs for everybody? From friends in the church. Really? Yeah. I think the issues of race and racism are deeper than what we generally want to talk about in the church.

And this is where I think some of the questions in reconciled pull that out. It's not just an issue of white people have racism in their hearts and they think these things about black and brown people. No, this is a human issue. We tend to judge things or people that are different than us and different than our norms. I'm sorry, you said you used to be a raging racist, and I just want to go back to that. So when you think about being a raging racist, does that mean that you tried to avoid white people, or does that mean that you are mean-spirited or angry toward white people? What does that look like? No, I actually think that it's a little bit deeper than that, actually. I think that to some degree it was just a level of being fake.

Like, I can smile in your face and talk to white people on one day and at one moment and be fine and have friendships with white people. But deep in my heart, believe that, well, I don't know that you actually have all of my best intent to put forward. Or when I get with my black and brown friends or my friends who are of color having horrible conversations about white people, simply because they are white, grouping them all together in their tribal grouping. which we don't see in scripture based on skin color, completely damning or demeaning a group of people based on skin color. But like I said, I could do that based on any group.

It didn't happen just because someone was white. I like what you said there because I think we're all prone to do that. And that is make assumptions about a person because they are a part of a bigger group. It could be wealthy people. It could be white. It could be black. It could be where they live. But we draw conclusions about you, not based on you.

as an individual, but instead because of a class or group that you're in. We're all prone to do that. I think we're all prone to prejudge. I think that that is a part of the sinful human condition, that we will, instead of doing Jesus' words about judge correctly or judge rightly, I think that's Matthew 7. We will judge based on a previous experience. We'll judge based on something I see in social media, based on the fact that what I might consider good, true, and beautiful, that may not align with scripture. And when someone else doesn't show up, according to my definition of good, true, and beautiful, then I judge that. So you said earlier that you were a raging racist, I think. I'm just trying to use your words back, right? I don't want to call you that because I don't know you well enough

to say that about you, but that's what the past you came out of. So this is kind of a, maybe a touch personal, but have you been on the other side of it where you've been the victim, of other people's racism? I think I have been the victim of racism from many different positions. Again, I don't look at racism necessarily as being just a white to black thing. I think that black people can also be racist against black people. Have I been the victim of that? Sure.

Have I been the victim of white racism to black racism or to black because of the color of my skin? Sure. I lived abroad for a couple of years. I experienced racism there. Yeah, I have. And where'd you live? I lived in South Africa.

Okay, you lived in South Africa. And this was years ago or more recently? No, this was 2014 to 2018. Okay. So they have their own racial history with apartheid and that. Have they experienced much cultural, racial healing since all that? Or is it still as divided as it once was? I think it depends on the spectrum that you look at.

Do people get along? Are people able to work together? Sure. Does South Africa still have colored communities? communities, white communities, black communities as far as living, sure. And there is opportunity to grow, to move, to live. You know, there are blacks who live in white areas and colored people who live in black areas and vice versa. But they're still very new into this conversation. Do you ever read the memoir by Trevor Noah about growing up in South Africa? You know what? I started it

and I didn't finish it. You didn't like it? Oh, it had nothing to do. It didn't like it. It was just a time thing. I think I sat it down and I didn't have time to come back to it. But yeah. I started feeling bad because I actually read it and liked it. I don't know hardly anything about Trevor Noah. I've never seen them on any of his shows. But I thought it was kind of insightful. Now I hadn't lived in South Africa. So you probably already had those insights from your own personal experience, but I kind liked it. So when you were the victim of racism, is this keep you out of a job? Or is this more the kind of racism that pigeonholes you, that draws conclusions about you because you're the color of your skin or was it something that kept you from having friendships? What was the impact of the

racism that was directed against you? I think it was more interpersonal than something that we might consider structural. So instead of there's a structure here that's going to keep me out of a job that's going to keep me from advancing or things like that, it was more like, oh, this person called me the N-word or this person said this because of the color of my skin, things like that, as opposed to, like I said, more of the structural job situations. Okay, so I want to get to that structural or maybe people heard it called systemic racism, either one. But first, one more question. Did you say earlier that a lot of the places that you experienced racism was inside the church? Is that right? I think the conversations that I've had regarding racism or racist conversations, the jokes that I would

make were mostly in the church. From the time I was about 16 when I accepted the Lord, as my savior, the majority of my friends came from the church. And so I could sit up and laugh with the best of them about any people group without being checked on the fact that, hey, that actually is slander or, hey, that's actually hatred based on ethnicity. Yeah, I mean, it just is a reminder that as Christians, we need to start in our own house dealing with these issues. And instead of fighting against the culture at large, maybe we should kind of

and get our act together and open the Bible and conform to its teachings, conform to the model of Jesus, and fight against racism within our own walls before we get too upset about what's happening outside of our walls. But you called it structural racism. Are you familiar with Issa McCulley? I am. He wrote that book, Reading While Black, which we talked about on Tim in a Bible Talks before. He's a professor at Wheaton and Anglican priest. He writes columns for the New York Times periodically. and he had a column, I think a couple weeks ago in which he was talking about how Christians need to fight against systemic racism. And I just want to read a paragraph of it and then kind of get your thoughts on it. Esau McCauley writes this in the New York Times.

Christianity teaches that humans left her own devices often pursue their own distorted interests. We call this tendency sin. When you add in political and economic power to get what you want at the expense of others, you have the recipe for systemic injustice. Systemic racism is just one form out of many that people use to get what they want at the expense of others. People can rob you at gunpoint and government can rob you through eminent domain. Both are wrong. Do you think that racism can be both personal like we've been discussing and systemic, or as you called it, structural? I believe that whenever you get two or more sinful hearts together that are wicked and who can know them,

yes, you have the potential for a structure that can be sinful. Yes, but when I think about Dr. McCauley's article and that quote specifically, I think there's some jumbling up of definitions and things that could be threaded through a bit more clearly so that we can all understand what's being talked about. The idea of systemic racism, it's a word that I tend to stay away from and talk more about structural racism. The idea of systemic racism right now is a hot word. It gets thrown everywhere without a lot of definition. That's why I'm asking you about it.

When I read through your study, reconciled, I had this feeling that you were going to maybe push back on that quote, not totally disagree with it, but want to nuance it or clarify it or bring some clarity nuance to it. What is it you think Christians get wrong about systemic racism? Or maybe the culture gets wrong. What do we get wrong about it? Well, I think that a lot of the conversation is that systemic racism is everywhere, and it's only

perpetuated by white people. So when we look at the judicial system, we need to defund the police now because there is systemic racism in every piece of the judicial system. Well, is that actually true? Is there data to prove that? What research has been done to say that every police department across America is now impacted by systemic racism? does a person's skin color truly mean that they are participating in a system even beyond their willful participation and now making them, quote unquote, racist?

I think we need to do more study and a deeper dive into that before I just accuse all white people of now participating in racism or before I say that all systems are broken and structurally racist or systemically racist. And so when I look at this quote, I believe that there's some conflation and potentially, an equivocation of ideas. We get our definition of sin objectively from the scriptures. But then he throws in systemic racism, which is very nebulous without definition. How do I know that I'm doing it? If I go to the end of his quote, he says, if you rob someone at gunpoint, well, I know that that's wrong because that's theft. I look back in the law. I see that. Imminent domain could be considered theft. I look back in the law and I see that this is an issue. Where is his definition for systemic racism? What is he calling it? And how do I know according to the scripture that this wrong. So if I hear you right, and I'm not sure I do, so I want you to clarify, I don't want to put

words in your mouth. But if I hear you right, you're saying, yes, anytime we get two and more sinners together and they're trying to set up a structure, it could be a school, could be a workplace, could be a church, could be anything. Government, of course, sinners working together to put together structures, there's going to be sinful tendencies embedded in those structures. So I think what you're saying is if that's what systemic racism is, then yes, you recognize that. But I think what you're pushing back against is maybe the Robin DiAngelo, Ibram X. Kendi kind of racism that all whites are guilty or all people of one race are inherently guilty of racism and that that racism can be proven by any kind of inequity in outcomes. And you're saying, no, we can't just jump

to a quick conclusion that everywhere there is an inequity, that automatically means that racism has occurred. Am I getting it right? Yes. You're on the right track. I think that wherever you have two or more people, yes, there will be sinful tendencies because humans are sinful. How are we looking at intentionality? Am I intentionally creating a system or a structure to be able to exclude certain people or to create inequities? Every inequity, one, is not an injustice. We see this in scripture. But then two, Are we recognizing that any person at any time or place or any people, despite skin color, can also participate in systemic or structural injustice? It's not something that only white people can do.

I can get together with my black friends, open a restaurant, and create a microsystem that disadvantages my white customers. If we're going to talk about poverty and systemic issues regarding poverty, do we leave out people who are not black or brown? the scriptures are clear that we must be impartial in our judgment. We must be impartial in the exercising of justice. And that is where I push back. How are we being, to use the culture's terms, inclusive of all people, biblically speaking, how are we being impartial? According to Kendi, Kendi would push for the idea that, well, I'm going to have inequity against some so that we can build others up. But that's not a scriptural principle. principle says that we do not participate with each other according to that type of partiality.

Okay, look, I could go on and on forever, but we won't keep going down that road. But I'd love to have you back and talk more about that because I think you're saying some things that people, including myself, really need to think through and learn. Let me ask you this, before we totally move off of it, is I think Christians sometimes see personal racism very clearly. if I treat you differently because of your skin color, we all get that. I think Christians sometimes have a more difficult time, at least American white Christians. Let me be clear, of seeing structural racism.

I think sometimes black Christians, people of color who are followers of Christ, they just see it differently because their life experiences are a bit different. Why do white Christians tend to miss the structural part while they clearly see the personal part? Or do you even grant what I just said is true? I don't necessarily grant it as true. I'm not white. So, I mean, I don't know if everybody will be able to see the podcast or if it's just like a Spotify kind of thing listening only, but I'm not white. And in having this conversation, you know, I push back against it because I think, one, there is a call and a demand that white people must see themselves as being racist. They must see themselves as participating in structural

racism, where that's almost a new concept for so long we've only looked at racism as being this idea of the interpersonal. Now, can I look at scripture and say, yes, where two or more hearts collude together, we can see issues that present systems? Sure, but I can't answer and say, you know, why do white people that they don't see this? I don't think that we have data for that. I think that if I were to talk to some of the people who come on our Facebook page or who write in, there are many white people who would say, I see structural racism everywhere. My question is, how are you defining that? And are you defining it in a way that is consistent with a scriptural viewpoint? Or are you saying, well, I see inequity. And because I see inequity, I now see injustice.

The two don't always line up. Every inequity is not an injustice. Okay. So let me set that aside fully this time. And if you're willing, we'll have a further conversation about that in the future. You have this organization you co-founded the Center for Biblical unity. And you seem like the kind of person that picks her words carefully. And so what I get from that is that you think there's a kind of unity. What I get from the name of your organization is there's a kind of unity that is available to Christians or as biblical, as you say it in the title, that maybe isn't available to those who don't follow Christ. Am I right to see that? What are some misconceptions that Christians have about unity?

I think some of the misconceptions Christians have about unity is that we can't have it until one group white people have paid reparations. We can't have it until there's an acknowledgement of systemic injustice, that we can't have it until X, Y, and Z. Like there's a whole litany of works that have to be done in order for us to have this, quote, unquote, racial reconciliation. We can't have unity. until there's an acknowledgement of slavery and things like that.

But we don't find that scripturally. So you're saying that the kind of cultural definition of unity is that we have a lot of work to do before we can have it. And I get that you're getting ready to say, no, the Bible says what, that we already have it in Jesus? Well, ontologically or supernaturally, yes. So when you look at Second Corinthians and we have our hearts reconciled back to God, Most people put forward that that reconciliation is about a racial reconciliation. We can jump from having hearts reconciled to God to now I need to go out and pursue racial reconciliation. Well, actually, that reconciliation talks about hearts reconciled back to God.

When we look into Ephesians, and we talk about this a lot at the Center for Biblical Unity, of what does Ephesians mean for the believer? For the believer, we are brought into the family of God. And if I am brought into the family of God and you are now my brother, regardless of your skin color, what more Reconciliation needs to take place. I can't be any more reconciled to my physical brother than I already am. We are family. Now, we can talk about how do we walk in unity, but this idea that I have to go out and pursue this reconciliation in order for us to be family, in order for us to be able to worship together. That's not exactly what the scriptures say. I love that answer. It seems like the reconciliation between people and God, but also between Jew and Gentile that we read about in Romans, other places in the New Testament, has a lot to teach us that God was very concerned, not just about reconciling individuals to himself, but reconciling individuals to each other inside of a community called the church, right, those who follow Jesus. I can't help, but go right to then this question.

There are a certain group of Christians who are encouraging black Christians to leave white churches. And I say white churches. I mean predominantly white churches, right? And they have a hashtag leave loud and they're making a big deal out of black Christians, not giving cover. I'm not exactly sure what language they would use, but not endorsing or giving cover to white churches. And I have an idea that you're probably not enthusiastic about that leave loud movement. Am I reading that right? Help us understand what you might say to someone who says, hey, let's get all the black Christians out of white churches? What would your response to them be? I would ask, how does that line up with Ephesians for? Where we bear with one another? Where we forgive, where that word bear with one another

literally means to go again. Where do we see Jesus telling us, you know, pack up your bags because of the color of your skin, pack up your bags because you don't like this style of worship, pack up your bags because you feel offended. If he can get a tax collector and fishermen together who were cultural enemies. Are you trying to tell me that he can't bring me and a white person together? I don't see a book, a chapter, and a verse that gives me the right to leave loud. Now, I'm not talking about if a church is preaching unorthodox scripture or things like that, but if your church is deep in the morning and they are preaching a right word, I don't see scriptural support for the leave loud campaign. So I'm a pastor of a church in a town that is, I don't know,

60, 70% white, probably 10, 11% black. And so our church, because of our community, is largely white, but we also have a lot of black people involved. And they have clearly chosen this church because it's good for their faith, it's good for their family. There's something about it that makes it a good fit for them. And I assume that's true, not just of our church, but all these churches that are predominantly white, but they have black people, black Christians involved in.

And so I get concerned in the Leave Loud campaign that what's happening is that people are undermining trust in the church, undermining this family, this black family's trust that they can attend this white church, learn to follow Jesus, be reconciled with people of all colors and ethnicities and backgrounds and races and classes. And so it feels like that Leave Loud campaign is doing a lot of damage, pulling people out of churches that are good for their soul. What else would you say about that? I would ask the question of where are the black people supposed to go? Black churches, and we don't need to go down, you know, this whole road of black church and things like that. But there are a lot of black churches that have a lot of issues. Sure, just like there are a lot of white churches. Yeah, like just like there are a lot of white churches that have a lot of issues.

But where are they supposed to go? And, you know, a report came out a couple years ago about black women leaving the church, white or black to go and join witch covennes. Well, who's addressing that? Where do you want me to go, Tisbee? Like, where am I supposed to be going? in your leave loud campaign. Now, if I am leaving a church, any church, regardless of color, because you are preaching a false gospel, that's different. But we don't undermine, and I like that word, we don't undermine the body, because it's really a body issue. We don't undermine the body

for the sake of preference or for this idea of undefined racism. Yeah. Seems like King Jesus gains more glory through a diverse body of Christ, learning to love him first and then love our neighbor. And the more that we become homogenous, all white or all black, or all anything, we are taking away glory from Jesus. In John Jesus prays, John 17, he prays, he says that he's given us what we need for unity. He's given it to us. And so the idea that we don't have it is false. And yes, I can acknowledge that at one point in America's history, there was a need for a black church. There was a need for a black church because of segregation and racism. And yet we do not live in that day today. And so how do we

break down this idea that we still need to continue in this vein of, well, you need to be a part of the black church or that's a white church. We don't live there today. And I think one of the greatest visual depictions of our unity would be a unified body, a church that has many different skin tones in it. I love it, and I completely agree. In a moment, I'm going to ask you if you will pray for us and for God to be at work in us. I would love for you to pray for people to love their neighbor and that God would give us the grace to stop being impartial and instead be sacrificial toward each other. But before I do, what are the resources that the center of biblical unity has for us? Is it this study? Are there other resources? And where do we find those resources? sources. So you can find all of our stuff on Facebook or on our website, the Center for Biblical

Unity. Our website is center for biblical unity.com. We just released Reconciled on July 31st. That is our six-week curriculum. Aside from that, my ministry partner, she's over like all of our educational materials and things are always popping up on Facebook. You can go and check out what we're doing there, what we're putting out. And you just type in Center for Biblical Unity, either on Facebook or on Instagram. Every Thursday at 6, we do a family meeting where we just talk about what's happening within the ministry. We answer questions. You can come and check us out there on Facebook or on Instagram. Thursdays 6 p.m. Pacific, I am in the Pacific time zone. We do trainings. We travel, we speak. And it's about making sure that if we're building unity, we are building unity on the

foundation of Jesus Christ first and the historic Christian faith. We're not looking to leave loud. We are looking to build and uphold and maintain the historic faith once for all given to the saints. I love it. And I would also encourage you to check out the podcast that you and your ministry partner do called All the Things. I think you'll find they have exciting guests and really fun. They have a fun time with it. So, Monique, it's been great talking with you. Would you pray for biblical unity for our listeners, but also for God's church wherever they are in the world. Yes. Father, I thank you so much just for your call for us to be unified. It's your heart, Lord. It was your prayer in John that we would be one and that as being one,

as being united and walking in unity, that that would be a display to the world to let others know that you love us and that God sent you. So, Father, I just ask that. we would pursue biblical unity, a unity that is founded on the truth of Scripture and the reality of what is available through Jesus Christ. God, I just pray for wisdom. I pray for pastors, Lord, to have wisdom to navigate these conversations. I pray for grace that we would give each other grace, that we would not withhold grace or withhold forgiveness due to partiality or prejudice or ethnic hatred or anything like that. Father, I just ask for wisdom for your people that we would would walk in wisdom, that we would walk in truth. And that as we walk in wisdom and in truth,

we would walk with one another, Father, that we would walk with one another in a way that is despite skin color, Father, because we walk on the truth of your word. We walk in the truth of your word. Father, I just ask for every listener that their hearts would just be sensitive to the power of your Holy Spirit and recognize any place in them that may be upholding partiality. May we repent and ask forgiveness where needed in your holy name. Amen. Amen. Thanks so much, Monique. Thanks for spending time with us. Really appreciate it. No problem. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating.

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