The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 4

From The Board & sTaFF

Rethinking Peacemaking, Reimagining
Ourselves
by Allison Paksoy

The ethical task before both those who are oppressed and those who are privileged by the present institutionalized structures is not to reverse roles
or to share the role of privileged at the expense of some other group but, rather, to dismantle the very structures responsible for causing injustices
along race, class and gender lines, regardless of the attitudes bound to those structures. Only then can all within society, the marginalized as well
as the privileged, achieve their full humanity and become able to live the abundant life offered by Christ.
-Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins

here is a moment in BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz
board history that will stick with me forever. It was a
few years ago when one board member, a person of
color, responded to the conversation that was happening
with hurt and anger. For me and many other white people
in the room, this response seemed to come out of nowhere.
One person asked the question, with many heads nodding
in agreement, "How are we supposed to know what the
problem is if you don't tell us?" to which this member said,
"If you have to ask, then you just don't get it." I left the
room that day as clueless as when I entered. It wasn't until
months later that I would begin to connect the dots and
realize the significance of that moment.
While there have been many instances during my time
with BPFNA that have challenged, inspired or encouraged
me, this particular instance signified the beginning
of a transformation both personally and, as I see it,
organizationally. In the years since, there has been a shift
in our organizational culture, in our programming, and in
the work we do. We still have a ways to go, but we are at
least starting to get it.
In March of this year, BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz
board and staff participated in an anti-racism training
through an organization called Crossroads. The idea for
the training came from BPFNA's Centering Black Lives
Working group as a way for board members to form a
shared language, consider a new framework of thinking,
and help us to further analyze how we are complicit in
reinforcing White Supremacy. During the training we
examined many aspects of the organization including the
makeup of the board and staff; our constituency; who we
are in partnership with (and who we are not); our mission,
vision and goals; how we allocate resources and funds; and
even how we define our understanding of peacemaking.

Baptist Peacemaker

jul-sep 2017

Learning to be in the Borderlands
Almost all of scripture is written from the perspective of the
Borderlands and with a critique of Empire.

The overarching framework of the training looked at
the dynamics between the Center and the Borderlands.
The Center is the place where the norms and values of
a society are created and reinforced. It is "the model for
what it means to be normal, standard, desirable, good;
the place to access resources. Being successful means
'making it' in the Center." The Borderlands are located
on the margins of society. These are "places that need
to be saved, subdued, and civilized; to be remade in the
image of the Center; places that require surveillance,
policing and control because they are unpredictable and
dangerous; exotic places where people from the Center
can 'find themselves,' have fun, or experiment; places the
Center can exploit for resource extraction, consumption,
and expanding control."
BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz, along with other
institutions, straddle the line between the Center and the
Borderlands. While we ultimately belong to the Center,
we seek justice for those in the Borderlands. Yet our
ultimate goal in this has not been to dismantle the Center
but to bring more people inside. This current model has
us as gatekeepers who determine who is and who is not
"worthy" enough to make it.
Since it defines social norms, it is difficult for those of
us in the Center to operate outside of this mentality. The
dangerousness in this is that we often do not see our own
complicity within systems of White Supremacy. Especially
for an organization like ours that values diversity and
multiculturalism and authentically strives for peace rooted
in justice for all, it is discouraging to imagine that we
ultimately end up reinforcing a system that continues to
cause harm to those on the margins.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017