In this op-ed, Rev. Kevin Smalls says voting yes on Ballot #3 will make necessary changes to the United Methodist Constitution and strengthen the church’s commitment to becoming an anti-racist church.
REV. B. KEVIN SMALLS
Pastor, Southfield: Hope UMC
The United Methodist Church will gather in the 2025 season of annual conference sessions, and among their workload will be to engage in conversation, discernment, and decision-making around four amendments that passed at the 2020/2024 General Conference and must be ratified.
Ballot #3 centers around the church’s acknowledgment of racism and its impact on God’s creation. To be sure, the language found within the amendment can appear to be strong and even taboo. Some words can feel triggering to many, such as “racism,” “white supremacy,” “white privilege,” and “colonialism.” One reason these words are difficult to embrace, or even mention, is that they are often utilized in heated exchanges, fierce debates, and sometimes derogatory name-calling. It feels best to not disturb the peace by saying nothing. When this happens, the world continues to go unchallenged by the people of God called the church.
These days, our society witnesses volatile images of conflict around these very words. Some of these images are of militia groups walking through communities shouting, “White power!” Or students in the local high school in fisticuffs over someone using a racial slur. Perhaps we’ve seen social media clips of neighborhood brawls, screaming epithets in a restaurant, or collisions of insults and assaults in grocery stores. Underneath much of this is racial hatred.
The responding narrative to some of these situations by a few is the false assertion that all are equal, racism doesn’t exist, and we don’t have this problem in my neighborhood or church, in addition to a barrage of defensive statements, including “I’m not racist.”
Some may be weary of the subject of race and feel it is not necessary to keep bringing it up. The truth is racism is very real. It has plagued our nation since its inception. It’s an ugly truth, but a truth, nevertheless. Racism gives way to notions of racial superiority, otherwise known as white supremacy, white power, and even colonialism. All of us are living with the residue of racism on our clothes that has been handed down for generations.
Ballot #3, which amends Article V of the United Methodist Constitution, makes provisions for The United Methodist Church to dig deeper in defining its stance on God’s creation, God’s dream, and God’s vision of a whole creation claimed and redeemed by God’s love. This vision includes a community where all of God’s children are seen, heard, invited, and included — and do so one with another. Explore the GCORR resources related to this amendment change.
We are the church. At times, that means we are countercultural to the neighborhood or family gatherings we occupy. It often means we look nothing like the world we live in. Instead, we look like what the world could be. This is the opportunity before us with Ballot #3.
We need not be defensive. We need not be afraid. We need not be biased. We need not grow weary before this weighty call. We need not be dragged into the world’s anger, rage, and fury. We have another way. That is the way of love. I see you. Feel free to see me — all of me. This seeing is also called “love.”
In preparation for this vote, I encourage all eligible lay members and full-member clergy to read or reread John Wesley’s famous sermon, “On the Catholic Spirit.” His text is from 2 Kings 10:15, a portion of which reads, “Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? If it be, give me thine hand.”
This amendment is not mere rhetoric, unless we make it so. We can do this! We can become anti-racists! We can inspire and transform!
As we vote, may we boldly claim our faith. As we gladly and willingly hold hands — sibling and sibling — let us determine that, through God’s power and love, and come what may, we can do this in Jesus’ name!
Last Updated on May 20, 2025