Adopted on 10/2/2020
Our commitment to becoming a reconciling, multicultural community
Organization Vision Statement:
InterVarsity’s vision is to be a missional, multicultural community compelled by the Gospel to engage in the transformation of individuals across campus.
Statement Adopted May 2016
Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship affirms its commitment to conducting its activities in accordance with William & Mary’s Policy on Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation. Membership in this organization shall be open to all without regard to irrelevant personal factors. Irrelevant personal factors include (without limitation) race or color, citizenship, national origin or ethnicity, ancestry, religion or creed, political affiliation or belief, age, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disability, marital status, pregnancy status, parental status, height, weight, military service, veteran status, caretaker status, or family medical or genetic information.
In accordance with our Constitution, all students wishing to serve on leadership with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship must affirm our Basis on Faith and Purpose Statement.
Constitution Passed Fall 1963. Can be found: tribelink.wm.edu/organization/interv
Commitment to Dismantling White Supremacy in InterVarsity:
“White supremacy is the systemic evil that denies and distorts the image of God inherent in all human beings based upon the heretical belief that white aesthetics, values, and cultural norms are the fullest representation of the imago Dei. White supremacy thus maintains that white people are superior to all other peoples, and it orders creation, identities, and social structures in ways that support this distortion and denial.”
-Chanequa Walker-Barnes, I Bring the Voices of My People:
A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2019), 30.
Commitments in the process of Dismantling White Supremacy:
–Organizational Efficiency – We commit to slowing down our organizational processes to hear important ideas and perspectives of those outside the majority white culture.
–Decision-making Protocols – We commit to listening to and implementing ideas and decisions from BIPOC members and leaders.
–Valuing Conflict over Simple Harmony – We commit to hearing feedback & taking action when members point out racial offenses and/or microaggressions.
Vision for a Reconciling Community
Our vision is for InterVarsity at large to be engaged in dismantling white supremacy in our chapter/community by: 1
- Committing to the constant journey of anti-racism work, realizing that the work is continuous and not completed by one time events.
- Recognizing that simply increasing “diversity” will not fix the problems, InterVarsity must dismantle systems of white supremacy in order for the multicultural community in our vision statement to thrive.
- Understanding the implications of race and racism on today’s society as well as the implications of ethnicity, family, and culture on our theology. 2
- Committing to attacking the anti-Black narrative that whiteness is at the top of the racial hierarchy and exposing ways that anti-Black sin links historical injustice to modern incarnations. 3
- Identifying ways that the Devil is actively using the lies of white supremacy to hold the church, this country, and ourselves captive to white supremacy. 4
- Telling the truth and confronting America’s racial history, the church’s poor discipleship on race, the history of Christian complicity, and the idol of White Nationalism.
- For white students in InterVarsity, committing to taking the burden of responsibility around learning about race/antiracism work off of BIPOC members of our community and placing it on themselves. How to put this into practice: they must prepare themselves to learn, receive guidance, and discern their own mission.
- Interrogating power in InterVarsity around who decides how mature Christianity is defined, how decisions are made, how leaders are selected, how voices that shape our chapter are decided on, how the needs of White members are attended to over others, how public acts of racism in society are corporately addressed, and how racial justice is described.
- Repenting for our own damaged identities, our ongoing complicity, and our misalignment with the mission of Jesus.
Footnotes:
1 Daniel Hill, White Lies: Nine Ways to Expose and Resist the Racial Systems the Divide Us (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020).
2 Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk about Race (New York: Seal, 2018), 27-29.
3 James McWilliams, “Bryan Stevenson on What Well-Meaning White People Need to Know about Race,” Pacific Standard, February 6, 2018, https://psmag.com/magazine/bryan-stevenson-ps-interview.
4 John 8:42-44
Repentance on Behalf of the Community
InterVarsity leadership repents and is seeking forgiveness from the BIPOC community of William & Mary, past members and alumni, and from God. As Christians, we feel called to repent on behalf of our organization for ways we have not addressed white supremacy and injustice in our community. The repentance that Jesus teaches calls people to make a radical turn from one way of life to another, which is the type of transformation we desire in our vision statement.
▫️We repent for the fact that often it is under the suggestion of leaders of color in our organization that we speak out on racial injustice. We have recognized that although we have often had strategies and plans for diversity and inclusion, we have never clearly communicated these plans nor been held accountable to them. May we be proactive in dismantling white supremacy, seeking a multi-ethnic community, and would we be clear with our words. To our BIPOC leaders, please forgive us. Lord, forgive us.
▫️Over the last four years, many BIPOC members and leaders have left InterVarsity because they did not feel valued or seen as members of our community. We did not extend the due hospitality or care for people who look different than us. As leaders, we prioritized the comfort of white students at the expense of our BIPOC brothers and sisters. To our BIPOC brothers and sisters, please forgive us. Lord, forgive us.
▫️As an organization we have talked about race and justice when convenient, instead of proactively pursuing anti-racism work on a regular basis. Leaders of color (now alumni) helped make great headway for our organization, but anti-racism work has become a secondary topic in the past 2 years. To our alumni, please forgive us. Lord, forgive us.
▫️In the fall of 2018, we hosted a series of ethnic breakout groups led by students of color with the purpose of helping minority students have a space to talk about the intersection of their life, ethnicity, and faith. We held a similar event for white students that was meant to serve as an introduction to anti-racism and white allyship. We ignorantly advertised this event with ambiguity because we did not have the correct language for what we were trying to accomplish, nor did we attempt to find that correct language. We hurt the Black community and brought unnecessary fear to campus. To the W&M BIPOC Community, please forgive us. Lord, forgive us.
We want to name these transgressions so that the William & Mary community can hold us accountable that they do not happen again. We want to be a community of active change, and as we work to dismantle the systems of White supremacy in InterVarsity, we believe we must start with repentance.
Commitments to Active Change
Teaching
- Every other semester we will host a month-long teaching series at our Large Groups specifically around dismantling white supremacy in our ministry and in our communities.
Planned and executed by our Large Group Team. Includes White Speakers on Dismantling White Supremacy, and BIPOC speakers on various topics. Purpose: #3 Understand race/racism, #4 Attacking Anti-Black narratives, #5 Identifying the Devil’s lies.
2. All leaders will go through a semesterly training/review of these documents and the commitments we are making as an organization to antiracism and dismantling white supremacy.
Planned and executed by our Staff and Exec Team.Purpose: #1 Continued Journey, #2 Continued Dismantling.
3. All freshmen who participate in our Freshmen Leadership Cohort will receive training on Theology of Ethnicity and Inclusion in Christian Leadership.
Planned and executed by our Staff and Leadership Cohort Coordinators. Purpose: #3 Understand race/racism, #7 Committing to Taking Burden off BIPOC.
4. We will send community members to participate in InterVarsity’s Richmond Justice Program Summer Training and our Spring Break service trips centered around understanding injustice in America, as well encouraging them to connect to other campus opportunities that do the same service work.
Planned and executed by Virginia Regional InterVarsity.Purpose: #6 Telling the Truth about History
Feedback
- Once a month at our leadership meetings (exec meetings, all-leadership meetings, and team meetings), we will offer a time of feedback around how our community is doing in our commitment to dismantling white supremacy.
Planned and executed by our Exec Leadership Team. Purpose: #5 Identifying ways we are held captive to White supremacy
- We will create and maintain a Google form where anyone can always anonymously share thoughts or concerns they have about InterVarsity’s work around diversity and inclusion.
Planned and executed by our Exec Leadership Team.
Purpose: #5 Identifying ways we are held captive to White supremacy
Power
- Our Exec team will create a working document to evaluate where the power for change exists in each of our ministry teams. This will include evaluating how decisions are being made, what voices are shaping those decisions, and how the needs of all members of our community are met by certain events/practices.
Created by our Exec Team, Done weekly by our leadership teams. Due by Oct. 16, 2020.
Purpose: #8 Interrogating Power
- Our Exec team will create a peer reviewed plan to address how public acts of racism in society are corporately addressed by InterVarsity and how racial justice is described in our community.
Created by our Exec Team. Due by Oct. 16, 2020.
Purpose: #8 Interrogating Power
- We will continue to care for and minister to the specific needs of the BIPOC community. This commitment includes training and developing BIPOC leaders to lead small groups, serve on our ministry teams, and serve on our Exec board.
Pursued by our Exec Team, Staff, and other Leaders.
Purpose: #8 Interrogating Power
- We will continue to give voice and power to BIPOC voices through increased representation in our Large Group Programming. This includes increasing the diversity of our worship music styles, speakers, and special events.
Planned and executed by our Large Group Team and Staff.
Purpose: #8 Interrogating Power
Resources
- We will promote books, learning, and opportunities for white students to learn about race/ethnicity/white supremacy. We will host discussions in our small groups, discipleships, and leadership meetings to foster growth and change among white students new and old to the conversation.
Planned and executed by our Staff and Exec Team.
Purpose: #7 Committing to Taking Burden off BIPOC, #3 Understand race/racism, #4 Attacking Anti-Black narratives, #5 Identifying the Devil’s lies.
2. InterVarsity at William and Mary will commit to fundraising and distributing alumni funds to support BIPOC student’s spiritual thriving on campus. This fund, to be administered by our InterVarsity BIPOC student leaders, will go to support purchasing of books for spiritual development, for bringing in speakers, for outreach events for the BIPOC community, or for wherever the administrators feel a need. The funds are accessible to any BIPOC students on campus, not just members of InterVarsity.
Administered by our Daily Bread Small Group.
*Scholarships for events/retreats/conferences/resources are always available to all students.