Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out last week to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, who expressed an interest — or who we thought might be interested! — in an adult faith formation discussion of the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson over the next two months. We call the group Sundays@6, and it meets over Zoom Sunday evenings at 6 p.m.
Hi everybody —
Just a reminder that Sundays@6 will resume on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 6 p.m. In this email are the handout we’ll be using for our first week (posted as an attachment), along with links to some interesting YouTube videos sent earlier this month.
We will be discussing “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent” by Isabel Wilkerson, and a couple of free copies are still available in the church office. We even have a couple copies of a “young adult” edition (geared for readers 12 to 18 years old), and young people are invited to join us.
“Caste” describes racism in the United States as an aspect of a caste system – a society-wide system of social stratification characterized by notions such as hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, and purity. Wilkerson compares aspects of the experience of American people of color to the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany, and she explores the impact of caste on the people and societies shaped by them.
We have attached a handout for the first session containing a list of questions we’ll be discussing, along with a schedule indicating which chapters we’ll be reading for the remaining weeks.
We’re also resending copies of links Pete sent earlier in the month, which you might find interesting:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/books/review-caste-isabel-wilkerson-origins-of-our-discontents.html — Critic Dwight Gardner’s review in The New York Times.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR3rEp_KiC4) — Wilkerson’s appearance Feb. 24 with Stephen Colbert on the Late Show.
- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/653196/caste-by-isabel-wilkerson/ — Publisher’s website.
We’ll meet, as always, on Zoom. As those who have attended our previous Sundays@6 group know, we like to open the Zoom session 15 minutes early each week so we can chat if we want to, or at least make sure our technology is working for us. You can connect with us beginning at 5:45 p.m. each week. Also, you can reach Pete and Debi at xxx-xxx-xxxx.
The Zoom link will be available in Peace Lutheran’s online newsletter, News You Can Use.
If for some reason you can’t get the link in the newsletter to work, you can use this link, meeting ID and passcode as well:
[redacted]
We’re sending the email to everyone we can think of who has joined Sundays@6 in the past; is part of Peace Lutheran’s faith formation program; or who just might be interested. But if we left anyone out, please feel free to forward this email to anyone, of any age, who might also be interested. Can you do us a favor and let us know if you’re planning to participate?
We look forward to seeing you Sunday!
— Debi and Pete
[Published Sept. 27, 2023]
Ordinary Time 