Summer Connection 2020

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THOUGHTS ON KINGDOM COMMUNITY Members of the Wheaton Academy Kingdom Community (Parent Committee, Student Committee, and Faculty/Staff) were asked for their thoughts about Wheaton Academy’s Kingdom Community efforts. Excerpts from their responses are presented here. Read the questions that were asked and the respondents’ complete answers for each question at wheatonacademy.org/voices-1. WELDON Williams, Board of Trustees and Past Parent How do you feel Wheaton Academy has made progress in striving to be a Kingdom Community over the last few years, and how can we continue to grow in this area? I believe that the Kingdom Community vision for Wheaton Academy has slowly made advances toward being realized. The faculty and staff’s genuine love for Christ and others is exemplified in the way they pour their lives into all children, regardless of color, and seek to have the tough discussions regarding the prevailing issues in society. A genuine, heartfelt commitment to see God’s Kingdom is manifested in their midst. The challenge before Wheaton Academy is to understand the ways the prevailing norms of society may continue to perpetuate systemic bias and disenfranchisement. The greatest challenge for people is to recognize that they have blind spots and to seek to uncover them. Greg Cox ’82, Past Parent and Member of the Kingdom Community Parent Committee The Kingdom Community initiative has its biblical foundation in Scripture as found in Revelation 7. How do you see this positively at work here? The school is different than when I went here in the late 70s and early 80s. I had a great experience, but I see much more diversity now than we had back then. This current administration seems intentional in making the school as it needs to be in terms of diversity. Wheaton Academy has been diligent, seeking to understand, asking questions, and making an effort to change. While change is not easy, it is really important. We may not be where we need to be yet, but I think we are moving in a good direction. Isabelle Case, Faculty Wheaton Academy’s Kingdom Community is rooted in the belief that we are all created in the image of God. What real life applications does this belief have for our students? Each person is due the respect given to God’s creation, indeed the creation He deemed as special and above all else. It is imperative for us as Christians to 12
treat each other not just nicely, but with kindness, love, and respect. We can be better equipped for doing this by exposing ourselves to the stories and experiences of people who do not look/talk/act like we do. “The challenge before Wheaton academy is to understand the ways the prevailing norms of society may continue to perpetuate systemic bias and disenfranchisement. The greatest challenge for people is to recognize that they have blind spots and to seek to uncover them.” WELDON WilliAMS Gerald Blackmon ’19 Explain how your relationship with Wheaton Academy began. My relationship with Wheaton Academy began five years ago as a young black kid looking for a safe place to grow into a young adult. Although opportunity was everywhere at the Academy, I felt as though I had to take a different route than the white students, which was an overwhelming, frustrating, and even heartbreaking feeling. That feeling of never measuring up blinded my focus and vision from what was right in front of me, but only for a short time. In front of me were teachers and staff who were believers in Christ before their career. They exemplified Christ’s love and saw me as not just a young black kid but as a young black MAN in need of direction. I realized that I did not need to measure up to anyone but instead to be the best version of me. Christian Rivera, Faculty How do you see the murder of George Floyd, and the subsequent national protests, affecting our community? [The death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests] should raise awareness of the sensitivity of the issue of equity that exists for those who are not a part of the majority group. Many feel like “everything is fine… we are no longer living in the days of civil rights so all is fine.” Unfortunately, many minority groups still carry the heaviness, sometimes even bitterness and frustration, of the generational injustices, and these responses can be triggered by insensitivity to the issues or by blindness to the fact that injustice does still exist. These current events can propel Wheaton Academy to help students understand that what may not be an issue in their eyes may be a deeprooted issue that affects some students daily. Rochelle Yang, Faculty Wheaton Academy was founded by abolitionist parents who were seeking to provide a biblical worldview for their kids and train them to “fight the evils of society at that time,” predominantly slavery. What can Wheaton Academy do to continue the fight against today’s “evils of society,” such as racism and bigotry? We must admit that racism and bigotry still exist in this broken world. But I’m afraid I disagree with many of the statements made by news outlets and protesters. Empty slogans cannot fight racism and bigotry. They do not solve any problem. We need to seek truth in God’s words and do real work to connect with people in various cultures and serve different communities. 13
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Summer Connection 2020

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