President Nicholas Perrin's statement in solidarity with the victims of racial injustice and all those who have been affected by these ongoing sinful acts
On May 25, 2020, a 46-year-old African-American man named George Floyd died a violent death while being pinned to the ground in police custody. Floyd’s tragic and needless death, together with the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, is no isolated incident. Rather this event and others like it are part of a systemic pattern that has plagued America since its origins. Captured on video, Floyd’s suffocation parted the backstage curtain on what has long been a longstanding, deep-seated, and intolerable injustice.
Trinity International University stands united with the victims of such injustices and all who have been affected by these ongoing sinful acts. Supporting our brothers and sisters, we pray now, O Lord, for your presence with the African-American community, especially African-American faculty, staff, and students in our midst.
And we call on individuals within the Trinity community to follow the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is our prophet, priest, and king. In prophetic obedience, we denounce and resist racism in all its forms, subtle or overt, personal or structural. In priestly obedience, we weep for the ways in which powerful institutions and deeply embedded cultural narratives have given permission to those in social and political authority “to crush and devour its victims, and trample underfoot whatever is left” (Dan. 7:7). In kingly obedience, we order our lives and God-given authority for the flourishing of all people, all tribes and all nations. We resolve anew to discharge these roles not by our own strength but by the grace of God -- not on account of any ideological commitments, “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition” (Col. 2:8), but on account of our kingdom vocation.
Trinity also acknowledges that as an institution we must renew our resolve to advance in this kingdom calling, even as this moment forces reflection on our own institutional past. As a prophetic institution, we confess to having often ignored racial concerns in our teaching, preaching, and public discourse. As a priestly institution, we admit that we have often failed to listen well to those who have experienced such injustice, even on our campuses. As a kingly institution, we acknowledge the ways in which we could have better led this community as a kingdom community made up of people from all nations. We acknowledge these things and, in the aftermath of these brutalities taking place in our land, we say along with the prophet Daniel, “We have sinned and have rebelled” (Dan. 9:5).
With broken hearts we as a diverse community confess our desperate reliance on our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our “hope as an anchor for the soul” who “enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain” (Heb 6:19). And because he has gone before us, we can follow, in renewed holy fear and trembling, the one and only true prophet, priest, and king. We at Trinity International University commit ourselves to acknowledge our own darkness, even as we allow God to shine his light through us—his exposing, convicting, and life-giving light. May the God of all peace strengthen us and protect our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
