On Earth Peace board member works with UN subcommittee on racism.

When Doris Abdullah pondered how her involvement as a board member of On Earth Peace connects with her membership on a United Nations subcommittee working against racism, two scripture texts came to her: Revelation 22:2c, "...And the leaves of the tree (of life) are for the healing of the nations"; and James 3:18. She likes a Catholic Bible version of James 3:18, "The harvest of justice is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace."

Abdullah is a member of the UN Subcommittee for the Elimination of Racism of the International NGOs (non-governmental organizations) Committee on Human Rights. She also serves as a credentialed representative of the Church of the Brethren with the UN. The Church of the Brethren has a long-standing history as a certified NGO with one of the UN directorates, according to Stan Noffsinger, general secretary of the General Board. For many years, former General Board staff member Shantilal Bhagat served as a Church of the Brethren representative to the UN, as well.

The sub-committee, which meets once a month, has "a great commission," Abdullah said: the charge to eliminate racism, "which the UN considers a scourge on human history." As a member of the subcommittee, she also had the opportunity to attend the 59th Annual Department of Public Information/NGO Conference on "Unfinished Business: Effective Partnerships for Human Security and Sustainable Development." The Sept. 6-8 gathering featured presentations on effective partnerships to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of the UN. Abdullah's subcommittee offered a workshop titled, "Racism and Discrimination as a Cause of Poverty and Hunger."

Still awed by the level of work she has become involved in, Abdullah thought, "Pinch me!" when she was seated only five rows from UN secretary general Kofi Annan at the conference. The address Annan gave impressed her as well. "He said that we are the boots on the ground that push things forward," referring to NGOs like the Church of the Brethren and On Earth Peace, she said. For Abdullah, the work of these organizations are "like the leaves of the tree in Revelation."

Ecumenical and international perspectives come naturally to Abdullah, and are major reasons for her involvement with the UN. "I suppose God prepares you for the things you do in life, although you don't realize it," she said. Her personal journey of respect for people of other backgrounds began early, with her wedding to her Muslim husband, held at Convent Avenue Baptist Church in New York, with a Jewish friend as an attendant. In her professional career of 30 years, she was employed in the New York area by an international company based in Europe.

Then, five years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, "when those buildings came down," her world changed, she said. At about the same time she retired and had new time and energy to work on the healing of a world she characterizes as deeply flawed by the linked ills of racism and poverty.

Abdullah joined the On Earth Peace board in 2002; she joined the UN subcommittee just this April. The goals of On Earth Peace are the same as the goals of her work at the UN, "because as long as there is racism, we cannot have peace," Abdullah said. She pointed to the Church of the Brethren's recognition of racism as an enduring structural factor related to poverty, in the 2000 Annual Conference statement, "Caring for the Poor." The UN recognizes the link between racism and poverty in its Millennium Development Goals, which Annual Conference has endorsed.

Abdullah's concern for the connection between racism and poverty shows in her volunteer work at a shelter for young women. In the three years she has worked there, she said, she has seen only three white women stay at the shelter; all the others have been Hispanic and African-American. The women are there because of dysfunctional family backgrounds, dismal experiences in the school system, lack of basic education, and lack of skills, Abdullah said. Many are pregnant and homeless at age 17 or younger.

"Why does this happen to these girls?" she asked. "We expect them to make choices. But there are no choices." The women are victims of institutional racism, she said. At the UN, Abdullah heard reports of the progress of African women, aided by programs teaching life skills, agriculture, and small enterprise. In contrast, she said, "my young ladies have no skills. They are fourth-world women living in the first world."

Praising the Church of the Brethren as a peace church, Abdullah also called Brethren to recognize the long way we have to go to eliminate racism. Referring to the "Caring for the Poor" statement, she called for fulfillment, for example, of the recommendation to make anti-racism training available in the denomination and a standard part of orientation for new employees.

The church "still is overwhelmingly white in its structure," she said. Society in the US is based on white privilege, the idea that "white makes you right," and the church has picked that up, she said. The rich color present among Brethren in places such as the Northeast, Chicago area, and sister churches in Nigeria and the Dominican Republic still remains to be seen in the denomination as a whole. "Our church drifts along with a white European structure at the top."

How can the church eliminate racism? Abdullah suggested some possibilities. One is the successful model used by Nelson Mandela to address the pain of apartheid in South Africa, where he worked on reconciliation first, before he started to seek justice, she said.

A story from the life of her "favorite white European," Mother Theresa, illustrates another measure to eliminate racism from the church. When Mother Theresa went to India, she discarded the traditional habit of a nun and created a habit more suited to Indian culture, Abdullah said. "Why? Because she never assumed that white means right." When churches begin asking what people of other cultures need, and allowing them to decide that for themselves, "of course you can succeed," she said, "if you throw off the nun's habit."

Her final suggestion may be startling to some: use shame. "Start by shaming people," Abdullah said. For example, the horrific events in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, revealing the persistence of poverty and racism, are shameful, she said. "You have to address it."

For more about the work of On Earth Peace, go to www.brethren.org/oepa.