About.
What is the Reparations-Inspired Fund of Elkhart County?

Responding to the centuries long call for reparations, Elkhart County congregations and individuals are partnering together to create a fund. All funds received will be given to Indigenous and Black self-determination, justice, liberation and flourishing in and beyond Elkhart County. To learn how the fund works, click here.

Why "inspired"?
There is a very specific call for reparations from the federal government. While we need a federal reparations plan, we seek to act now in whatever ways we can. We are persuaded by the moral and spiritual call to do our part in seeking to redress past harms.
What is Reparations?
The word “reparation” refers to the work of repairing; often in relation to a historical wrong, and often in the form of restitution (returning what was wrongly taken) and restoration (restoring the wronged to wholeness).  
Reparations are not charity, a gift, or an act taken to ease our conscience; rather, they are best understood as payment of an actual debt for harm committed (restitution) and answering the Biblical call to love God and neighbor (restoration).

Photo Credit: Bryan Dozier/ Shutterstock

Why should churches support this fund?
Like the tax collector Zacchaeus in Luke 19, the church is called to return wealth that was made through the exploitation of others (including wealth received through various forms of inheritance). Like the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, the church is called to restoration and healing when we we see our neighbors have been harmed.

​There are numerous ways in which Indigenous and African American peoples have been harmed by the lies of white supremacy in the United States. One manifestation of this is the racial wealth gap in which the median white household has significantly greater wealth than Indigenous and Black households. Contributing to the Reparations-Inspired Fund is one way to seek repair for the centuries of harm that has occurred and that continues to be felt today.