At that time, Winkler said the NCC was past its financial “near-death experience” and ready to “fearlessly” take on racism and the legacy of slavery, which he called “the toughest issue in the entire history of North and South America.”
The NCC has since developed a list of resources to support the reparations bill in Congress, H.R. 40, including scholarly articles, Bible verses about justice and “counterarguments to the objections.” Winkler spoke in favor of reparations during the NCC’s 2020 virtual Christian Unity Gathering.
“Reparations for enslavement is biblical,” he said, citing a verse from the Book of Deuteronomy that says, “And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed.”
Winkler was also among the faith leaders who joined an August march to the U.S. Capitol to demand passage of the Biden White House’s infrastructure bill, arguing that it would support more just and equitable conditions in the nation. The previous week, he spoke at another march focused on voting rights and a $15 an hour federal minimum wage.
The NCC’s member denominations represent some 35 million Christians in Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican, evangelical and historic Black denominations and “peace churches,” including Church of the Brethren.
Prior to his work for NCC, Winkler served for almost three decades at the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, where he became general secretary in 2000.
This article originally appeared here.
