{"id":9559,"date":"2022-10-25T07:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/?p=9559"},"modified":"2022-09-29T09:41:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T14:41:38","slug":"allen-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/allen-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"D.Min. Student Fights Injustice with Ancestry Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This aphorism is commonly attributed in some form to Winston Churchill, Edmund Burke, and others. But PTS Doctor of Ministry student the Rev. Raymond (Ray) Allen will remind you that the quote was originally written by Spanish American philosopher George Santayana in his book The Life of Reason<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be diligent about justice work so that we do not repeat the past,\u201d Ray says.<\/p>\n

His commitment to justice and to remembering history is what motivates Ray\u2019s ministry. For 16 years he has served as pastor of Bethany Missionary Baptist Church in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and has been a community organizer there for more than four decades. Until recently he was a community policing aide with the Niagara Falls Police Department, and currently works as the interim community organizer for Niagara Organizing Alliance for Hope, which exists to amplify the voices of the unheard in circumstances of injustice, and to empower people to participate in creating solutions.<\/p>\n

Doctor of Ministry Studies<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2019, Ray began D.Min. studies at PTS as part of the \u201cParish Focus: Risking Faithfully\u201d cohort. After completing course work, he still hadn\u2019t chosen a subject for his final project. But soon he became interested in DNA and ancestry research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat your parents tell you and what\u2019s on your birth certificate isn\u2019t always the full story. Your DNA is the real you,\u201d he argues. \u201cWhat your parents say, what\u2019s on paper, and what the science says doesn\u2019t always line up.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ray knows all about the different DNA and ancestry products available on the market today\u2014why they were started, what they can and can\u2019t tell you, and even the best time of year to buy a kit (around the holidays, when prices drop to entice gift-giving).<\/p>\n

Connecting DNA Kits, Theology, and Racial Justice<\/h3>\n

He also hopes to explore how to think about these things theologically and how they inform his other passion: social justice. \u201cYou don\u2019t get too far into Genesis before you come across ancestry. It shows you that ancestry is important in the Bible,\u201d he says. \u201cIt gives people a sense of purpose and identity in the larger story.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ray notes that this has been challenging for African Americans, because many of their ancestors were brought here as enslaved people. \u201cThis means we did not have a sense of identity, because it was taken from us. We were property,\u201d he says. That makes it difficult to trace ancestry in African American families and communities, and has made it easier to write African Americans out of the American story\u2014intentionally or not.<\/p>\n

Ray hopes that his research, and his work as a community organizer in Niagara Falls, N.Y., can change that. He believes that learning more about one\u2019s ancestral identity, and how that ancestry fits into the larger story of this nation, will help us all better remember our shared history. If not, Ray says, we are very likely \u201ccondemned to repeat it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.\u201d This aphorism is commonly attributed in some form to Winston Churchill, Edmund Burke, and others. But PTS Doctor of Ministry student the Rev. 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