Piloting Faith: Remembering history
A Word for the Day...
On Monday night of this week, the President of the United States stood before a hurting nation. Viruses are killing us (COVID and racism), people are demanding justice, grief is wracking us. The best he could give us was a blustering speech on "law and order" and a blasphemous photoshoot where he held a bible upside down as if it would burn his hand.
It's become clear to me that while we have made meaningful progress in our past toward freedom and equality for all, we have taken that progress for granted and now are losing ground.
Pastor and activist, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis reminded us recently that since lots of white people seem eager to invoke Dr. King's legacy to condemn ongoing protests, it's worth revisiting what he actually said in his speech called "The Other America" given on April 4, 1967:
It is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation's summers of riots are caused by our nation's winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.
We have much work to do to embody the beloved community that Dr. King spoke of. Today we repeat a cycle of pain and grief that we've known before and must learn once more. White supremacy is a sin that will not stand.
We have no "status quo" or middle ground here: you are either anti-racist, or you are racist. You are either actively working against racism, or you are complicit in upholding it. Being polite or "not political" is not an option. Either you believe we were all made in God's image, beloved by our Creator, and meant to see God in the face of one another (Genesis 1:27), or you believe whiteness is better than the rest. If that's the case, I would just remind you that Jesus was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew. Now that is awkward.
We are in this together,
Rev. Cameron Trimble
Author of 60 Days of Faith: A Devotional
Prayer for the Week
May God bless you with discomfort,
At easy answers, half-truths,
And superficial relationships
So that you may live
Deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression,
And exploitation of people,
So that you may work for
Justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears,
To shed for those who suffer pain,
Rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand
To comfort them and
To turn their pain to joy
And may God bless you
With enough foolishness
To believe that you can
Make a difference in the world,
So that you can do
What others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness
To all our children and the poor.
Amen.
- A Franciscan Blessing