“Outsiders Coming In: Revisiting the Letter From Birmingham Jail in Jail”

01 Wednesday May 2013

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April 16, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”.  In 1963 King, and literally hundreds of others, continued their long struggle to end racial segregation and the Jim Crow system of demarcation, domination, and destruction that thwarts the vision of the beloved community.  The peaceful protests and non-violent actions of these advocates for justice were met with brutality and violence by those with the “legal” authority of government.  For their actions many were jailed and provided for the occasion of Dr. King’s historic letter.

With his keen gift of reason and a deep and abiding faith rooted in the transformative power of the lived gospel, King responded to criticism by white church leaders who believed his actions to be “untimely and unwise” and more specifically to the fact that they were influenced by the argument of “outsiders coming in”.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, King argued. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea.” It should be noted that King’s letter in many ways resembled the letters of the Apostle Paul.  Paul, himself, frequently wrote from a prison cell, incarcerated by those with “legal” authority, for preaching the gospel and challenging the status quo.

In many ways, however, we still reject the gospel that seeks to break down dividing walls of hostility and we reject King’s beautifully articulated profound and inescapable truth.   We seek the provincial.  We seek it not only in our social location but in our thinking and reasoning.  We, too often, live our lives in our communities segregated by race, income and education. We compartmentalize and avoid contemplating that which makes us uncomfortable.  Literally and figuratively, we “wall ourselves in” and wall others out making real the maxim, “Out of sight and out of mind.”

This year, on the anniversary of the letter, I revisited King’s letter and I could not avoid that inescapable truth.  On the anniversary, along with several colleagues in ministry, we were “outsiders coming in” to Death Row at a Maximum Security Correctional Facility.  There, we found ourselves with those that society would just as soon forget even exist.  Yet, we were meant to be outsiders coming in to partner with each other and learn together- all were teachers and all were learners experiencing a different pedagogy as together we studied the writings of King, Howard Thurman, James Cone, and Walter Brueggemann.

In many ways, while there even for that short period of time, not only did I gain deeper insights about humanity’s relationship with God, I experienced community in ways more weighty and intense than what one often experiences on the outside.  I did not expect to experience, on the inside, such joy, faith, hope, and even love among these brothers.  While few would argue that those we encountered have anything to do with someone like Dr. King, I would remind us to also remember just how reviled Dr. King was by many “respectable” persons in society.

I know that, in spite of the crimes that these “insiders” may or may not have committed, I experienced a mutuality or affinity with many of them rooted in the fact that we all were created in the image and likeness of God.  I am also convinced that as Christians we are called to be in ministry to all persons including those that society has deemed unworthy.  As we “outsiders” were leaving the facility, a dear prophetic sister in Christ pointed out the death chamber.  That sense of joy, faith, hope, and love felt moments before was quickly mingled with anguish and sorrow.

I believe that we can be concerned about the victims of “crime”, communities that have been ravished by crime, and at the same time be concerned about those on the inside.  I believe that the gospel challenges us to move beyond our parochialism, to seriously re-think prison and the failure of our criminal justice system and to even re-think our concepts of justice.

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Hebrews 13:1-3

Remembering Bob Edgar: “We Are The Leaders We Have Been Waiting For”

27 Saturday Apr 2013

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I was saddened to learn of the sudden passing of The Rev. Bob Edgar.  Kathy Gilbert, writing for The United Methodist Church,stated:

The Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist pastor and a “tireless defender of the poor and an advocate for justice,” died unexpectedly April 23 of a heart attack at his home in the Washington area. He was 69.

Edgar, who was top executive of Common Cause, is the former top executive of the National Council of Churches and a former six-term member of Congress from Pennsylvania. He was president of United Methodist-related Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology from 1990 to 2000.

A defender of the poor and an advocate for justice.  In spite of the fact that these words are an excellent summary of how Jesus began his public ministry (Luke 4:18-19), the Church’s prophetic voice is often mute in the face of poverty and injustice.

I only had the opportunity to meet Bob Edgar on a couple of occasions.  Here is a review of Bob’s book Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right.  His voice and witness will be missed.

This book review was written on the anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. April 4, 1968.

Rarely, I suppose, does one have the opportunity to sit down with the author of a book and to discuss it at length before writing a review. However, that was my distinct pleasure late last year when, with the Reverend Bob Edgar, I discussed his newly released book Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right. As General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ and a former six-term member of Congress, Edgar provides keen insight to many of the issues dividing our society. Edgar is also, perhaps, one of the few people who had the opportunity to listen to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who influenced his life and a decade later, as a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, meet James Earl Ray, the man who ended King’s life.

After signing my copy with the message “Always remember: `We are the leaders we have been waiting for’…” our conversation began. Edgar, quoting President John F. Kennedy, on being liberal writes, “If by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people–their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties… If that is what they mean by a `liberal’, then I’m proud to say I’m a liberal.’ I own that definition!”

Edgar passionately addresses issues such as the environment and global warming, war and peace, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, “Reconciling Abraham’s Children: Toward Peace in the Middle-East”, as well as global and domestic poverty. On Global warming Edgar writes, “This issue will rise or fall–and the earth with it–based on the action or apathy of the mainstream”. In a thought-provoking chapter, whimsically entitled What Part of “Blessed are the Peacemakers” Don’t they Understand, Edgar writes “…when the lies about the Iraq invasion were exposed as fiction, the White House claimed to have fought to free the people of Iraq from the horrific suffering they endured. Does a black child in Sudan or Rwanda deserve any less? There is no avoiding the uncomfortable truth that our brothers and sisters in Africa seem to have been abandoned because their skin is black and they do not have any resources we want. If Rwanda or Sudan sat atop an oil field, it is difficult for me to imagine we would not have found a pretense to save them”. Similarly, Edgar is brilliant in shining a bright light on the hypocrisy of the religious right just as he does in exposing the double standards that are too often part of US foreign policy.

Edgar is dead-on-center in the need to challenge what he calls “Middle Church, Middle Synagogue, Middle Mosque”–the many millions of faithful people who do not always connect their spiritual values with political issues and whose voices are, as a result, often drowned out by the far religious right. Yet, the influence of the far religious right does not explain, for example, why the majority of Americans including most democrats in Congress supported the war in Iraq. One wonders, however, if the same world that rejected the messages of individuals such as Dr. King, Ghandi, Robert and John Kennedy, and, yes, Jesus, is any more ready today to hear the prophetic words of Middle Church. Pray and lead the way!

The Power of Nonviolence

23 Wednesday Jan 2013

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Finding the proper tone for celebrating and remembering the life of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has always been an uneasy experience for me.  This is true partly to the fact that our society honors him more in his death than was done during his life.  The life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is often summed up in a reductionist and revisionist recitation of portions of his “I Have a Dream” speech which often betrays the radical transformative power of Dr. King’s message and way of life.

This year was different for me.  Hosting a service with none other than the Rev. Dr. James Lawson, Jr., the person that Dr. King called “the leading theorist and strategist of non-violence in the world” as our preacher for the occasion, held at Hartzell Memorial United Methodist Church in Chicago was a blessing for the Northern Illinois Conference and an experience that I will not soon forget.

In his message Lawson cited the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil”.  Lawson spoke of four spiritual poisons; Racism, Sexism, Violence, and a Plantation Capitalism- where the bottom line is property, income and wealth and not people.  Lawson’s message, part sermon part teach-in, was a challenge to the church to preach the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ over against messages of superiority and exploitation”.

King wrote, “The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor.  It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it.  It gives them a new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know that they had.  Finally, it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.”

While spending time with Lawson over the phone and face to face our conversations covered topics from Palestine-Israel, violence in the city of Chicago, and yes, “the crucifixion” of Dr. King”.  It was abundantly clear in those conversations that he is what Dr. King proclaimed him to be but also one who has committed his life to being a practitioner and teacher of non-violent social change.

On nonviolence, Dr. King once said,

I’m not going to let my oppressor dictate to me what method I must use.  We have a power, power that can’t be found in Molotov cocktails, but we do have a power.  Power that cannot be found in bullets and guns, but we have a power.  It is a power as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth and as modern as the techniques of Mahatma Gandhi.

Indeed, we have a power; let us use our power wisely.

A Sip of Justice

12 Thursday Jul 2012

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Curt’s Cafe, Evanston, IL

When discussing complex social issues such as the increasing homicide rates in the Chicago metropolitan area, inequity in public education and health care, the marginalization and criminalization of black and brown youth, or the re-entry of juveniles or adults into society after periods of detention or incarceration, I am often asked by sincere and well-intentioned persons, “What can we do?”

That question often seems to be one in search of a simple solution. However, complex social issues can only be adequately addressed by complex and comprehensive approaches. The interrelatedness of all of these issues means that unless we deal with all of it we can’t deal with any of it. Understanding their rootedness in our society’s enduring systemic racist, sexist, and classist history is but a beginning to get at more comprehensive and lasting solutions.

However, as a society, we have not shown the long-term commitment to addressing many of the complex issues of history or of our day, nor have we shown the wisdom to know that in many ways these are battles that must always be engaged lest previous gains toward equality and justice be thwarted.

Still, while I strongly believe in comprehensive solutions rooted in justice-based “public” policy, I firmly believe that we cannot wait for a shift in public opinion, for corporations that dictate public policy to become enlightened, or for the privileged to cede status or power.

Small acts of justice, individual and community-based efforts toward liberation and transformation do have their place. As so many of us have been inspired by those unsung heroes who toil away from the spotlight, public acclaim and national press coverage, we know that individuals, groups and communities of committed people intent to live just lives that embrace others who have been marginalized, can often provide the seeds that lead to broader change.

Recently, at the invitation of the Rev. Richard Mosley, Jr. of Hemenway United Methodist Church, I had the opportunity to sit down for a cup of coffee, “a sip of justice” if you will, at Curt’s Café in Evanston, Illinois. Curt’s Café is a restorative justice café that is the brain-child of Susan Trieschmann. The café provides employment, transferrable job skills, and life-skills training for at-risk youth (ages 15-24). As she sat down with us for an extended conversation to tell us more about what she hopes to accomplish here, the youth were still under her loving, yet watchful eyes. What struck me was that while her business plan is excellent, and her experience in the food industry will likely carry her to success in this non-profit endeavor, it is her deep, heartfelt passion, and love for the youth and young adults that will make it a place not just for a good cup of coffee prepared by young skillful baristas but a place that provides a sip of justice that is making a difference and providing these precious young people with a second chance.

According to an article by Julie Chernoff, “part of the beauty of Curt’s Café story is how the community has responded to this non-profit labor of love: with open arms.” That responsive community includes, Hemenway UMC. On Sunday August 4th at 4:00 PM, Rev. Mosley and the church will be celebrating his birthday at Curt’s Café. Donations will go to the café for their continued efforts of investing in the lives of these young people.

The next time someone asks, “What can we do?” Here is but one example of people coming together to make a difference.

Chris Pierson

Curt’s Cafe is located at 2922 Central Street Evanston, IL

“Whites Only”

09 Monday Jul 2012

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After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:9 TNIV- from John on the Isle of Patmos.

While many across the nation gathered with family, friends, and community over the past several days to celebrate the nation’s independence on the 4th of July, there was another type of gathering in Lamar County Alabama. The third “Annual Pastors Conference” was held and “All White Christians” were invited.

While the event did receive some media attention, it could easily have gone unmentioned and unnoticed. Note, this was the “third” annual gathering. Had not the groups fliers been distributed in nearby Winfield, Alabama and caused appropriate consternation and concern in that community it might have passed without media attention. The community of Winfield repudiated the ideology and actions of the event’s planners.

The group holding the event is a part of the Christian Identity Movement. The “movement” has been around for many years and hold to a convoluted and flawed theology of whites as the “chosen people”. A spokesperson/organizer for the event, the Reverend William C. Collier (Church of God’s Chosen) affirms their white nationalist, white separatist and white supremacist ideology yet still claims that they are not a hate group.

The “Christian Identity Movement” also has an extremely violent history and has documented connections to anti-government militia groups. Further, many believers in the various groups within the Christian Identity Movement believe in an Armageddon that will be a racial holy war and some have committed violent acts of murder and terrorism in the hopes of sparking such a war. According to the flier, the conference was to end with a so-called “Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony”. Lets call it what it is, a “cross burning”.

It would be a mistake not to take note of these kinds of events that take place regularly in our society or to pass it off as some aberration that should not receive attention. However, it serves as a reminder that this is not a “post-racial” society. It also serves as an opportunity to note that hate groups have been on the rise rather than on the decrease in recent years, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

It would be a mistake to believe that these are fringe groups that exist primarily in the south. California leads the nation in hate groups, according to the SPLC hate map and Illinois is certainly has its share. While I applaud the SPLC efforts it would serve all of us well to be vigilant and aware of such groups and ideologies in our midst. In other words, we should keep our eyes on them and also know that they are keeping their eyes on us too.

I discovered this earlier in the year when I received messages from white supremacists at my Twitter account following my tweets regarding “Slavery By Another Name”. A quick look into the background of those who sent me the messages revealed an intricate web of white nationalist and racist individuals, organizations connected through social media.

However, we should not be intimidated by their threats nor hoodwinked by their claims of religious liberty. Their belief system, if it can be called that, run counter to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The vision of John from the Isle of Patmos contrasts their world view.  This is their worst nightmare- countless numbers of every nation, tribe, people and language who realize that there is a God and that they are not God, who know that race is a social construct and that we ALL have been created in the image and likeness of God. When an ideology or faith proclaims that others are “beasts of the field” and not children of God they reject the very God that created us ALL.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom,

Chris Pierson

“Race-Baiting”: Joe Walsh’s Game

04 Monday Jun 2012

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First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

-Pastor Martin Niemoeller

Call it good old-fashioned “race-baiting.” Actually, there is nothing good about it. And courtesy of people like Congressman Joe Walsh, it can no longer be called old-fashioned.

Race- baiting has been defined as the making of verbal attacks against members of a racial group. Walsh’s words during a recent town hall meeting certainly rise, or rather sink to that level.

Congressman Walsh said, “They want the Hispanic vote, they want Hispanics to be dependent on government, just like they got African-Americans dependent on government. That’s their game…” “So many people want hand-outs. The Democratic Party promises groups of people everything.” Jessie Jackson would be out of work if they weren’t dependent on government.”

While African-Americans, Latino-Hispanics, and Democrats have a right to be offended by such bigoted and in my opinion “racist” statements there is another, perhaps less obvious, group that should be offended as well. Namely, the constituents of Walsh’s would-be Congressional District. Here’s why. In addition to the above definition of race-baiting, there is another definition as well. Race-baiting is also defined as: “The unfair use of statements about race to try to influence the actions or attitudes of a particular group of people”.

In my opinion, Walsh’s words, were attempting to play on what he hopes are racist or xenophobic attitudes among his constituency. He is hoping that the long disproved stereotypes that he appears to hold may be held by others and that because of those views they will vote for him.

Tapping into anti-immigrant sentiments, bigotry, and prejudice have proven effective for some candidates in the past and apparently Walsh is hoping that strategy will hold sway again. Other candidates have used similar language in their campaigns this year as if reading from a script. The damage done to individuals, groups, and our unity as a people are inconsequential in the mind of a “race baiter”.

It is time for the people of his would-be district to say “enough”. It is time to let Joe Walsh know that we know what “his” game is.

Chris Pierson

“A Tale of Two Cities”: Chicago After NATO

27 Sunday May 2012

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“Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and didn’t do anything to help you’ Then he will answer, ‘I assure you that when you haven’t done it for one of the least of these, you haven’t done it for me.’  And they will go away into eternal punishment.  But the righteous ones will go into eternal life.”  Matthew 25:44-46

As I drove home last Sunday from Zion United Methodist Church in Mendota, IL, after preaching from this  assigned text, I listened to broadcast accounts of the NATO Summit in Chicago and the resulting protests. I even received texts from one of the many officers who were required to work days consecutive days of 12 hour shifts. Over 3,100 Chicago police officers gathered not only from the nearly 14,000 sworn Chicago Police Department but also from Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Illinois State Police, along with trained Sharp-Shooters perched atop Chicago buildings to protect NATO delegations and property of area businesses. By “most” media accounts things were going well, though many protesters would rigorously dispute that claim, as would some independent media.

Now NATO is over.  Many have applauded Police Chief Garry McCarthy for being “on the streets with his officers rather than riding around in a limousine with smoked windows”.  Others claim that the city has come out from under the cloud of disgrace from the 1968 Democratic Convention and the graphic images of police brutality.

This weekend, however, there is little attention being paid to the rampant violence in Chicago.

In less than 24 hours, from late Saturday to the wee hours of Sunday morning, over 25 people have been wounded including a 6 year old girl who was shot.  One person was killed as Chicago’s own citizens are forced to drive themselves to emergency rooms due to inadequate services and the absence of quality trauma units in the city.

This week the Fraternal Order of Police, the same ones who received praise along with free White Sox tickets, have filed their fourth grievance against the city for the extra days worked and the expected compensatory time they are being denied.  Our prayers and concern should be not only for them but also for the citizens living with inadequate services amidst violence (sometimes at the hands of the police) when the when the eyes of the world are not upon us. And our prayers and concerns should be for those who face life without the concerted efforts of those who with precision and coordination protected  property and potentates.  In other words, our prayers, our concerns and our actions should be directed to the least of these.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom

 

 

 

“We Are Not Missing”: We Count

27 Sunday May 2012

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“In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This occurred when Quirinius governed… Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled.” Luke 2:1-3

1.5 million, that’s the magic number. In case you missed it this week, the New York Times reported that 1.5 million people were not counted in the 2010 U.S. Census. Of course, those who were “missed” were predominately African-American and Latino-Hispanic. Imagine the entire population of Philadelphia, Phoenix, or San Antonio and you begin to get the picture. While the government may be satisfied with this under-representation, citizens should not be so accepting especially given that the total population was overestimated by 36,000.

What is at stake is that African-American and Latino-Hispanic communities will receive less in government funding while other populations will receive more than they should. In many public education systems minority populations already often receive less per student due to regressive tax structures. Further, in many urban areas such as Chicago, segregation is the order of the day (Chicago 90%).

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously commented that he had seen more racial hatred in Chicago than he had in the South. Lest anyone believe that we have become a post-racial society, think again.

The one place where we have accurate counts of African-Americans and Latino-Hispanics is in the nation’s penal system where both governments and private corporations profit from the pain of others and the mass incarceration of black and brown people.

As U.S. citizens continue to become less concerned about the common good or the general welfare of their neighbor we will need to decide whether people count and why we are not counting them.

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