Greetings,
Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. At our customary remembrance of him and our connections to him and the movement, we were discussing, as we often do, what his reaction would be to the circumstances in which we find ourselves today. Time has taken its toll on our group, but we still have a few of the old war horses left. Gil Caldwell’s push in recent years has centered on marriage equality in New Jersey, and he is once more testifying and attempting to persuade those legislators to vote for equality. My focus has been on the homeless problem, and the discrimination against the homeless and poor in housing and other services. We find complete agreement in the need for hearts to be changed as the key to changing both the laws of the Church and the laws of the State. As we contemplate the polarization and political abuse of truth and reason in both, we more than ever look to the expression of Christian faith which Dr. King brought to the problems of our society. Do people of faith always agree? Obviously not. But people of genuine faith are able to discuss and work with each other for the moving forward of society in Jesus’ path of justice and peace.
Gil likes to refer to the intense argument between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass, who worked together on abolition, but then had a bitter split over who should be first to get the right to vote--women or blacks. Stanton condemned the 15th Amendment, which gave Black men the right to vote but left out women of all races, and is quoted in a New York Times article discussing the current political battle as saying: "This would establish an aristocracy of sex on the continent," alluding to "lower orders" like Irish, Blacks, Germans, Chinese. The Times story then quotes her as saying: "Shall American statesmen so amend their constitutions as to make their wives and mothers the political inferiors of unlettered and unwashed, ditch-diggers, bootblacks, butchers and barbers, fresh from the slave plantations of the South?"
Frederick Douglass spoke these words of response to Stanton that describe the pain, anger and what some would say is "Black irrationality" on race matters. Caldwell said that he believed Douglass’ words go to the root of today’s issues on race and conversation about race. Caldwell said “The words of Douglass also address something that is in the DNA of generation after generation after generation of many of us who are Black.”
What Douglass said was, "When women, because they are women, are hunted down through the cities of New York and New Orleans; when they are dragged from their houses and hung from lampposts; when their children are torn from their arms and their brains dashed out upon the pavement; when they are objects of insult and rage at every turn; when they are in danger of having their homes burnt down ... then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to their own."
I am not sure what King would have said about this current questions of race, which are so shrouded in the guise of other issues, but I can’t help but feel he would not be far removed from Douglass’ statement. Of course, it is actually hard to pin down Dr. King. He often took positions contrary to what one would on the surface expect. You will recall that King once said, “The belief that God will do everything for man is as untenable as the belief that man can do everything for himself. It, too, is based on a lack of faith. We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition.” He also said, “To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.” “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve.”
We need to continue a serious dialogue to raise and confront the wide range of issues related to racism and discrimination in our society today, recognizing that all sides have a tendency to want to play up and take advantage of potential racism. We also, as well, need to debunk the foolishness of much of the political correctness, and downright political dishonesty on both sides, we suffer under today.
Yours & His,
DED
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