Gordon E. Ellis
January 15, 2006
UNTIL JUSTICE ROLLS DOWN LIKE WATER
I had a wonderful experience back on October 23rd, just a DAY before the death of Rosa Parks. I was in Montgomery, Alabama for the dedication of the new Civil Rights Memorial Center. Diane and I have long been FINANCIAL supporters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, which does truly REMARKABLE work promoting TOLERANCE, monitoring HATE groups, and fighting LEGAL battles against RACISM and BIGOTRY of ALL kinds. Well, WITHIN the new Civil Rights Memorial Center is the WALL of TOLERANCE, listing the names of people who have made a commitment to work in their daily lives for JUSTICE, equality and human rights, the IDEALS of the Civil Rights Movement. And I feel HONORED that Diane and I have our NAMES on that WALL. And WE will do our BEST to LIVE that COMMITMENT.
The CENTERPIECE of the new Civil Rights Memorial Center is a beautiful FOUNTAIN, created by Maya Lin, the SAME woman who created the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. And the FOUNTAIN honors the MARTYRS of the Civil Rights Movement. It lists a CALENDAR or TIMELINE of major Civil Rights EVENTS, along with the names of 40 people who lost their lives in the struggle for FREEDOM between 1954 and 1968. MOST are black, but SOME are white. MOST were targeted for death because of their Civil Rights WORK, but SOME were the random VICTIMS of vigilantes determined to halt the Movement. The fountain is BLACK marble, and has a round TABLE-like structure with WATER washing over it. THAT’S where the timeline and NAMES are printed. BEHIND it is a black marble WALL with WATER pouring over it. And ON that wall are the POWERFUL words of the prophet AMOS, words that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted in his famous I Have a Dream speech: We are not satisfied, and we will NOT be satisfied, until JUSTICE rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. I could almost HEAR Dr. King as I stood there GAZING at that beautiful fountain.
INSIDE the Civil Rights Memorial Center is a MUSEUM of sorts, DETAILING the movement, along with a FILM called Faces in the Water, which tells the story of all those dates and names listed on the fountain’s TIMELINE. BUT, what hit me the HARDEST was a small display next to the EXIT. It included the pictures and stories of 5 REPRESENTATIVES from LARGER groups, people who CONTINUE to face intolerance and injustice TODAY. One was the first KNOWN young man to be killed since 1968, SIMPLY because he was GAY. ANOTHER was an ISLAMIC man, who stopped to get GAS after 9/11 in an American city and was beaten to DEATH, JUST because he was of ARAB descent. Yes, the Civil Rights Movement CONTINUES, and MUST continue! And PROPHETIC figures like AMOS and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are NECESSARY to HELP us continue the movement!
Well, this weekend, we PAUSE to recall and celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And it’s EXTREMELY important that we DO so. Of ALL the public figures I’VE seen in MY lifetime, KING was the most GENUINELY prophetic. A few years ago, there were some TV ads celebrating his contributions to our common LIFE as a nation. And overall, they were WONDERFUL ads. But ONE of them TROUBLED me. It featured the ALPHABET with the letters listed in REVERSE, so that the MIDDLE letters (and they were HIGHLIGHTED) were the letters M, L, K: King’s INITIALS. And the announcer said: Thank you, Dr. King. Things were BACKWARDS until YOU came along. Well, it’s a clever THOUGHT, and well-intentioned; but I think that KING would be as UPSET by it as I was.
You see: THAT makes it SEEM as if King’s contributions are PAST and OVER, as IF the things that he STOOD for have ALL been ACCOMPLISHED, and as if the Civil RIGHTS Movement is now BEHIND us. But that’s just NOT true! Some of the TOUGHEST battles in the struggle for Civil Rights are the battles that still lie AHEAD of us! Do you know that over 700 HATE groups denigrating Jews and gays, immigrants, blacks and others have been identified in our United States? Do you know that just last MAY, a 21-year old follower of the Aryan Nations was convicted of burning an Oklahoma synagogue, and plotting 13 MORE attacks. Do you know that there are also over 450 HATE websites on the internet, MANY of them aimed at TEENS, and encouraging VIOLENCE? Do you know that ARMED vigilantes now literally HUNT and kill MIGRANTS along our border with MEXICO? And do you know that widespread HARASSMENT of gays and lesbians is happening today, MUCH of it among our YOUTH in SCHOOL? Yes, the Civil Rights Movement CONTINUES! And it MUST continue!
However, AS he has become a PUBLIC figure taught in our SCHOOLS, the MEMORY of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been severely DISTORTED. For example: he was NOT a political leader who HAPPENED to be a preacher. He was a PREACHER whose faith COMPELLED him -- often RELUCTANTLY -- to become a POLITICAL leader. He thought and spoke in the categories, and the cadences, of the OLD Testament PROPHETS, whose calling it WAS to speak moral TRUTH to people in POWER, no matter WHAT the COST to themselves. And if you DON’T know his FAITH, then you don’t know ANYTHING about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His sense of justice, his imagery of expression, his methods of protest, and his social agenda ALL flowed out of his FAITH as a Christian!
TODAY we talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. as if he SAID things that EVERYBODY agreed with, and as IF he merely ARTICULATED a deeply-shared social CONSENSUS regarding the inherent RIGHTS of ALL people. Well, THAT’S just NOT the case. Dr. King was consistently WAY out ahead of the REST of the country, out on a prophetic LIMB. And WHEN he was ALIVE, he was CONSTANTLY criticized, EVEN by people who claimed to AGREE with him! He was criticized for NOT being PATIENT enough and trying to get everything all at once. He was criticized for being TOO patient! He was criticized for not being VIOLENT enough. Yes, he was CONSTANTLY being criticized! Many northerners who APPLAUDED his activities in Selma and Montgomery, thought that he was being WAY too PROVOCATIVE when he came NORTH and led a MARCH in Cicero, Illinois. And many who agreed with his Civil Rights work were surprised and DISTRAUGHT when he spoke out EARLY and forcefully against the WAR in Vietnam. And even though we NOW think that EVERYBODY must have been AGAINST that war, THAT was just NOT the case at ALL. MOST people just went ALONG with it as a NECESSARY evil and supported the government like they always DO, just like they’re doing TODAY. AND, even those who AGREED with King’s stances on RACE and VIETNAM, felt STRETCHED by his POOR People’s Campaign, which pointed to an America that was divided NOT simply along RACIAL lines, but along ECONOMIC lines as well. Yes, King’s prophetic calling continually PUSHED him into NEW areas of morality. He was, indeed, AMERICA’S prophet!
And you know: THAT’S what WE need to be as well: PROPHETS! WE need to be speaking OUT firmly and consistently against INJUSTICE, discrimination and INTOLERANCE. WE need to be LEADERS in the CONTINUING Civil Rights Movement! And THIS church has BEAUTIFUL history of that! Do you know that members of THIS church ACTIVELY participated in the Underground Railroad? Do you know that our ORAL tradition in this church EVEN tells us that the church ITSELF was a STOP on the Underground Railroad? Do you know that, in the 1980’s, OUR church offered a PERMANENT home to a small JEWISH congregation, who were WANDERING from place-to-place in order to worship? They called themselves the WANDERING Jews! And The Greater Southington Jewish Congregation STILL makes its HOME here with US. Do you know that our church produced a very CONTROVERSIAL play LAST year, The Laramie Project, which details a HATE crime: the brutal slaying of a GAY college student: Matthew Shepard? Do you know that part of our stated PURPOSE in this church (voted on at an Annual Meeting) is to extend God’s radically-INCLUSIVE love to ALL people everywhere, so that people of color, varying nationalities, gays, lesbians, and OTHERS for whom the Civil Right Movement continues are ALL to be WELCOMED here, and treated like everybody ELSE, including serving in some of our HIGHEST positions of leadership. Yes, THAT’S our LEGACY in this church! It’s a PROPHETIC legacy! THAT’S who we ARE! And THAT’S who we NEED to be as well, because God is CONSTANTLY calling us to be a VOICE (and to be a FORCE) for JUSTICE, for LOVE, for goodness, and for righteousness in our COMMUNITY, our COUNTRY, and our WORLD! And in order to DO that, we need to be like Dr. King -- always PUSHING into NEW areas of MORALITY.
Well, WITH that calling in mind, our Church Council VOTED on January 2nd that, THIS June at our Annual Meeting, we will make a very IMPORTANT vote, the vote to become designated by our denomination, the United Church of Christ, as an Open and Affirming congregation. WHAT does that MEAN? Well, I’ve printed in your bulletin the STATEMENT that we need to VOTE on. It’s really nothing MORE than we voted on when we made our church RADICALLY-INCLUSIVE, but it uses the WORDS that are REQUIRED by our United Church of Christ for us to become officially designated as an Open and Affirming congregation. It reads like this:
We, the members of The First Congregational Church of Southington, Connecticut, hereby declare ourselves to be an open and affirming congregation. We accept the challenges and joys of Christian faith, a faith profound enough to embrace even UNCERTAINTY. We struggle with the difficult issues of our day, understanding that God’s Word touches and guides us as a congregation and as individuals.
With God’s grace, we welcome and affirm the total identity of ALL people as beloved children of God. We are a congregation that seeks to break down the barriers of prejudice, declaring respect for the worth and dignity of all persons, embracing differences in age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, ethnicity, nationality, socio-economic status, and physical, emotional, and mental capability. We also recognize and affirm loving, committed, and diverse families. We actively welcome all people to become members of our church and to share fully in our church’s life and leadership, ministry and fellowship, worship and sacraments, and responsibilities and blessings.
AS we get CLOSER to our Annual Meeting this JUNE, we will offer SEVERAL opportunities for people to DISCUSS this statement and FURTHER study the ISSUES. But for NOW, consider it ONE way that we can CONTINUE our church’s prophetic LEGACY, as well as respond to God’s CONTINUAL calling of us, that we might be a VOICE (and a FORCE) for JUSTICE, for LOVE, for goodness, and for righteousness in our COMMUNITY, in our COUNTRY, and around the WORLD! For as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. SAID so poignantly: We are NOT satisfied, and we WILL not be satisfied, until JUSTICE rolls down like water and RIGHTEOUSNESS like a mighty stream. Amen.