Where Are Your Wounds?

The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference held their annual meeting in Dallas Texas this year where we were hosted by the Friendship West Baptist Church and Pastor Frederick Douglas Haynes. The Proctor Conference, as it has come to be known, is the brain child of Dr. Haynes and Dr. Jeremiah Wright who was a student of Dr. Proctor at Virginia Union Theological Seminary. This year marked the 10^th anniversary of the conference which is spearheaded by the General Secretary, Dr. Iva Carruthers.

“The mission of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference (SDPC) is to nurture, sustain, and mobilize the African American faith community in collaboration with civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders to address critical needs of human and social justice within local, national, and global communities. SDPC seeks to strengthen the individual and collective capacity of thought leaders and activists in the church, academy, and community through education, advocacy, and activism.” [1]

With Dr. Boesak

This year’s theme was “Living Waters: Unearthing Global Power for Justice”. The session was kicked off on Monday evening with a challenging sermon from Rev. Dr. Alan Boesak entitled, “Where Are Your Wounds?” Dr. Boesak is a veteran of the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa and challenged conference attendees to understand that the life in Christ is a life characterized by struggle. In that struggle there will be wounds. In fact the absence of wounds suggests that one did not find anything worth fighting for. Where are your wounds?

The question is a twofold question, not only “Where are you wounds?” but if you have no wounds then, “<![if !vml]><![endif]>Was there nothing to fight for?” Dr. Boesak said this was the question that God is asking the Black Church today. I would suggest that this is the question for the whole church. Not only the church collectively but for each of us who profess to be followers of the Christ by who’s wounds we are healed!! This is the challenge to every one of us. Are we content to sit in relative ease and comfort while millions of men and women struggle to find the means to “get by” even from day to day. Where are your wounds? Is it enough to hand out sandwiches and blankets and not challenge the systems that create poverty and homelessness? Is there nothing to fight for?

Yes it is easier to blame the “other”, the drug addicted, the old, the poor. It is the popular thing to demonize those who are the most vulnerable in our society today. The challenge of the question is having the courage to speak truth to power. To say that there is something inherently wrong with making a health problem, like drug addiction, into a legal problem. The challenge is fighting a system of mass incarceration that denies the “inalienable rights” of citizenship and creates a social caste of second class citizens in a new system of Jim Crow. Where are your wounds? The challenge is speaking truth to a system of poverty governance that simply makes poverty less harsh while funneling people into low wage, dead end jobs. Is there nothing to fight for? The challenge is defending senior citizens, who have worked all their lives, from a government that wants to privatize their retirement while spending billions of dollars on military aide to foreign countries. “Where are your wounds? Was there nothing to fight for?”

This is the challenge to the church today, and the challenge of theological education, training faith leaders to know the right people, to ask the right questions, and to have the courage to do so!

Where are your wounds? There is much to fight for!

Make A Difference  . . . . . . . For Life!

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[1] (Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference n.d.)

Yes Mr. Cooper, “It is a moral imperative.”

Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper wrote an editorial in the Tennessean newspaper the other day explaining why he feels compelled to vote a "Reluctant No" to the healthcare reform bill, H.R. 3200. While the overwhelming response to the congressman's editorial are opposed to his position, and I agree with most of them, I would like to use this space to talk a bit about the five words in the editorial that I most agree with. "It is a moral imperative"

How immoral is it to say to 46 million people without any healthcare coverage at all, and another 50 million who are under covered (which means they have some type of health insurance but cannot afford to actually need to use it) " I know you need help . . . just wait". How immoral is it that this government, is willing to go into debt and move immediately to provide assistance to failing financial institutions, and automotive manufacturers, yet when it comes to helping almost 100 million citizens it wants to say, "we cannot afford it."

The founding document of this nation, The Declaration of Independence, states that this government is founded on the principle "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The document goes on to say that, "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men . . ." So there we have it! The very founding document of the United States says that the reason for the existence of the this government, the reason Jim Cooper's job as U.S. Congressman was created is to secure men and women's God given rights. The question then becomes, "is access to quality healthcare a right or not?" If it is not a right, then the ability to go to a doctor and receive the best available care when you are sick or injured is a privilege. If it is a privilege then it is reserved for the privileged. If it is reserved for the privileged then our current system of providing healthcare needs no reform. If, on the other hand, quality healthcare is a right then there is much to be done and government has a responsibility to do it.

I would argue that healthcare is a right. It is included in the Declaration when it talks about having a God given, unalienable right to life. Here is where I would expect to have the cooperation of the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, and even the newly formed, Faith and Freedom Network. If good health is a God given right then the purpose of government is not to debate its economic impact, but simply to "secure" it. When Thomas Jefferson wrote these words he intentionally used the word 'secure' and not 'procure'. Jefferson was talking about God given rights; unalienable rights; rights that each person has at birth, by the very fact of their birth, rights that are unalienable; they cannot be denied or limited. In other words the right to life in its fullest is already given, each person already possess it. That right does not need to be procured. The responsibility of government is to "secure" it, to keep it safe.

Our current healthcare system is little more than Jim Crow. The difference is that people are denied services not based on color or race, but because of economic station and political privilege. Those who oppose healthcare reform now are not unlike those who opposed the dismantling of Jim Crow. The words are almost exactly the same. "We know the way it is isn't right. We agree with you and really want change too. Just not right now." To this we say like, Congressman John Lewis said over 40 years ago to those in Nashville who wanted to change Jim Crow "but just not now". "If not now, when?" If history has taught us anything, it has taught us that,

"Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be coworkers with God . . . it is our experience that the nation doesn't move around questions of genuine equality for the poor . . . until it is confronted massively, dramatically in terms of direct action." – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The reality of course is that the difference between what can and cannot be done is most often a matter of will more than any other single factor. When Congress (including Congressman Cooper) has the will to act morally, change will come. History has taught us that this will not happen until we, the people of the United States of America, make it happen. History has further taught us that it is those of us who have been touched by the teachings of Jesus, rather than just the teachings 'about' Jesus, who must take the lead, consider it, confer, and speak up!

When we do this, we fulfill our responsibility not just to be unspotted by the world but to leave our mark on it and . . .

Make A Difference . . . For Life!!

Write your Congressman here

W.W.J.D.? Ask The Good Samaritan!

I took some time out of my day today to attend a rally for Healthcare Reform in Nashville at the offices of Tennessee’s two U.S. senators. Among the many posters and hand bills there was one that had the now familiar letters WWJD, “What Would Jesus Do?” Well for those of us who claim to carry the name of Christ that is a pertinent question. If we are to truly follow in the footsteps of the master, it behooves us to know, “What Would Jesus Do”. For the answer, we can look to Jesus’ own words in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

No doubt you know the story, but let me summarize. A man is on a trip and gets robbed and injured in the robbery. A preacher and a deacon each pass him by without offering to help at all. A third person, totally unrelated to the injured man, comes by and immediately offers assistance, takes the man to get medical attention, and assumes financial responsibility for his care. When it comes to the battle over healthcare reform Christians can draw much from this parable.

First, we cannot ignore the issue. We can not simply go on with our everyday lives, seeing what is going on and doing nothing. The two in this parable do just that. They walked past the injured man. Jesus challenges all of us who say that we belong to him, that we follow him, not to turn a blind eye. We can not just go on with our daily routines as if there are not issues that need our attention. Few of us today hear this story without shaking our heads at this preacher and asking, “How could he just walk right past the man and not do anything?” Yet how many of us are just too busy, have something else to do, or are just really not all that concerned about 46 million people who can’t go see a doctor for regular checkups, have no primary care physician, and are at the bottom of the healthcare service ladder. How easy is it for us to go to church on Sunday for a few hours and then spend the rest of our week focused solely on our own little world? Do we allow ourselves to get so caught up in praise, that we forget to serve?

Second, we cannot avoid the issue. If we shake our head at the preacher who walks by the man, we are down right indignant at the deacon who sees the man and crosses to the other side of the road, attempting to create some space between himself and the man’s need. Do we do that? Do we create space between ourselves and the needs of our fellow human beings by attempting to separate the spiritual and the secular? When we suggest that “as Christians” we should not be involved in “secular” matters we say to our fellow humans, “Our God cares about your soul, but your body belongs to the government, or your boss, or the insurance companies, or whoever.” We cannot separate ourselves from the great issues of justice, equality, and civility that face us as a nation during these historic times. We cannot cross to the other side of the road and create a divide between ourselves and the needs of society. If we are Christ’s then we are the conscience of our community, our city, our state, and our nation. There is simply no avoiding it! 50 million people in this country work and pay for healthcare and yet still cannot afford to get sick!

Finally, we must be proactive, the parable does not say that the Samaritan responded to a plea for help. Rather it says that he saw the man and went to him, he was proactive, he saw the need and was moved by the spirit of compassion within him to act. It is that same initiative, motivated by Christian compassion that should move us to reach to our fellows, put our shoulders to the yoke, and work together to the bringing down of strongholds.

As we follow to the example of the Good Samaritan when looking for the answer to the question, “What Would Jesus Do?” we evangelize in ways words alone could not fully do. We demonstrate, in a tangible way, that we serve a God that is loving, caring, and actively involved in the affairs of humankind on the side of justice, equality, and peace.

That is how we Make A Difference . . . For Life!!!

The Silence Is Deafening

The silence is deafening. As the debate over healthcare reform in this country grows hotter, the silence from the organized church, those of us who say we follow the God of the Bible, is blowing me away! Why is it that we are leaving so much of the talking to the politicians, special interests, lobbyists, and the healthcare industry itself. What is really upsetting to me is that many of the voices that are being heard are those that pervert justice, morality, and ethics with their very words. When I hear people talking about being concerned about the "quality of care" or the "denial of services" as a reason for resistance to change I am reminded of the society Jesus found himself in when He walked this earth in the flesh. He described not the people, but the social, and religious system this way, " Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (Mark 7:6, NIV) Jesus points out here that there is a disconnect between words and action. If we understand the biblical "heart" to be the seat of motivation, then there is not only a disconnect between the words and the action, but there is a disconnect between the words and the very MOTIVES!!

My daughter told me the other day that it is not easy being a Christian as a young person, but it is worth it! I agree. It's not easy to be a Christian young or old! Being Christian requires following in the footsteps of the Master. Speaking truth to the lies even of the powerful. It means challenging the powers and structures that be with the truth of the Gospel that speaks life for everyone to it's fullest. Being Christian requires articulating the reality that millions of people in this country are already being "denied services" because their insurance has reached it's limit, or the insurer has decided not to pay. Millions of people in this country receive poor "quality of service" because they have no insurance because they work at jobs that, for one reason or another, don't offer health coverage or offer it but the premiums and co-payments are so high it is not realistically affordable. No being Christian is not easy because being Christian requires caring. It requires caring not only for me, mine, and those like me. being Christian requires caring for people who I don't know, it requires caring for people who are considered less than or different.

I also agree that it is worth it. Because even though being Christian requires being willing to stand, speak, and act in opposition to the forces of evil, injustice, and oppression; when we do, we can:
Make A Difference . . . For Life!