Long Way Here

Today we remember how in 1963 almost 200,000 people participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. We remember Dr. King’s famous speech, “I have a Dream.”

Today I remember the context of this moment. I see how King is celebrated today but was despised by most White people then. I see how his protests are lauded today as peaceful and bold, but lauded as riotous, unpatriotic, and unchristian back then. I see how it’s all misremembered.

I see how Dr. King was labeled a communist, despite his belief that, “Communism and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible” (King, Strength to Love, 94). I see how a 17,000 page report by the FBI branded him, “The most dangerous man in America.” I see how those who supported civil rights were suspected as communist, too. I see how at the time of his assassination polls showed that 75% of Americans disproved of his work.

I see how what King wrote, preached, and performed didn’t matter. I see how back then, like now, the truth doesn’t matter. I see how back then, like now, political posturing by those who disapprove matters more. I see how back then, like now, black lives didn’t matter. I see how back then, like now, White supremacy is our seductive companion. I see how back then, like now, White people would never admit it to be true. I see how back then, like now, this is one way the reign of sin and death works in a nation.

A few years from now my son will see also. He’ll look back at the files I’m making for him—FB posts, memes, articles, blogs—and will remember that this is how White supremacy works. In the future we’ll look back at history and celebrate the Black prophets and those who support them. In the future we’ll rewrite the stories of the past so that when racial injustice rises again to the surface, the opposition from White society will rise with it. My son will look back and remember that White society loves Black prophets, but only when they are dead.

It’s odd that many White people celebrating King are those who oppose or belittle what’s happening today. It’s troubling that there’s such a disconnect with civil rights history that some say, “But today is different. The protests and riots are different. It’s unchristian…”

No, it’s the same story with different characters. But we are all entitled to our own opinion. Thankfully facts are stubborn things.

Most tragic of all, just over two weeks after this day in 1963 White supremacists murdered four Black girls in the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham.

Death is not of God.

Ever.

Death is the enemy of God’s reign at work in the world (1 Cor. 15:26).

Promoting death, justifying death, validating death, celebrating death–this is not the way of God’s Kingdom.

Death is participation in the reign of sin and death.

Christ followers, let’s be sure we are participating in the right kingdom.

Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. ~ Lev. 19:18- Love your neighbor as yourself. ~ the Lord, Matt. 22:39

Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law. ~ Paul, Rom. 13:10

Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. ~ James, James 2:8

The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ~ John, 1 Jn. 4:8

If Jesus is your Lord then this applies to you like it does me. Now we must ask ourselves some questions.

If I would not want it said or done to me, why would I want it said or done to my neighbor? Is that love?

If I would want it said or done for me, why would I not say it or do it for my neighbor? Is that not love?

We can baptize our ideologies in Christian rhetoric and dress it in Church clothes, but if it does not result in love our ideology is empty and naked. Choose the issue, cause, or categorical description applied to our neighbors. Don’t let “neighbor” be an abstract description. Let it be specific and concrete. Here’s a few—not all—just a few: The poor. The orphan. The elderly. Gender equality. Black lives matter. BIPOC. LGBTQIA. These are some of the divisive issues, causes, or categorical descriptions applied to our neighbors.

Is what I am saying or doing what I would want said or done to me if I were this neighbor?

Maybe the problem is with love and we no longer know what it looks like. If so, let’s look to Love Incarnate and ask, “Can what I am saying or doing be seen in what Jesus said and did? Can what I believe about my neighbor be seen in what Jesus said and did?”

We can give our answer and carry on with our actions, or we can carry on with all our baptisms, desperately baptizing our labels, theories, our upbringing, our way of life we are comfortable with, and other misguided doctrines. We can baptize it all in the waters of American ideology and partisan politics once, twice, or three times if we like, but they will still arise from the waters “twice the son of hell” (Matt. 23:15).

After being labeled a glutton, drunk, and friend of law-breakers by his neighbors, Jesus said, “wisdom is proven right by her deeds” (Matt. 11:19). The Lord’s just providence will see to it. Now or later, when “the Son of Man comes in his glory” and sits “on his glorious throne” to “gathers all the nations” to “separate the sheep from the goats,” the confession we made with our lips will be proven by our lives (Matt. 25:31ff).

Let’s be wise and choose love.

This is Ann “Roughhouse Annie” Atwater’s backyard. She was a fierce and tireless civil rights leader and community organizer who worked for fair housing, desegregation, and equitable education in the Walton community of Durham NC. Her house was a “movement house.” Civil rights leaders traveling through gathered there to plan, practice, and rest.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Ms. Ann lately. I only spent a day with her (along with four others), but her presence shaped me in big ways. I have hours of recorded conversations dripping with faith and wisdom. 

In Ms. Ann’s most active years she was despised by White folks and questioned by moderate leaders in the Black community. White folks wanted her to stop while moderate Black leaders wanted her to keep the peace. The KKK couldn’t stand her and the moderates couldn’t stop her. 

Ms. Ann believed God knew better than everyone else. She figured since God made Black folks in His image too, He’d want them to be treated equal with White Christians. Her work was messy, dangerous, and disrupted Durham’s preferred way of life. She let go of comfort, safety, and reputation. She pressed on, following Jesus into loving her neighbors through the freedom struggle. 

She eventually befriended her enemy, the former Exalted Cyclops of the local KKK chapter, C.P. Ellis. Together they advocated for equitable education (watch the movie “Best of Enemies” or the documentary). C.P. came to be despised by many, especially White folks. 

When confronted and accused by local religious and political leaders Jesus reminded them that wisdom is vindicated by its deeds (Matthew 11:19). 

Here’s what we know now: Ms. Ann and her co-workers were right and everyone else was wrong. Durham’s fair housing policies and significant advances toward equitable education vindicate her wisdom. All the White neighbors that opposed her or told her to wait or choose a different way, were wrong. All the local Black leaders that told her to slow down and keep the peace were wrong wrong. Generations of children live different lives because Ms. Ann, C.P., and others carried on.

It brings me to this. What I hear from White folks today is the same rhetoric Ms. Ann put up with from White folks then. And what I read from folks like Candace Owens is the same rhetoric she dealt with from some of the local Black leaders then.

When will we learn?

Given all Ms. Ann lived through and the battles she fought, the greatest words she said she had to give was this: “You gotta be a disciple of Jesus and follow him. You gotta follow him, and everything will be alright.”

She was right.

Ann “Roughhouse Annie” Atwater, born July 1, 1935, and finally rested from all her labor on June 20, 2016, but the fruit of her labor still nourishes her neighbors.

In a society of words—social media, newscasts, news publications, the radio— words matter. In a faith steeped in words—the Scriptures, sermons, prayers, and songs—words matter.

But words have limitations.

Words can’t feed the hungry, only hands can do that. Words can’t offer a hope that sustains abandoned and lonely, only presence can do that. As powerful a force words may be, they bring lasting change only when they’re embodied.

Love has to look like something. To say I am a Christian is just words. Anyone can say that. To embody those words by how we love our neighbors, especially our vulnerable neighbors, well, that is something else all together. That is following Jesus.