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Praises

Don't quite know what happened yet, but pleased to hear that many prayers have been answered with the release today of Briton Norman Kember, 74, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32.

Condolences to the family and friends of the fourth member of the Christian Peacemakers team, American colleague Tom Fox, 54, who was found dead March 9.

Click on the link to learn more about Christian Peacemakers. There is an interesting response to a column by Cal Thomas that is worth a look as well.

By the way, this is my 100th post. Thanks for your encouragement and prayers.

Kingdom influence

Yesterday was the anniversary of one of the most remarkable speeches ever made by an American president. It was arguably one of the most important in America's history, though it is remembered rarely.

And it was given largely because Christians and others put the teachings of Christ into action against incredible repression.

Below are some excerpts from the front page of the New York Times on March 15, 1965 (four months before I was born). You can read the whole article or just see the excerpts below. But first a few comments. 

It may not seem so remarkable as we read Johnson's words. But we must realize that he was speaking to a very different nation and in a very different world than today's.  Remember as well that he was a southerner, who had grown up in a world where racial discrimination seemed like the natural and normal state of affairs. And he was speaking to a nation as a whole (not just the South) that was only beginning to wake up to its need to repent about racism.

As you read, notice the faith references. These were not -- as so often seems to be the case today -- attempts to convince a powerful Christian voting block that Johnson was one of them. These come from a president who had been convicted by a movement based in Christ's teaching and who had become convinced that it was time to do what was right. He appeals to faith of the American people in order to convict them to do what was right.

Interesting that the government was moved to do what was right not because of political power and might alone. They were moved when people (not just Christians) stepped up in sacrifice and courage to stand for justice, raising the conscience of a nation. Johnson had seen others do it, and, I believe, realized it was time for him to do the same.

Knowing that many would call him a traitor. A sell-out. That many would hate him and curse him forever. He spoke boldly and put his power behind what he believed would be real change. I find it to be refreshing compared to most of what we see from politicians and leaders today.

(By the way, next to the article on the front page was a headline "100 U.S. aircraft strike deep into North Vietnam" ... Ironically, the developing war in Vietnam would become Johnson's legacy, and this speech would be remembered and praised later only in obscure blogs !!!)

Here are the excerpts ...

NY Times.

ashington, March 15, 1965 -- President Johnson took the rallying cry of American Negroes into Congress and millions of American Homes tonight by pledging that "we shall overcome" what he called "a crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice."

In his slow Southern accent, Mr. Johnson demanded immediate action on legislation designed to remove every barrier of discrimination against citizens trying to register and vote.

He was interrupted 36 times by applause and two standing ovations.

The President said he would send this legislation to Congress Wednesday. It is expected to receive overwhelming bipartisan support.

Violence Deplored

Before a joint session of Congress and millions watching on television, Mr. Johnson deplored recent violence against Negroes in Selma, Ala., where a voter registration struggle has been going on for six weeks. And he identified the cause of Negroes there and elsewhere with the spirit of the nation.

"Their cause must be our cause too," he said. "Because it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.

"And we ... shall ... overcome."

To these last words, the title of the great Negro freedom hymn, Mr. Johnson's accent and emphasis imparted an unmistakable determination.

"I Mean to Use It"

Later, telling of his own experiences as a young teacher in a Mexican-American school in Texas in 1928, Mr. Johnson said he had "never thought then I might be standing here."

"It never occurred to me," he went on, "that I might have the chance to help the sons of those students and people like them all over this country."

Then, forcefully and slowly, he declared:

"But now that I have this chance, I'll let you in on a secret -- I mean to use it!"

No other American President had so completely identified himself with the cause of the Negro. No other President had made the issue of equality for Negroes so frankly a moral cause to himself and all Americans.

For "should we defeat every enemy, double our wealth and conquer the stars and still be unequal to this issue," Mr. Johnson said, "then we will have failed as a people and as a nation."

Mr. Johnson, describing himself as "a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil," said he knew "how agonizing racial feelings are."

But, he said, "the time of justice has now come."

"I believe with all my heart that no force can hold it back," he went on. "It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come. And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American."

For it is not only Negroes who are the victims of racial injustice, he said. "How many white children have gone uneducated, how many white families have lived in poverty, how many whites lives have been scarred by fear because we have wasted our energy and substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror."

Television viewers got some remarkable views of the reaction of Congress and official Washington to these and other remarks.

They saw Mike Mansfield of Montana, the Senate majority leader, apparently close to tears at one emotional moment.

They saw Senator Albert Gore, Democrat of Tennessee, applauding the President's pledge that "we shall overcome" not only racial bigotry but also "poverty and ignorance and fear."

They saw Senator George Smathers of Florida clap tentatively at one point, then desist quickly.

They saw Senator Sam Erwin of North Carolina sitting with folded arms in massive disapproval.

They saw Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana slumped gloomily in his seat.

A prayer for peacemakers

A prayer for American Tom Fox, Briton Norman Kember, and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Sooden -- all working for the Christian Peacemaker Teams organization. They were  kidnapped on November 26 in Iraq.

Lord, please strengthen these four brothers and sustain them by your presence in their hearts. I pray that you would be even more real to them now in this time of fear and need, and that they would continue to be a witness to us all, speaking of the power of non-violent love in the face of violence and hatred.

Please help their families in this difficult time. Comfort them and visit them, please.

Speak to their captors. Help them to see you in these four men. Help them to see your love. Your courage. Your compassion. Your strength. Your vulnerability, even? Does that make sense?

At any rate, we know that you are capable of setting them free and delivering them, but even if you do not, may your name be glorified, and may you Way be promoted.

By the Name you have shared with us, and them

Amen

From the archives

I know I said I was done with this, but I was reading the NY Times and saw that today was the anniversary of the routing of protestors in Selma by Alabama government forces in 1965.

It's stuff I've been reading about in the Taylor Branch book. When you click on the link it takes you to the actual front page from that day, and the article is available by internet.

Fascinating to see the way it was covered back then. This was the protest that prompted Martin Luther King to call for white ministers to come to Selma to stand with the black protestors.

Imagine what you'd be saying if you were reading this today about some other country.

(From the NY Times ... March 7, 1965)

"I fought in World War II," Mr. Williams said, "and I once was captured by the German army, and I want to tell you that the Germans never were as inhuman as the state troopers of Alabama."

The troopers rushed forward, their blue uniforms and white helmets blurring into a flying wedge as they moved.

The wedge moved with such force that it seemed almost to pass over the waiting column instead of through it.

The first 10 or 20 Negroes were swept to the ground screaming, arms and legs flying and packs and bags went skittering across the grassy divider strip and on to the pavement on both sides.

Those still on their feet retreated.

Spectators Cheer

The troopers continued pushing, using both the force of their bodies and the prodding of their nightsticks.

A cheer went up from the white spectators lining the south side of the highway.

The mounted possemen spurred their horses and rode at a run into the retreating mass. The Negroes cried out as they crowded together for protection and the whites on the sideline whooped and cheered.

The Negroes paused in their retreat for perhaps a minute still screaming and huddling together.

Suddenly there was a report, like a gunshot, and a gray cloud spewed over the troopers and the Negroes.

"Tear gas!" someone yelled.

The cloud began covering the highway. Newsmen, who were confined by four troopers to a corner 100 yards away, began to lose sight of the action.

But before the cloud finally hid it all there were several seconds of unobstructed view. Fifteen or twenty nightsticks could be seen through the gas flailing at the heads of the marchers.

The Negroes Flee

The Negroes broke and ran. Scores of them streamed across the parking lot of the Selma Tractor Company. Troopers and possemen, mounted and unmounted, went after them.

Several more tear gas bombs were set off. One report was heard that sounded different. A white civil rights worker said later that it was a shotgun blast and that the pellets tore a hole in the brick wall of a hamburger stand five feet from him.

After about 10 minutes, most of the Negroes were rounded up. They began to move toward the city through the smell of the tear gas, coughing and crying as they stumbled onto Pettus Bridge.

Four or five women still lay on the grass strip where the troopers had knocked them down. Two troopers passed among them and ordered them to get up and join the others. The women lay still.

The two men then set off another barrage of tear gas and the women struggled to their feet, blinded and gasping, and limped across the road. One was Mrs. Amelia Boynton, one of the Selma leaders of the Negro movement. She was treated later at the hospital.

Lloyd Russell of Atlanta, a white photographer who had stayed at the other end of the bridge, said he saw at least four carloads of possemen overtake the marchers as they re-entered Broad Street. He said the possemen jumped from the cars and began beating the Negroes with nightsticks.

Two other witnesses said they saw possemen using whips on the fleeing Negroes as they recrossed the bridge.

The other newsmen were finally allowed to follow the retreat.

Moral authority

OK. Black History month is over. I'm going to stop going on about this. But one last thought on the lessons we are missing from the civil rights era. ...

Understandably, America does not like to think of this part of its past. Many Christians, especially, like to focus on the good old days as times of purity and simplicity. It feels better to see the past that way.

But sweeping the ugliness of our past under our collective rugs causes us to miss out on the important lessons we learned. The lessons about how change comes. How "Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven" comes to be.

For one moment in time (the 1960s), America -- a nation born (like most others) in violence, force, bloodshed and self-reliance -- had a chance to see that true change comes from love, sacrifice and trust that God's truth will overcome. And wrapped up in that is the necessity for repentance and facing the ugly truth in ourselves.

The country has moved away from those lessons, choosing instead to return to an idolatrous trust in force. And we are surprised that others don't follow our lead quite the way we would like them to.

We urge Shiite and Sunni factions in Iraq not to choose vengeance when they are attacked ... likewise for Palestinians and Jews. Why don't they listen to our calls for peace and understanding? Why don't the follow our moral authority?

But then, what was our response to September 11, again? Perhaps they are following us more closely than we think.

I'm not suggesting that I expect anything different from governments. They do what they do. But what is the response of the church when faced with a violent enemy? What's the response of Jesus's followers?

Find the answer and perhaps we will find that moral authority to see and to make Kingdom-sized changes in our world.

Fresh look at church

Found some interesting stuff here on ways to look at church.

I was talking to a collegue here about what we want to see developing in the things we do with disciples and Erwin McManus came up. After a google search, I came across this site, with notes from a recent conference McManus was taking part in.

"Those people" can't change

Can the situation in the Middle East ever change? Or in Nigeria? Or in Darfour?

I've tended to look at cycles of violence with a fatalistic acceptance that it will always be that way "until Jesus comes back."

That's the attitude that was fostered in the faith environment that I've known best. But I'm being challenged by some disciples who believed things could change if someone dared to take Christ at his word. They saw a situation where hatred ruled and decided to invade that place with love and faith.

Many thought they were crazy. They were risking to take on terrorists with a simple belief that the Way of Christ is one of love and peace and forgiveness. Everyone knew that the terrorists were waiting for someone to take hostage or kill in order to make a statement. That these terrorists were committed to their cause and would never change.

But if it were just the terrorists, a few extremists, everyone might have had some hope. But since even the mainstream refused to denounce the terrorists, and perhaps even condoned their hatred, how could things ever change?

Why would people venture into such a situation just to die?

But some people did. And their critics were right. They just died. ... And their critics were also wrong. They didn't JUST die.

ANOTHER TIME, SAME STORY

It was 1965. And the terrorists were not bombing mosques in Bagdad or synagogues in Jerusalem. They were bombing churches in Birmingham and Selma. They were not taking Western journalists and clergy into captivity in Iraq, but they were killing black people who dared register to vote, and making an example of white people who came to support the movement for justice in the U.S.

People like Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian (picture here in Selma) who came to help people in Lowndes Country, Alabama, finally register to vote. He was murdered by shotgun after being released from the county jail on Aug. 20, 1965.

This was almost exactly one month after I was born.

A few months before, James Reeb had been killed in plain sight of many witnesses after a freedom march. The assailant didn't even feel the need to hide his face. Viola Liuzzo of Detroit while driving black marchers in her car in Lowndes County.

Her attackers, who killed her in a drive-by shooting and continued on, were accompanied by an FBI informant, by the way. He didn't bother to stop the proceedings, and the FBI covered up his involvement.

After her death, a poll showed that the majority of Americans thought that she should have stayed home in Detroit with her husband and children rather than getting involved in such things. (kinda like saying, it's not good what happened to her, but what did she expect?!)

These were just a couple of the deaths -- many more were killed and beaten and intimidated while the public as a whole accepted these things.

But yet, change did come. Not complete change, but change. The movement, fueled and led by Christ's principles of loving our enemies instead of killing them, changed America. Not just the laws changed, but people changed. They began to see -- if still incompletely -- the shame of their ways.

They began to repent and to make changes.

But people like Martin Luther King, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo and many, many nameless African-Americans and others had to be willing to sacrifice and risk something in order for this to happen.

One could have said that America was hopeless. That nothing could ever change the racism and hatred that was deep in the country's soul. But something happened when Christ was followed and trusted.

When people were willing to die for what was right, for the Kingdom as it should be.

MISGUIDED HOPE, OR MISGUIDED METHODS?

Many are criticizing the current American regime for its belief that things can change in the Middle East. They are called naïve and silly. ... I think in that criticism there is a hidden sense of superiority in many Americans. That these Arabs (and Jews) will never get it together. They are too ruled by hatred, etc. They are too ignorant.

But just a little look at America's past -- just a FEW years ago -- should remind us of how very like us "those people" are. That if we stand today in a very different country and WORLD from the one that existed in 1965, it is a testimony to the fact that things CAN change.

Instead of criticizing the belief that things can change, perhaps we need to look at the how. Will it be by force, or by love? By self-protective destruction, intimidation and manipulation, or by the moral authority and courage of non-violence, forgiveness and love?