The Ripe Time

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, answered the criticism of some white clergymen over his participation in marches and protests. A few memorable excerpts:

”We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God- given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait."

But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”

August 24: Erasing Racism

I was out on my morning walk (I do 4 or 5 miles each morning before 7:00am) and needed to make a "pit stop". There are some ball fields near my home. The Little Leagers hone their skills there, and middle-aged, pot-bellied softball players try to hold tightly to their fleeting youth. I slipped into the port-a-pot and was confronted with some of the most hate-filled, racist, profanity-laced graffiti I've ever read in my life. I stood there and began to boil with anger at the thought of children and teenagers going in there and being confronted with that filth, that hate.

Later in the day I drove past the ball fields, got out of my car and re-entered the toilet. With a can of black spray paint I covered over the revolting words. Now there was a big, black blob on the wall. So I'm confessing that I defaced someone else's property with my own brand of graffiti. As I walked back to my car I was well aware of the fact that I hadn't really changed anything. The person full of racially-charged hatred hadn't had a change of heart, hadn't been held accountable for discharging his venom in our community.

Why so much hate? The outermost layer of a person's skin has more or less pigment than their neighbor's, but beyond that they are made of the same stuff. Racists come in all colors--it's not just "white" against "black" or vice-versa--but it is always ugly.

There is one race--the human race. One species--homo sapiens. When the Apostle Paul spoke to the crowd in Athens, Greece nearly 2,000 years ago he pointed out this truth:

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one blood He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" Acts 17:24-28

From one blood we are all made, and with one blood we have the possibility of being made new. The Bible describes the scene in heaven:

"You (Jesus) are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." Revelation 5:9

God is not a racist. Racism is born out of ignorance, fear and/or pain. If I could find the person who spewed his hate on the inside wall of portable toilet, I'd ask who hurt him. I'd want to know why he's so afraid and full of anger. I'd want to know who taught him to look with disgust at a fellow human being just because their skin tones vary by a few shades.

I try to make the posts here upbeat and inspirational for the most part, but I'm kind of bummed out right now. It's my blog and I'll rant if I want to. Racism is such a cancer in our communities. I keep wondering when we, as a people, are ever going to get this lesson right.

Racism is deeply ingrained in our society and some view change as an idealistic dream.

1 John 2: 9-11: “anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.”

We need a radical wake-up call about the evil of racial prejudice.

"But if we walk in the Light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

“Fellowship” is a wonderful word. My friend and mentor, Pastor Charlie, used to say that "fellowship means we are 'joined together at the heart.'”. How can you possibly reject someone because of one thin layer of skin when you are joined together at the heart?

One blood. One blood. One blood.

~ Father, forgive me for reacting to people different from me out of my own fear, ignorance and pain. Help me to see my neighbor through your eyes. Amen.