A sermon preached by the Rev. Diane Teichert
Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church
January 16, 2011
Martin Luther King Jr Weekend
What a story, the inspiring, frightening, amazing story of the Birmingham children’s marches in early May 1963! It touches us in our souls, down deep.
I’ve tried, but I cannot imagine myself doing what those children did at that age. Indeed I was the age of some of the youngsters led by twelve-year old Freeman Hrabowski III down the street and up the steps of the Birmingham courthouse to face Police Commissioner Bull Connor, who shall ever represent the personification of white racism in power in our country.
Of course, the simple reason I cannot imagine doing what they did is… I am white. I didn’t need to march for a better school at age ten. Mine was fine.
And, I cannot image myself doing what Dr. King and his colleagues did, deciding to put other people’s children in harm’s way, enlisting them to walk, literally, right into the hands of the white man’s prison system. And, worse, leave some of them there for five days. Of course, the simple reason I cannot imagine doing what they did is… not so simple.
Not so simple because there isn’t an issue that I feel in my gut the way those leaders felt the cause of racial equality in their guts. Not so simple because today there isn’t an issue around which energy has been rallied and confluences organized into a movement sufficient to cause one to even consider risking the lives of children, never mind justify doing it. Not so simple because there isn’t an issue about which youth are demanding to have such a role.
Those leaders were leading a movement that had incredible momentum, mounting since at least the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, and in Birmingham they faced a major dilemma: channel the energy of the young into nonviolent, well-organized marches and be criticized for taking advantage of children, or leave a vacuum into which masses of leaderless young people would show up, be taunted by the police, harassed into striking back, and then blamed for a race riot in which many would surely be hurt and possibly killed.
If you don’t know the story, read the chapter called “The Children’s Miracle” in Taylor Branch’s first dramatic tome, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years.” Great book!
The so-called miracle was that the non-violent protests, and jailing, of hundreds of young black people provided the needed push in the movement’s stalled negotiations with white leaders of Birmingham so that they agreed to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms, drinking fountains, and fitting rooms, and to hire blacks as salesmen and clerks in downtown stores. It set them on the path to equal schools.
In his speech at the last mass meeting before he left Birmingham a few days later, King declared, “We must have faith in our movement. And another thing we must realize—this is not a racial conflict basically. I want you to understand me here. We are not going to allow this conflict in Birmingham to deteriorate into a struggle between black and white people. The tension in Birmingham is between justice and injustice.” He told them their goal was to enlist “consciences,” not skin colors, as their cause was as broad as religion and democracy.” (Branch, p. 802).
Indeed, in the five years between that success in Birmingham and his assassination, the cause King would champion became very broad, going beyond civil rights. On April 4, 1968 one year before his death, to the day, he spoke at New York City’s famous, Rockefeller-funded Riverside Church and called for an end to the Vietnam war. But in what he said he went way beyond an end to the war.
“We must rapidly begin…we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Some of his fellow civil rights leaders declared that King was ill-advised to get involved in the anti-war movement and probably many white leaders thought he should mind his own business and stick to fighting for his own people. But King had long considered his people to be all people, and clearly had a grasp of the complex relationships of race and class in our country and a strong conviction, as a follower of Jesus, that spiritual goods are greater than material wealth.
There is no telling, for sure, where King would have stood on the issues of our day, or which he would have made time for had he lived long enough to be a grey-haired leader.
For example, although we heard in the Chalice Reflection about the anti-gay views of his daughter, his widow, the late Coretta Scott King, came out as early as 1998 for gay rights and in a 2004 speech quoted in USA Today (March 24, 2004), she declared, “Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.”
So, it’s likely he would have joined her, and us, in working for marriage equality. But how thinly could he have spread himself and still been effective?
If you read Parting the Waters, you will learn that the civil rights movement was led strategically. In Birmingham, like elsewhere, their strategy sessions went long into the night. That decision to organize the children because the movement had not been issued a permit to march? It was not made lightly. King and the others had hashed it out. When a decision had been reached, they knew why. And once made, they focused on the details that would ensure its success. And, when the first children’s march had been successful, they debated if they should allow another the next day, and when they decided yes to that, they strategized a different game plan for the second day. And, meanwhile had to raise the money to bail the children out of jail.
Here, at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church, we should be strategic, too. Of course our work doesn’t have the historic intensity of theirs, but how thinly can we spread ourselves and still be effective? Our membership is smaller than it once was, and the facts of life today are that more adults per household are working more hours and have fewer volunteer hours to give, so we cannot manage to do what a larger congregation of people could once do.
How should we focus our social justice work? For what lofty goals did we re-claim the space in our Religious Exploration building? What is our strategy for reaching them? For that matter, how shall we focus even the work of maintaining and growing our church? What are our goals? What is our strategy for reaching them? Who should strategize? A lesson for us from the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is “Be Strategic.”
We are not strangers to strategy. For example, our Social Action Kick-off this past October was designed to be strategic. After presentations by speakers on six different issues about which individual Paint Branchers are known to be passionate, a democratic, participatory prioritization exercise resulted in the choice of two main priorities for our social justice work for 2010-2011.The winners were… winning marriage equality in Maryland and supporting nearby High Point High School and/or the Beltsville Family Academy started by the high, middle and elementary school principals in our area.
Now, winning marriage equality was a very strategic choice. As the more than thirty people, including ten Paint Branch UU’s, learned in the Kelley Room this past Wednesday night at the Prince George’s kick-off for the campaign, it looks to those in the know to be winnable this year and there is a statewide organization leading the way with experienced staff doing the strategizing. The legislative session is only three months long.
Every one of us can surely squeeze in some contribution in those three months.
If Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church helps provide the people-power to get the votes needed, we will feel pride when victory is won and we will have learned a lot as individuals and as a congregation. And because our Social Action co-chair Nancy Boardman has been instrumental in making our building available to the campaign, all we need to do next is show up in the RE Building tomorrow or any Monday night anytime between 5:30 to 9:30 to take part in the phone banks, training provided. If that’s not your thing, plan to attend the Lobby Day in Annapolis on Valentine’s Day.
The choice to support nearby High Point High School is a more challenging one. There is no organization providing the leadership or strategizing. Beyond raising money for college scholarships, which we will begin today with our Special Collection, it is not clear yet what we can actually do. It will evolve, if we are strategic and keep at it.
We have merely planted the seeds of relationships, starting with their PTSA leaders and ours attending each other’s meetings, and between me and the principal. We need to nurture those seeds for a while. It’s not going to be like forcing narcissus bulbs, folks! It’s going to be more like growing tomatoes from seed!
And unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been conducive to germination so far. The High Point High School Community Meeting to combat truancy we were to host this past Tuesday was canceled due to the bad weather. Judging by how many of you emailed or called to find out if the meeting was on or not, a lot of you planned to attend.
As disappointed as I was, upon reflection, I realized that despite the cancelation, we had made some progress in one of our goals: getting to know, and becoming more known in, our surrounding community. That’s because the parents of 2400 students received an automated phone call inviting them to a meeting in our meeting house – they’d heard our name! And somewhere around 75 homes in the neighborhood behind the church received fliers, because an intrepid trio of Nancy Boardman, Patty Daukantas and I walked its streets in the cold wind last Sunday afternoon, knocked on doors and engaged in conversation with someone at about half of them, leaving a flier where no one answered. Our fliers announced both the High Point and marriage equality meetings and at the bottom stated, “And of course you are always welcome to join us on Sunday mornings at ten!”
Far fewer of the principal’s goals were met, due to the cancellation, but the very fact that we agreed to host the meeting gave him the feeling of community support. And I hope he felt my pastoral concern when he told me that one of his students was shot and killed over New Years weekend, an eighteen year old, who was not a truant, but a kid who got in trouble for things like wearing a hat to school, whose grieving sister and girlfriend also attend High Point. The principal has a challenging, important job and I’m sure you feel as I do that it’s good for him to feel supported. I hope he felt renewed after his visit here to see the meeting house and meet in my office. I hope it was a chance to get away from the pressures of the school and take in the serenity of our lovely setting in the woods.
By coalescing around these two efforts – supporting High Point High School in whatever ways as we are able to find and by pitching in to win marriage equality for Maryland’s gay and lesbian couples – we will honor the King legacy and, I believe, find deeper meaning as a religious community. And for that we need to be focused and strategic. By focusing, we will be less scattered, and maximize our impact. In strategizing, we will grapple with our goals, seize opportunities, and evolve plans to nurture the seeds we plant.
Our commitments will be shallow if we have too many. We must have only a few if we want to go deep. We do want to go deep, don’t we? We want to have a positive impact and to be known for what we do in the community, for working to win marriage equality and helping High Point High School be the best it can be. Don’t we? King said, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” We want to serve, in deep and meaningful ways.
As the choir sang just minutes ago, our souls shall run deep, deep as the rivers, if we do. And as we are about to sing, let us not run this race in vain. So may it be, Amen.