Some things to think on and some things to smile on

"We don’t need museums, we need a movement."

Bishop William Barber speaking to the Guardian on Martin Luther King, Jr. and organizing and mobilizing people today:

“He (Dr. King) was telling us when he died that the greatest fear of the southern aristocracy was the coming together of the poor masses, Black and white. Far too many people never heard that, so they stop at the March on Washington...It’s like turning civil rights into a museum. We don’t need museums, we need a movement. The only way you honor your prophets is when they fall, you pick up the baton and walk the next mile.”

Labor leader Bill Lucy talks MLK and the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike

 

Freeing God to be God--Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler

There are so many opportunities available to honor Dr. King today that I hesitate to lift up a particular one or to put forward anything that might compete with others. But I think that I did find one short essay that has something to say to many of my good friends. It it called Freeing God to be God and was written by Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, an ordained miniter in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Rev. Hagler currently serves as the Senior Minister of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, DC. He helped lead the fight against payday lenders there, and he helped co-found the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA). He is also Director and Chief Visionary of Faith Strategies, LLC, a collective of clergy manifesting progressive perspectives on human and civil rights in the public arena.

Part of Rev. Hagler's essay contains the following. The entire essay can be found here.

During the pandemic, and under Trumpism, a racial split emerged in the evangelical movement as white evangelicals largely supported the policies of Trump; many of those policies clearly racist, and communities of-color, in general, were horrified at the antics of Trump and the lack of criticism from white evangelicals against those policies and antics of the Trump administration. Racial and ideological cracks were revealed where one perspective supported a political/religious orthodoxy and the status-quo, right or wrong, leaving of-color evangelicals horrified and surprised by the racist theological and ideological gap! The white evangelical community went as far as creating a religious litmus test over not wearing a mask during a pandemic, while Blacks and people of-color were disproportionally infected and died from the virus. This revealed at least two separate theologies. There is the theology of the political status-quo, governments, flag-waving, that believe that political leaders are the appointees of God, that slaves should be obedient to their masters, women are kept silent, and statements of American exceptionalism abound. On the other hand, people of-color continued to look to God for freedom, dignity, protection from the hatred and racism of the society, and to maintain hope and a sense of worth amid a hard and unwelcoming world. At least two Gods were revealed, two theologies, two ideologies, and at least two experiences that heard and perceived God in very different ways.

07.03.22 SERMON: "Democracy and Patriotism, Pt. 2" - Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter

Rev. Dr. Daniel Kanter

The first part of this series is here.

 

"More than a Dreamer" by Professor Louie

 

The Poor People's Campaign & Bishop Barber in Los Angeles on May 16

The video works just fine despite what it says. Just click on it on and sit back and watch. And then take some good action.

Hope in hard and violent times...

 

Feeling Social Justice--Not Only Knowing It, But Feeling It

 

Important connections & resources from religioussocialism.org

Poor People's Campaign Tour and March on Washington

The Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers' Assembly has embarked on its Mobilization Tour, making at least ten stops nationwide to do MORE: Mobilize, Organize, Register, and Educate people for a movement that votes. All leading to the historic Assembly and March on Washington on June 18, 2022. Check here for virtual tour dates! Also, if you're planning to be in DC for the march, let us know at religioussocialism@dsacommittees.org so that we can meet up!

Webinars to Watch

Religion & the Left Series #2: The Individual, the Collective & the Common Good ICYMI: The livestream recording of the April 26th Religion & the Left series panel features the perspectives of several religious traditions followed by Q&A. Also, view the recording of the first discussion in the series asking, "What can religious traditions bring to the Left?" Dharma and Justice Dialogues Watch Union Theological Seminary's final Dharma and Justice Dialogues of the Spring semester recorded on April 11, featuring Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad and Dr. Toni Pressley-Sanon as they discuss Dr. Vesely-Flad's newly released publication, Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation. Ending Ageism Watch the April 5th "Ending Ageism" webinar, featuring Margaret Morganroth Gullette, author of Ending Ageism, or How Not to Shoot Old People; Susan Chacin, long-term feminist activist; and Paul Garver, retired labor leader and a co-convener of the RS Buddhist Group. King and Breaking the Silence View the recording of the “King and Breaking the Silence” virtual gathering on April 4. We came together to listen to Rev. Dr. King’s 1967 speech and reflections on it from current activists because we believe it offers a vision and a bridge upon which to continue to build the intergenerational and intersectional movements we desperately need in order to achieve the revolution of values Dr. King called for.

Further Discussion

At religioussocialism.org, we regularly publish original articles and lift up pieces connected to our work. Check us out on Twitter or Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Also follow our podcast, Heart of a Heartless World, available on SoundCloud and iTunes. Unitarian Universalists! If you'd like to get involved with the new UU faith-based subgroup, Unitarian Universalists of the DSA, contact uureligioussocialists@gmail.com. We're just getting started, expect more in the fUtUre! Watch Professor Richard D. Wolff interview Professor Joerg Rieger on Christian Socialism on the March 28th episode of Democracy at Work (starts at approximately 15:00 in). Also, watch Rieger speak about deep solidarity at last year's DSA Religion & Socialism Working Group conference on "Building the Religious Left." Dr. Maha Hilal, author of Innocent Until Proven Muslim, shared this dua'a on Eid al-Fitr from Muslim Counterpublics Lab, a radical discursive space focused on combatting systems of oppression rooted in Islamophobia through advocacy, writing, and more. In Democratic Left, co-convener of the RS Buddhist Group Ty Kiatathikom writes "Please Don’t Forget About Afghanistan." If you’re not yet a member, join DSA!

Moral Clarity About Our Own Atrocities---Bishop William Barber II

The following came out as an e-mail from Bishop Barber and Repairers of the Breach on Saturday, April 30. Please learn about and support Repairers of the Breach by going here.

Dear Movement Family,

In Philadelphia this week, the Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign organized a march from City Hall to a church downtown, where Carolyn Hill shared the story of losing her two nieces to poverty. “The child welfare department decided I was too poor to raise them,” Ms. Hill testified. “I had a roof over my head and food in the fridge and the girls were doing well in my care… But if I had had the Child Tax Credit earlier, child welfare might not have taken my nieces from me.” She hasn’t seen the babies she helped to raise in nine years because of policy decisions by Republicans and Democrats who believe lies about scarcity.

Over the past couple of months, Russia’s assault on Ukraine has produced scenes that demand action from people who want to hold onto our humanity. To see the butchery at Bucha or the massacre at Mariupol and do nothing would be to forfeit any claim to moral authority. We know this instinctively. It is why, despite the political gridlock on Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats have acted swiftly to approve historic military aid to Ukraine. In the face of such a moral imperative, it would be anathema for either party to ask, “How are we going to pay for it?”

But our moral clarity on the question of Ukraine exposes the contradiction at the heart of American politics for the past 40 years. In 1967, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. told the story of visiting Marks, Mississippi, and meeting a teacher who cut her apple into several pieces at lunch each day so that students who had nothing else to eat could share it for nourishment. In the richest nation in the history of the world, King knew it was a moral contradiction to witness such poverty and do nothing. So he agreed to work with a coalition of Black, White, Latino and Native poor people to make America see the human suffering in its midst. King was gunned down for his efforts to build a Poor People’s Campaign, but the mobilization helped compel the government to launch a War on Poverty. Republicans and Democrats agreed it was unimaginable to simply look away.

America has not sustained that moral clarity about the catastrophe of poverty. As we continue our national tour to prepare for the Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls on June 18, 2022, poor and low-income people like Ms. Hill are putting a face on the moral crisis of poverty in the richest nation in the history of the world.

As we all watch the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine, Americans are aware that the main difference between us and the Russian people is that we see the truth of the human slaughter that is hidden from them by Putin’s propaganda. If they could see what we see, we know they could not allow it to continue in their names. But if this is true of human suffering half a world away, then it must be also true of the catastrophes hidden in our cities’ homeless encampments and Walmart parking lots, filled with families sleeping in cars because they cannot afford housing. If it is true for babies in Ukraine, then it is also true for Ms. Hill’s babies.

We are no less culpable than the Russian people because we have been willing to go along with narratives that blame poor people or hide their suffering behind arguments about book bans or “critical race theory.” It is our moral duty to see the suffering of other human beings, especially those closest to us. And when we witness unnecessary suffering, it is our duty to act.

If Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine demand action, then so too does the failure of the US Senate to pass Build Back Better’s provisions for affordable housing, green jobs, living wages for care workers, and a child tax credit that will immediately lift 4 million children out of poverty. If Putin’s attack on democracy in Europe can unite Western democracies, then the assault on voting rights in state houses across America must, at the very least, unite Senate Democrats in their resolve to pass federal voting rights protections before the midterms this fall.

The moral imperative of these issues is no less pressing than the human suffering in Ukraine. We cannot ignore the cry for help from Ukraine, just as we cannot look away from the poor people and low-wage workers who are calling for a Mass Poor People's & Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.

This historic gathering at a watershed moment in our nation’s history isn’t just another rally. It is a call coming from grassroots movements in communities across America where people are learning that we have power when we get together, and we have authority when we act to stop the atrocities that we have allowed here at home for far too long.

Forward together,

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President and Senior Lecturer
Repairers of the Breach

PS: As we focus our attention on mobilizing people for June 18th, our organizers have put together a great set of resources to help you organize a bus from your community. Please reach out to your faith community, union, neighborhood association, or civic organization to start signing people up for a bus this week. We’re putting everything we’ve got into building a national platform where we can demand that this nation see the suffering of people like Ms. Hill.

Forward together, not one step back!

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
President and Senior Lecturer
Repairers of the Breach

“The way to heal the soul of the nation is to pass policies that heal the body of the nation. It’s the just thing to do. That’s how we as a nation can together move forward.” -Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

Today is Workers' Memorial Day. We need to mourn for the dead, not be complicit in injustice, and fight like hell for the living.

Today is Workers' Memorial Day, the day when we remember all of those who died at work or from workplace injuries and illnesses. It should be a day of mourning---part of an extended period of national mourning for the victims of COVID and for our lack of a national healthcare policy and a national healthcare service---and a day of action and protest.

"I felt my legs were praying."

Taken from ReformJudaism.org:

Upon marching with Dr. King in Selma, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously said: “I felt my legs were praying.” How might each of us today apply a spiritual approach to our social justice activism? In what ways does our pursuit of justice change us internally and connect us to something bigger than ourselves? What personal spiritual practices might we engage in to help us feel more connected in our pursuit of justice?

Liberation Theology Reflects On Ther Christian Mission And The Meaning of The Crucifixion

 

'Rediscovering Lost Values' February 28, 1954---Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

The #PoorPeoplesCampaign June 18 Mobilization Tour comes to New York City

Music, testimony, multiracial and multiethnic and multinational speakers from a variety of religious and spiritual perspectives, people who do the hard work to help us realize God's Kingdom and justice... 
 

Three closing thoughts for today...

Jesus' Prophetic Work Led Him To A Cross---The Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley Preaching At Seminary Of The Southwest 4/6/22

 

Martin Luther King Jr. 'Love Your Enemies' November 17, 1957

 

“Great, But ...” - A sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King (7/2/1967)