CHALLENGING BUSINESS AS USUAL
CHALLENGING BUSINESS AS USUAL
Mark 11: 15-19
NCJ Commission and Race
October 19, 2007
Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton
Not long ago, Eleanor Holmes Norton urged the Senate to support House legislation for D. C. Voting Rights. Norton’s plea fell on deaf ears. The legislation failed by a 57-42 vote. Furthermore, Al Sharpton co-led a massive demonstration in Jena, Louisiana questioning the double standard of justice for black folk in that little town. Norton and Sharpton protested the continual unequal treatment of African-Americans in the United States. In other words, they challenged business as usual in America.
The Commission on Religion and Race has that same charge within the United Methodist Church. According to the Book of Discipline, their purpose “shall be to challenge the general agencies, institutions, and connectional structures of the United Methodist Church to a full and equal participation of the racial and ethnic constituency in the total life and mission of the Church…
This afternoon, I want to say a few words about our theme for this conference namely Challenging Business as Usual. In Mark 11:15-19, our Lord is outraged because folk are carrying on unethical practices in God’s house. Think with me in these terms: acceptance of the unethical, antipathy for the unethical plus advocacy and its consequences.
Acceptance of the Unethical
When our Lord entered the temple in Jerusalem during Holy Week, he charged that the folk who ran the temple were guilty of an unconscionable practice. Mark 11: 17 says it best, “Is it not written, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a den of thieves.” In other words, temple leaders accepted what was wrong and functioned as if it were right. For example, pilgrims who scrimped and saved, made the arduous trip and arrived at temple “to worship God in spirit and in truth” suddenly discovered it had been turned into a money making venture. To make appropriate sacrifices, foreign money had to be exchanged, for a fee. Poor folk unable to afford the sacrificial lamb or goat obtained doves, for a fee. Unstated but no less present, enterprising citizens of Jerusalem sold souvenirs, portraits, blessed objects, manuscripts, food and water, for a fee. To be sure, no pilgrim expected a free lunch. But few expected to be exploited within the environs of God’s Holy Temple. Sadly, that was the case. Authentic worship of God had been waylaid by the penchant for money.
It pained our Lord to see the religious life of the temple strangled by “the things of men rather than the things of God.” Worst of all, the chief priests and scribes who had the responsibility of providing moral leadership for the people of God abandoned their love of scripture for the love of money. It had ruined them. Ostensibly, they compromised their role as the spiritual leaders of Israel and their relationship with God- a God with a long history of having no other gods before him. If our Lord noticed the secularization of religious life in the temple; so did pilgrims flooding the town. One does not have to be exploited too long-taken advantage of too long-used too long to know that the face of religion is not always what it is cracked up to be.
Two thousand plus years later, the face of religion called the church has embraced and sustained many debilitating status quos just like first century Judaism. Long before W.E.B. DuBois uttered the prophetic line that “the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line;” black folk in the UMC suffered the slings of arrows and arrows of racism all over the church. Separate seating at worship and Communion was common. We were seen as chattel rather than children of God and pursued to the death by slave catchers. Families were atomized by the trading block and women used and abused. Demeaned by the Emancipation Proclamation that freed some and left others in bondage, identified by race as lesser versus equal to, identified by the color of our skin rather than the content of our character; these practices received and garnered support from church-from the house that Christ built. The church followed the lead of society rather than leading it.
At the 2007 U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in New York this summer, former Mayor David Dinkins celebrated the accomplishments of Althea Gibson. She won 12 grand slam tournaments and countless other victories. Then, Dinkins made it clear that Althea grew up in the era of segregation. Black boys were being lynched, 24 in 1933. Black soldiers risking their lives for American freedom slept in segregated barracks during World War II. Negroes sat at the back of the bus. Moreover, Dinkins noted how a consummate warrior on the tennis court became an accomplished warrior against discrimination of women and African-Americans. Her friends noted that Althea never wanted to be a leader in the fight for civil rights. But it was thrust upon her. Hence, Althea followed Jesus’ path of challenging business as usual. One would have thought that Althea was a card carrying member of the Commission on Religion and Race. Not so, the time had not come for the CORR. But the time was ripe to fight acceptance of the unethical twins, racism and sexism.
Antipathy for the Unethical
Last month, The General Commission on Religion and Race elected its fourth and youngest General Secretary. Elected at the tender age of 31, Erin Hawkins has already publicly demonstrated her antipathy for racism. Erin wrote an article on the Jena 6 case in Louisiana entitled The Evil of racism requires our response. In short, racial tensions got out of control at a high school in Jena, Louisiana. A black student asked for permission to sit under a tree where whites usually gathered. It was granted. In response, some white students hung nooses from the tree. Black students got the message. If you don’t stay in line, you could be lynched at worst and intimidated and humiliated at best. Despite hate crime legislation on the books, the three boys were suspended from school for three days with an administrator calling it “an adolescent prank.”
In the light of a recent e-mail penned by Gil Caldwell, a former Associate General Secretary of Religion and Race, the “adolescent prank” comment is egregious. “The lesson of the recent story in Jena Louisiana with all its complexities, is that our beloved U.S.A. seems to understand the horror the symbol of the swastika represents (for our Jewish brethren), but it has not yet understood the history nor the meaning, the use of the demonic noose, has for (African-Americans.)”
Because of the egregious comment by the school administrator, Blacks protested. More troubled followed. Arson damaged the school. A black student was attacked trying to attend an all white party. A white man brandished a gun at several black students. They took the gun away. Later the black students were arrested for theft. The white man was not charged with attempted murder. Finally, a white student who taunted several black students was severely beaten and hospitalized with a concussion. He was released a few hours later. The Jena six were arrested and charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy, among other things. The white student was not charged for racial taunting.
One black adolescent was charged, tried and convicted of attempted murder as an adult. He faced 22 years in prison. But a Louisiana Appeals Court overturned the conviction saying Mychal Bell should have been charged as a juvenile. Later, the Jena prosecuting attorney reduced the charges reluctantly. Why? 50,000 protestors, including many from the United Methodist Church couldn’t be ignored. This concession exemplified the unfairness in the U. S. Judicial system toward people of color. The General Secretary referred to a quote the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made time and again, “Injustice anywhere is a threat against justice everywhere.” Most importantly, she argued that the church, not just society is required to raise its voice against such injustices. Some of you have experienced the scenarios that follow.
First, those of you who have been to Annual Conference have witnessed monitoring reports noting how often men and women spoke; noting the number of ethnic persons who spoke. When this information is shared with the conference; demeaning, embarrassing, or degrading others is not the objective. Promoting conversation and the sharing of perspectives from everyone is the goal. By including as many persons as possible in the discussion and decision making, the ownership of the mission and ministry of the church is broadened.
Second, all over the church elections were held for General Conference. Every four years 1000 delegates are elected from all over the world to make policy guiding the church for the next four years. If General Conference only seated men, Americans, clergy, the theologically astute; it would be a poorer body. The Commission on Religion and Race monitors elections in every Annual Conference. They have the responsibility of keeping tabs on those groups who have a voice and those who do not. Sometimes the voters listen; sometimes they don’t. An official list of delegates to the three General Conferences made a clear revelation. Racial/Ethnic delegates numbered 210, 220 and 168 in 2000, 2004 and 2008 respectively. During the same period, African-American delegates numbered 143, 142 and 113. From 2004 to 2008, the number of Racial/Ethnic delegates dropped by 52 while the number of African-American delegates fell by 39.
Third, sometimes I have to remind my Cabinets of the equal application of justice clause. More and more attention is being paid to ineffective clergy these days. As in society, racial ethnic clergy are prime candidates to be eliminated first. I have said we need to apply the same standards for dismissing clergy who represent the ethnic majority as we do clergy who are ethnic minority. The work of Religion and Race thrusts this kind of work and witness upon us. Like it or not, we must take a stand.
During Holy Week, as our Lord faced death on the cross, he came to pray in the temple. That was normal. Our Lord had come or was brought many times before. On the eighth day of his life, his parents presented him to the priests. Growing up, he made the annual trek to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. At twelve, the boy Jesus remained behind for Bible Study, questions and answers. Asked why, He claimed that the temple was his father’s house and that he must be about his father’s business.” In the widow’s mite story, Jesus observes the giving of the rich and the poor. “The widow gave more,” he claimed, “because she gave out of her poverty not her excess.” Although our Lord came to the temple to pray; he ended up doing something else during Holy Week. Jesus took a stand against the perverted religious life of the temple.
Our Lord literally drove all the buyers and sellers out of the temple. Then, he turned over the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. Finally, Jesus stopped peddlers from using the temple as a shortcut refused to other places beyond the temple. Why no shopkeeper took him on is amazing!! Perhaps, what stifled any kind of immediate retaliation against Jesus was his public statement issued. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of thieves.” (Mark 11:17)
Here is another perspective of the same event… “When non-Jews arrived in Jerusalem, they are restricted to worshiping God in the Court of the Gentiles. To meet the requirement for sacrifice and payment of the temple tax, purchase of animals is required as well as the exchange of foreign currency, for a small fee. Plus the Court of the Gentiles was conveniently located between the city and the Mt. of Olives. Buyers and sellers saved steps by cutting through the temple. By allowing the Court of the Gentiles to become a noisy, smelly marketplace, the Jewish religious leaders were interfering with God’s provision…Not only because they took advantage of the people but because they robbed the temple of its sanctity” (NIV, page 1514). Our Lord put the folk outside insisting that his house was a house of prayer not a den of thieves. Like the Jews, the gentiles needed an appropriate place to pray. No church, mosque or temple today would want to be accused of being a den of thieves. If we can say with impunity that our house of worship is not misusing people, can we stand confidently before God proclaiming my church, mosque or temple is a house of prayer?
Before exploring our last point, let me share this witness. I still remember my home church singing these words at the beginning of every worship service “The Lord is in his Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silent before him.” By using this constantly, they were trying to set a tone for the kind of worship and house church was to be.
Advocacy and its Consequences
Earlier, I talked about Althea Gibson, who made tennis and American history. She just wanted to play tennis unfettered by both histories; but it wasn’t to be. During the recent 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Little Rock Nine, a similar theme emerged. The October 15th Jet stated “they never wanted to make history, only attend school.” By integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, they changed the face of American education forever.” Yet their quest for integration cost. They were taunted, shunned, cursed and subjected to death threats. Thirteen hundred soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were called in to protect them from the mob that probably included church folks.
To drive the point home further, when black students protested the so-called “adolescent prank” of hanging three nooses from a tree in Jena, Louisiana students, the riled up white district attorney used his power to threaten the black students reportedly telling them, “I can take away your lives with the stroke of a pen.”
On the day that our Lord advocated for the right declaring that his house was to be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves, those whom he critiqued retaliated. Sad to say, the religious hierarchy, primarily men of the cloth began looking for a way to kill him. Before they would allow Jesus to upset the status quo; they’d see to it that he was dead. And several days later, it came to pass. Did you get that? Folk who knew the most about the Word-who had the God given responsibility to provide moral leadership for the people of God aided and abetted his demise.
Advocating for the right may not result in people liking you. The opposite is true. They’ll find a way to get you. It may not be death. But, you will feel the heat of their opposition. If they have to put someone else up to get you, they will. Given such reality, do you still want to serve on the Commission on Religion and Race? I pray the answer is yes. Why, because equal treatment and equal justice are needed in the church and the world. Equal treatment and justice are at stake because the prophet Micah was right “the Lord requires us to do justice and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” They’re at stake because the Declaration of Independence is right, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights-among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Equal treatment and justice are at stake because King was right “injustice anywhere is a threat against justice everywhere.” They’re at stake because Jesus was right when he said, “I came that men, women and children might have life and that more abundantly.” When life is truly abundant, as Jesus envisioned, we can “enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, and bless God’s name: for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations.” Amen.