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An Open Letter To MLK Jr.By: See Signers Below January 20, 2005 Dear Martin, Every third Monday in January history compels us to remember and reactivate your legacy. How shall we honor you? And how shall we honor our deepest and truest selves? Nearly four decades have passed since you left your legacy to us, and what a momentous legacy it was. Yours was the vision of a transformed nation, a society that dared to practice the very brotherhood - and sisterhood - that it preached. In a time of tremendous social upheaval you joined the freedom-loving and justice-seeking tradition of your people, black people, and you did so at great personal cost. Using nonviolent direct action, you challenged the existing status quo. In the presence of your enemies - citizen's councils, police dogs, fire hoses, bigoted mobs, half-hearted allies, Christian racists, the FBI - you practiced an insurgent religious faith. You modeled for others the commitment to racial justice and reconciling peace. With your very body and life you led us into the magnificent, multi-colored and multi-ethnic quest of justice, peace and human community. Sore distressed, we the people, have yet to catch up to your radically inclusive vision. For African Americans, the cumulative effect of the last forty years has been as disturbing as it is dramatic. In the new millennium, our elusive and torturous quest for freedom and equality continues. The full repercussions of radical democracy in the United States are not yet known. The vast majority of whites see themselves as non-racist and live comfortably with little or no real contact with other racialethnic people. Oblivious to the obvious (and sometimes the not so obvious), the connection between white privilege and black rage is discounted, resisted, denied. In our houses of worship, in the ivory tower, in the corporate boardroom, in the halls of government, in popular culture and mass media, in states red, purple and blue, in old and new formations, racism lives on. In the U.S., racial exclusion is still second nature. Racism is who we are. It is our way of life. Sadly, many black people now have difficulty seeing their connections to other black people. We have embraced societal distinctions that separate us by age, education, gender, sexuality and class. We have forgotten the example set by so many courageous souls a generation ago. Mose Wright, Daisy Bates, Jo Ann Robinson, E.D. Dixon, Ella Baker, Bob Moses, Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer, Septima Clark, John Lewis and Bayard Rustin were part of that magnificent movement of blackness that emerged, broke beyond itself, widened the circle of humanity, and called forth women, children and men of all colors and conditions. The painful truth is that we now often violate and oppress our own in the name of religion. Always, at the center of the heart of the historic black-led struggle for freedom was the black religious experience. Black self-love was upheld as a divine imperative. Local black churches became ecumenical networks of nurture and resistance. At those beleaguered places of our most urgent human need common ground often could be sought and found in the church. But not always. Movement women like Ella Baker, organizer of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, found themselves at odds with the sexism and sexual misconduct of male ministers. An out gay man like Bayard Rustin, architect of the 1963 March on Washington, was feared as a potential threat to the advancement of the race. Today, in the imperfectly desegregated post-civil rights era, religiously inspired leadership continues to perpetuate a cruel sexual ethic, and in stark violation of their own best sacred inheritance. That black women continue to be relegated to secondary status and lesbians and gays are made to feel unwelcome, unworthy, and uncomfortable in what should be the most caring, compassionate and empowering of communions is a searing indictment against all the black faithful. Martin, like you, we are sometimes uncertain in our leadership. The dominant views on sex, sexuality and gender in the Black Church are undermining community, diminishing the faith and leading many to abandon churches out of sheer moral frustration and exhaustion. Our churches have been slow to embrace gender equality. They have largely spoken only opposition and condemnation to same gender loving people and have been unable to proclaim a sexually liberating and redemptive word. Some black churches have concluded it is in their best institutional interest to participate in "special rights" polemics against this so-called "immoral humanity." As black clergy we offer here a more hope-filled perspective. In the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, we the undersigned clergy extend the divine invitation of human wholeness, healing and affirmation to "whosoever" (John 3:16). In the best of the Black Church tradition we say, "Whosoever will, let her or him come." Who is included in this "whosoever?" The "whosoever" of today are the diseased and the dis-eased, the discomforted and the distressed, those who live on the margins of the marginalized, who are the oppressed of the oppressed, the sexually battered and the abused, the homeless and the bereft, the HIV/AIDS infected, who are the young and old, female and male, lesbian and bisexual, transgender and straight. These are they, the children of God. They are our sisters and brothers and partners and friends. They belong to all of us. And they are very much we ourselves. As Black Christian religious leaders what more shall we do? We must help to forge a progressive agenda for the black community in which race, gender, class, age and sexuality are kept in active dialogue with one another. We must engage one another, prophetically demand more of one another, and prepare to suffer, cry, and toil with each other when it comes to matters of racial and sexual justice, economic and political empowerment, to waging peace. We must be courageous in confronting the social conditions that divide; elitism, poverty, militarism and more await our deepest response. We must continue to look to the ancestors and to Jesus, "the author and finisher of our faith." We must dedicate ourselves to a world where borders can be crossed and a new consensus can be found, where we call our own community beloved and celebrate black people, one unique person at a time. Martin, on your day we vow to take a stand to love all black people. We vow to accept and to honor all regardless of their gender, class, age, or sexuality for we all are the children of God. The power is in our hands. This is where we must go from here. Respectfully, "An Open Letter to Martin" Signers
Daniel Black (Omotosho Jojomani), Ph.D. Rev. Edward B. Branch, D.Min Rev. Michael Joseph Brown, Ph.D. Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter, Sr. The Reverend Da Vita Carter McCallister, Rev. Michelle Holmes Chaney William T Chaney Jr. Rev. Jawanza (Eric) Clark Pastor Will Coleman, Ph.D. Sybil Corbin, M.Div. Rev. T. Renee Crutcher Rev. McClain Dyson Dr. Teresa Fry Brown Minister Ronald W Galvin, Jr. Rev. Willie F. Goodman, Jr., Th.D. Reverend Vivian Green Rev. Dr. Maisha I. Handy Rev. Renee K. Harrison Rev. Wallace S. Hartsfield, II, Pastor Dorinda Henry, MTS David Anderson Hooker Rev. Shonda R. Jones Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Ph.D. Rev. Portia Wills Lee Stephen Lewis Program Coordinator, Reverend Dr. Mark A. Lomax, Pastor Herbert R. Marbury, Rev. Timothy McDonald, III Rev. Veronice Miles Reverend Susan C. Mitchell Rev. Deborah F. Mullen, Ph.D. Reverend A. Nevell Owens Rev. Chauncey R. Newsome Rev. Jeanette Pinkston Alton B. Pollard, III, Ph.D. Reverend Derrick L. Rice Rev. Fert Richardson Rev. Marcia Y. Riggs, Ph.D. J. Erskine Love Rev. Aaron Naeem Robinson Rosetta E. Ross, Rev. Melva L. Sampson Rev. Roslyn M. Satchel, Esq. Rev. Dr. Teresa E. Snorton Dr. Dianne Stewart, Dr. Lewis T. Tait, Jr.,Senior The Rev. Dr. Eugene Turner Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells Min. Michael J. Wright Reverend Bridgette D. Young EQUAL PARTNERS in FAITH is a multi-racial national network of religious leaders and Join us and help us promote a more inclusive vision of religion and society. Equal Partners in Faith |
