Voices of Conscience
Tomorrow, our nation celebrates Martin Luther King Day as we remember his legacy of commitment to racial, economic, and social justice, non-violence, peace and faith. Many have been inspired by his witness and have spent their lives working to achieve some of what he envisioned. I imagine many of you were inspired by him and the countless other men and women who put their lives on the line to call the nation’s attention to the glaring violations of civil rights that were particularly targeted at blacks. I’ve noticed that over time, his message has been watered down and people have forgotten that while his actions were non-violent, he was a very strong voice on behalf of important and often controversial issues at that time and today. Let us pray,
We know that throughout history there have always been brave men and women who have seen wrongs and tried to right them, who have spoken out when they have witnessed unjust policies, and who have lived lives devoted to supporting the dignity of all human beings. From the Prophets in Hebrew Scriptures to Jesus, to more recent figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Day and Rosa Parks to so many others around the globe, there have always been those who, inspired by their deep faith, have chosen to stand with their brothers and sisters and work for a more just and peaceful society.
This morning, I’d like to speak about someone who is an important voice of faith and justice in our time speaking out against oppressive and unjust structures that harm our brothers and sisters of all races, genders and class.
Some of you may be familiar with an extraordinary minister whose name is Rev. William Barber. Rev. Barber helped found the Poor People’s Campaign and Repairers of the Breach which has been his own public ministry for several years. He has been tireless in his advocacy on behalf of those who live within the cycles of poverty and racism in our country.
Barber was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 30, 1963 (just two days after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom), the son of parents who, in the spirit of helping to build a “New South” in the twentieth century, chose to return to his father’s home of Washington County, North Carolina and try to build a new future. Barber’s father served as the first African American teacher in the county’s white high school and his mother served as the school’s first African American office manager. The witness of his parents led to his desire to improve the broader community which is at the heart of Barber’s activism. He has said, “I grew up under the tutelage of not understanding how to be a Christian without being concerned about justice and the larger community,” he says.
He has held many leadership roles over the years in North Carolina, including as President of the NAACP in that state, and he has served for more than two decades as the pastor at Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro.
In 2017, Barber became co-leader of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. His co-leader is Liz Theoharis. Rev. Dr. Theoharis also has a long and distinguished career as a professor at Union Theological and in her efforts to organize within poor and low-income communities for more than 30 years.
Rev. Dr. Barber has said, “when they cut health care, that’s not a Black issue; that’s a people issue. When they cut unemployment [compensation] that hurts everybody.” Barber’s ability to simplify issues with his commanding moral authority and his astute recognition of an old and successful North Carolina political coalition to promote progressive ideas has the potential to show disparate progressive organizations throughout the United States a path to building coalitions around common goals. He often closes his speeches by having the crowd chant with him, “Forward together, not one step back!”
At the heart of all of his ministry is this: He has written, “Our concern is the moral fabric of our society. It’s about a deep vision of society that says we must look at two guiding stars. The first is our state and national Constitutions, with their insistence on the common good, the good of the whole, and establishing equal justice under the law. And the second guiding star comes from the best of all our moral and ethical traditions, loving your neighbor and doing justice. It is from these two perspectives that public policy ought to be developed. We should ask are policies constitutionally consistent, morally defensible, and economically sane.”
Recently, he helped found a new program at Yale Divinity School, the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy. The goal is to prepare the next generation of ministers to not only think deeply about the Bible, theology, and church history, but also equip them for public ministry and leadership in the wider community.
In his course, he admonishes his students that as future church leaders, they cannot argue political positions like everyone else. He tells them their arguments and reasoning must be deeply moral positions, rooted in scripture. What Barber’s done is lead one of the most prominent efforts to unite diverse groups around issues of justice, from voting rights to anti-poverty measures.
“What are the major tenets of religion as it relates to the public square?” he asks. His answer is a litany his repeats often: “Love, truth, justice, mercy, grace, the least of these, the poor, the sick, the imprisoned. Look at this piece of legislation. How are these policies affecting people? How is it affecting their living and their dying?”
While he continues his activism around the country, he’s now helping upcoming leaders prepare for what he describes as urgent public witness. “If you don’t stand in challenge to poverty and denial of health care in this moment, in this life, you’ve wasted part of it,” he says. “‘Thy kingdom come’ is a direct announcement to Caesar that your stuff is not real, that your way of life has to pass,” Barber says. “We’re praying for another kind of kingdom to come that’s rooted in love and justice and lifting all people.”
I’d like to close with some words of inspiration from the Rev. Howard Thurman, who was also a prominent leader within the Civil Rights movement as well as an American author, philosopher, theologian, Christian mystic, and educator. His theology of radical nonviolence influenced and shaped a generation of civil rights activists, and he was a key mentor to leaders within the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr.
“How good it is to center down!
To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by!
The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic;
Our spirits resound with clashings, with noisy silences,
While something deep within hungers and thirsts for the still moment and the resting lull.
With full intensity we seek, ere the quiet passes, a fresh sense of order in our living;
A direction, a strong sure purpose that will structure our confusion and bring meaning in our chaos.
We look at ourselves in this waiting moment — the kinds of people we are.
The questions persist: what are we doing with our lives? — what are the motives that order our days?
What is the end of our doings? Where are we trying to go?
Where do we put the emphasis and where are our values focused?
For what end do we make sacrifices? Where is my treasure and what do I love most in life?
What do I hate most in life and to what am I true?
Over and over the questions beat in upon the waiting moment.
As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind —
A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.
It moves directly to the core of our being. Our questions are answered,
Our spirits refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily round
With the peace of the Eternal in our step.
How good it is to center down!”
— Howard Thurman in Meditations of the Heart
November 3, 20248:00 AM ET
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
Jason DeRose at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., September 27, 2018. (photo by Allison Shelley)