In her book Liberation and the Cosmos, CAC faculty member Dr. Barbara Holmes constructs imagined conversations between varied ancestors and activists in faith. Here she envisions a conversation between educator Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) on the healing power of tears:
Bethune: Lament is needed as a ritual of cleansing and preparation for what is yet to come. It is a step in the process of liberation that was never completed…. The generations that have followed slavery have been crying throughout their lifetimes; they have just chosen to do it on the inside. Their spirits are riddled with the salt of unreleased tears.
King: The whispered hope that echoes through every wail and cry of anguish is that the troubles of this world are not the end of the story. Now we see through a glass darkly and not face to face [1 Corinthians 13:12]. This generation is inundated with twenty-four-hour news stations that bring the pain of the world into your living rooms. Yet, your lives in Western societies seem to go on unchanged. You are inundated with news of disaster and death, yet even in your compassion, you seem distanced and detached from the grit and horror going on in the world.… We have forgotten the gift that lament can be.…
Bethune: That is why my call to the next generation is to reclaim the possibility of real joy through the healing practice of lament. I am suggesting that we weep with those who weep, that we moan over the harm done on our behalf and by our hands…. We are urging the next generation to allow lament to act as a release valve for pent-up rage and generational frustration, to use lament as a teaching device for the children, and to allow the time of comfort that follows lament to knit the community together despite its differences…. I promise you that tears can be revolutionary.…
King: It is the lament of the community that leads to healing. It may seem that you are few in number, that you don’t have the strength or means to overcome systems of oppression and death. All you have are prayers, faith, and courage. Yet, with this alone and the God who never leaves us alone, you must act.
Communal lament opens the possibility for healing stories to be told. Through Bethune’s voice, Holmes points to contemporary versions of “griots,” traveling oral historians and storytellers from West Africa:
Bethune: The call for lament is not an invitation to moping or sadness. It is a call for ritual reorientation. With or without tears, lament is a communal act of cosmological engagement. Ancestors on the continent of Africa knew this…. There are griots among you in this new generation. They are poets, drummers, preachers, and singers. They are found in every walk of life, and they are waiting to write and share the stories that defy the conspiracy of silence that pervades this present age.
| A Failure of Compassion |
 Sometimes Jesus’ story about the Good Samaritan is taught in a manner that frames compassion over and against devotion to the Old Testament Law. This view holds that the priest and the Levite who passed by the man in the ditch were prevented from helping him, even if their hearts were filled with empathy because religious law forbids it. This understanding of Jesus’s story would make the Old Testament Law the problem—a reading some traditions are eager to accept. But is this accurate?Priests and Levites served at the temple in Jerusalem on rotating shifts. In Jesus’ story, it is clear they had just completed their time at the temple because they were “going down the road” indicating the declining elevation away from Jerusalem. Some speculate that the priest passed the man on the road because he appeared dead, and priests who touched a corpse were ritually unclean and could not perform their duties at the temple. However, because he had already completed his temple service this should not have prevented him from helping. The Levite faced a similar decision. While also bound by laws of cleanliness while serving at the temple, there was nothing preventing the Levite from helping the man now that his rotation in Jerusalem was complete. Like the priest, however, he also ignored the man in need. For both men, it was not devotion to religious law, but a lack of compassion, that prevented them from helping the man. The problem in Jesus’ story is not God’s Law, but the cold hearts of religious leaders who ought to know better. We should not read Jesus’ story without thinking about the modern-day priests and Levites in our own culture—religious people who use the appearance of devotion to God as an excuse for not showing compassion to those in need. I was disheartened by a conversation with a pastor a few years ago who reported his church members objected to the church’s plan to send relief funds and supplies to Syrian refugees. Such aid, they said, was the first step toward the resettlement of Muslim refugees in their community. In other words, a desire to protect their faith was their excuse for not practicing their faith.This same tendency is now evident as the United States is being rocked by protests following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. Although more Christians of all backgrounds are engaging in the call for reform than ever before, some are still reluctant and using their faith as the reason. Rather than recognizing the ongoing reality of racial injustice and assisting their neighbors of color in need, some white Christians are quick to dismiss the movement as “political” and therefore a distraction from their commitment to the gospel. In other words, they are using their devotion to God as a reason for not helping their neighbors who are suffering. Jesus did not affirm religious devotion as an excuse for apathy, and neither should we. Like the priest and Levite, God’s law is not what prevents us from helping our neighbors. Our problem is not our faith, but a tragic failure of compassion. Here’s a simple truth: If you believe your Christian faith prevents you from helping those in need, you’re doing it wrong. DAILY SCRIPTURE LUKE 10:29-37 JAMES 4:17 1 JOHN 4:18-21 WEEKLY PRAYER From Norwich Cathedral, England O God, whose Son Jesus Christ cared for the welfare of everyone and went about doing good; grant us the imagination and perseverance to create in this country and throughout the world a just and loving society for the family of man; and make us agents of your compassion to the suffering, the persecuted and the oppressed, through the Spirit of your Son, who shared the sufferings of men, our pattern and our redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen. |
