by Bishop Bill Gohl
A voice says, "Cry out!"
And I said, "What shall I cry?" – Isaiah 40:6
And I said, "What shall I cry?" – Isaiah 40:6
On Wednesday, April 4, The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and our many interfaith partners gathered in Washington, D.C. for what was billed as "a historic event" to launch the NCC's Truth and Racial Justice Initiative. Marking 50 years since the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, we were making a public witness challenging the pervasive racism that is keeping our country from realizing the iconic dream for which Dr. King would be martyred. It was a privilege to stand with those from across the ELCA who came to be a part of the event, the gaggle of ELCA bishops (20 of the 67 of us were present) who made a pilgrimage to D.C., and the diverse and large crowd of folks from our own Delaware-Maryland Synod who came to be counted among those who continue to long for Dr. King's dream. I was proud of our synod, I was grateful for our church and our renewed willingness to show up in solidarity for racial justice. We don't always (often?) get it right, but I think we're coming closer, increasingly listening to, accompanying and partnering with others who have significantly more longevity and credibility in this work.
That said, I think the church folks were a few days late to D.C.
That said, I think the church folks were a few days late to D.C.
On March 24, I represented our synod and accompanied many of our young people to D.C. for the March for Our Lives (click here for some LYO student reflections about that event). There was an energy and overwhelming power to that event, if but for the sheer number of attendees. While that crowd numbered hundreds of thousands many times over, our gathering on April 4 was barely thousands and gave a sense of being very underwhelming in the vast space of the National Mall.
In the former event, the stage was carefully managed by millennials who understand the deadliness of "talking heads;" whereas the April 4 event, we were "blessed" by a rare revue of folks – including my favorite new friend, a Unitarian Universalist Hindu Minister! – who, by their presence, witnessed to the interfaith and ecumenical commitment to combating racism, but who, practically, basically said the same thing over and over again - for hours.
Don’t misunderstand me, it was a star-studded event: Danny Glover, Louis Gossett Jr., the incomparable Bishop Vashti McKenzie of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore activist DeRay Mckesson, my AME Zion counterpart Bishop W. Darin Moore who currently serves as the Chair of the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches, Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Gospel music artist Bishop Marvin Sapp, Jim Wallis, and Dr. King's Ebenezer Baptist Church successor Dr. Raphael Warnock, to name some of notable notables in that parade of speakers. I was glad to be a witness to their prophetic call to tend Dr. King's dream and make it our own.
Still, as the day wore on and the numbers waned (even as the weather turned against us), I had a sense of being at what amounted to a not-well-attended interfaith clergy rally. Personally, I was hanging in through the bursts of rain and wind gusts to offer my support for our Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton and her Episcopal counterpart, Michael Curry, who were scheduled to speak in the afternoon. Their appearances were cut, owing to the weather, but I was proud that they were there and they made a short video on the Mall together speaking to the church. I found their words encouraging, anyway.
Our Delaware-Maryland Synod's contribution to the day was a banner we carried in the silent march from the King Memorial to the National Mall. Emblazoned with the words "RACISM IS A SIN" and our synod's ELCA logotype, that banner was much-photographed, including in both our synod group picture and our ELCA group picture with Bishop Eaton. While I appreciate the positive affirmation that banner garnered for our synod, I am at a loss as to why that was such a "newsworthy" angle. But it was. That banner was seen in the Huffington Post, in USA Today, on MSN.com, on the NBC Evening News with Lester Holt and the Today Show, to name some.
Admittedly, I gave up after it was announced that Bishops Eaton and Curry would not address the rally from the mainstage and made for the MARC train back to Baltimore. While I was grateful to have been there, I still felt like the church people were a few days late to D.C.; that the real event had happened a week and a half earlier when the students of this nation asked us to stand in solidarity with them.
Nevertheless, I believe that the church has a particular responsibility to cultivate and advance the prophetic dream, and I am convinced that the Lutheran Church has a distinctive and helpful theological contribution to add to the conversation; and while our monolithic homogeneity doesn’t give us credibility in that arena and our lack of denomination-wide longevity on these front lines keeps us from speaking with authority we must keep at it and claim our voice and witness.
I think our trip to D.C. this time was less a "historic event" so much as it was a clear reminder that we have work to do – and a blessed reminder that we have lots of good folks with whom we are in this work together. We must keep showing up. We need skin in the game and the only way that will happen is as we listen, accompany, pray and act together.
We needn't invite folks to join the church in its renewed commitment to combating our own racism; we need to be the church that shows up in solidarity and partnership, joining our neighbors in the places where they are already combating racism.
To see what the March for Our Lives says about its own work and continued commitments, click here.
To learn more about the NCC’s platform around these issues, click here.
To know more about our ELCA commitment to racial justice, click here.
A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" – Isaiah 40:3-9
In the former event, the stage was carefully managed by millennials who understand the deadliness of "talking heads;" whereas the April 4 event, we were "blessed" by a rare revue of folks – including my favorite new friend, a Unitarian Universalist Hindu Minister! – who, by their presence, witnessed to the interfaith and ecumenical commitment to combating racism, but who, practically, basically said the same thing over and over again - for hours.
Don’t misunderstand me, it was a star-studded event: Danny Glover, Louis Gossett Jr., the incomparable Bishop Vashti McKenzie of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore activist DeRay Mckesson, my AME Zion counterpart Bishop W. Darin Moore who currently serves as the Chair of the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches, Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Gospel music artist Bishop Marvin Sapp, Jim Wallis, and Dr. King's Ebenezer Baptist Church successor Dr. Raphael Warnock, to name some of notable notables in that parade of speakers. I was glad to be a witness to their prophetic call to tend Dr. King's dream and make it our own.
Still, as the day wore on and the numbers waned (even as the weather turned against us), I had a sense of being at what amounted to a not-well-attended interfaith clergy rally. Personally, I was hanging in through the bursts of rain and wind gusts to offer my support for our Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton and her Episcopal counterpart, Michael Curry, who were scheduled to speak in the afternoon. Their appearances were cut, owing to the weather, but I was proud that they were there and they made a short video on the Mall together speaking to the church. I found their words encouraging, anyway.
Our Delaware-Maryland Synod's contribution to the day was a banner we carried in the silent march from the King Memorial to the National Mall. Emblazoned with the words "RACISM IS A SIN" and our synod's ELCA logotype, that banner was much-photographed, including in both our synod group picture and our ELCA group picture with Bishop Eaton. While I appreciate the positive affirmation that banner garnered for our synod, I am at a loss as to why that was such a "newsworthy" angle. But it was. That banner was seen in the Huffington Post, in USA Today, on MSN.com, on the NBC Evening News with Lester Holt and the Today Show, to name some.
Admittedly, I gave up after it was announced that Bishops Eaton and Curry would not address the rally from the mainstage and made for the MARC train back to Baltimore. While I was grateful to have been there, I still felt like the church people were a few days late to D.C.; that the real event had happened a week and a half earlier when the students of this nation asked us to stand in solidarity with them.
Nevertheless, I believe that the church has a particular responsibility to cultivate and advance the prophetic dream, and I am convinced that the Lutheran Church has a distinctive and helpful theological contribution to add to the conversation; and while our monolithic homogeneity doesn’t give us credibility in that arena and our lack of denomination-wide longevity on these front lines keeps us from speaking with authority we must keep at it and claim our voice and witness.
I think our trip to D.C. this time was less a "historic event" so much as it was a clear reminder that we have work to do – and a blessed reminder that we have lots of good folks with whom we are in this work together. We must keep showing up. We need skin in the game and the only way that will happen is as we listen, accompany, pray and act together.
We needn't invite folks to join the church in its renewed commitment to combating our own racism; we need to be the church that shows up in solidarity and partnership, joining our neighbors in the places where they are already combating racism.
To see what the March for Our Lives says about its own work and continued commitments, click here.
To learn more about the NCC’s platform around these issues, click here.
To know more about our ELCA commitment to racial justice, click here.
A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" – Isaiah 40:3-9