Ecumenical Presentation

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Ecumenical Presentation Religious Wars

Ephesians 6:12

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Movement: Race, Power and Culture in America is a political and economic primer on how race in America had undermined how democracy in America works and is supposed to work. It also shows how the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was disappointed in how the ecclesiastica’s lack of response to the implementation of racism in America forced him to call out pastors, rabbis, and shaman hiding behind stained-glass windows and not proclaiming the hypocrisy of racism in America masked in so-called religious belief.

He was particularly disappointed in his Christian brethren who shepherd every Sunday the most segregated day in America – religious services. I chronicle in the book how Dr. King had to respond to the clergyman of Birmingham, Alabama who chastised him for being there calling his presence there ‘unwise and untimely.’ You may recall that Dr. King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy were put into jail in Birmingham to challenge the racist policies there and Dr. King answered an op-ed piece in the newspaper written by a coalition of white clergyman. These religious leaders were Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist. Dr. King answered their concerns with what is now considered a classic in American literature – Letter from Birmingham Jail.

King said in part: My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined in this Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely...”

Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that the individual could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths… so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood…

Dr. King drew on his Christian beliefs and the recollections of Paul, the Apostle, when Paul wrote his letters to the early Christian church. King’s letter set out the foundation of what I call Kingism – the philosophy of the non-violent social change movement in America as practiced by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It also articulated a “social ministry” to be applied by all faiths and denominations as a way for churches

to witness beyond the confines of “stained glass windows”. It was reminiscent of Martin Luther in 1517 who challenged the Catholic Church’s authority and elevated to the individual the responsibility to examine his or her own conscience. King explained that he was in Birmingham because injustice was in Birmingham.

It was the Church that used the Bible to justify the implementation of slavery in Ephesians 6:5 – “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear…” But if they had read just a little further Ephesians 6:9 – “And Masters treat your slaves the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him”.

In writing the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson drew on notions of a social contract, being governed by the consent of the people evolving from the natural rights of man. In the editing of creating this organizing document of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, one of the members of the committee drafting the document, changed the original phrase – “sacred and undeniable” into the phrase – “self-evident”.

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal’. According to author Walter Issacson, that change to “self-evident” made freedom a rational value of the United States of America rather than an assertion of religious dogma.

It is ‘We the people’ who have the power to avert any notion of another race war because - We shall Overcome…

Pierre Blaine is the author of: Movement: Race, Power and Culture in America available on Amazon.com and Progressive Bookstore.

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Volume 5.10 September 2, 2019