PA S TO R PA U L’ S PA S S A G E S by Pastor Paul Ragle
OH FREEDOM! Oh, freedom! Oh, freedom! Oh, freedom over me! And before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave And go home to my Lord and be free. The spiritual “Oh Freedom!” came into being soon after the end of slavery in America. Like many African American spirituals, the song has more than a single meaning. Not only does it refer to a person’s freedom in the world to come after death, as many spirituals do, it also celebrates and beacons to the new freedom in the here and now. In the 1950s and 1960s, the song was commonly sung as part of the Civil Rights Movement. Harry Belafonte, Odetta Holmes, Joan Baez, Vivian Green and many other voices expressed their passion for justice and equality in America singing “O Freedom!” Once again in America, this hymn and many others from the Civil Rights Movement are being sung by a new generation of patriotic people who have gone peacefully out into our streets to call us to reform our culture and systems to care for and serve all people. Whenever people stand up for such change, it raises controversy. Many will feel discomfort at these bold expressions and voices. As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, I want to encourage patriotic people to take time to hear these young people’s message. On June 20th last month, a group of young people came together for a Digital Justice Gathering calling all people to examine our nation’s values in hope of reshaping the heart of our democracy. Following the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this movement is called the Poor People’s Campaign: a National Call for Moral Revival. This movement seeks to give impoverished
people in America a voice. They say, “When we lift America from the bottom, everybody rises.” Not everyone will agree with the Poor People’s Campaign, but I hope all of us can agree that every person in the United States of America deserves equal opportunities. That I believe is a patriotic value. Another wonderful patriotic hymn was important in the Civil Rights Movement: “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Many people will be surprised to learn that the song was a poem written by James Weldon Johnson, and was performed for the first time by 500 school children in celebration of President Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12, 1900 in Jacksonville, FL. The poem was set to music by Johnson’s brother, John Rosamond Johnson, and was soon adopted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as its official song. Today “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is one of America’s most cherished patriotic hymns and is often referred to as the Black National Anthem. We’ll be singing the song in Worship on Sunday, July 5th: Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us, Facing the rising sun of our new day begun Let us march on till victory is won. n
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Get Your FREE COPY at Participating Merchants! 16 THE CORRIDOR MAGAZINE / JULY 2020
