Racism, White Privilege and Black Lives Matter

“As I see it”

Racism, White Privilege and Black Lives Matter

Live from Lynn, it’s “Godspell”.

Hello, this is Fr Paul Bresnahan, priest of the Episcopal Church.

It has been a few weeks since we last visited. I took a break for Father’s Day and some  family time.

Welcome back to “Godspell”: a time to spell it out.

Who is God, and how is God involved in our lives?

“Godspell” is a nice old English word for the Gospel or, what I call, the language of God, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Silence

Blessed be God; The Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. 

And blessed be God’s Kingdom for ever and ever. Amen

Collect at a time of Conflict: 

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us,

in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront

one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work

together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus

Christ our Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42

Jesus said; ’Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

In the Name of God; The Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen

Friends I begin a new segment today; “As I see it”; Racism, White Privilege and Black Lives Matter

While I was the rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Euclid, Ohio in 1983-1990, the question of Integration came up in the city schools. The Clergy Association wanted to avoid the subject. So the Black Baptist Minister, The Rabbi and and I went to work on a collaborative effort. Yes I know; “the minister the rabbi and the priest” sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. Well we did have fun together. We took on the school committee, the city government and yes, in the end we integrated the public schools peacefully. Each of us, by the way had children in the system, so we put ourselves and our families on the line.

There is always an undercurrent of Racism going on in every corner of life and at all levels of society. Once Sunday just before the Eucharist, a parishioner approached me seething with contempt; “You G. D. Irish, you’re just an N-word turned inside out.” I was somewhat taken aback, but thankfully I did have the presence of mind to thank him for the compliment. 

Racism friends. We were brought up with it and live in it as a reality. My grandmother played the N-word pool. Nowadays that is called the State Lottery. The N-word and other epithets were used frequently. After my mother re-married and we became solidly middle class; my step-father who was an executive in a major corporation used to say “Why don’t those lazy epithet deleted go to work?” and then almost in the same breath he’d say “I would’t hire one of those lazy epithet deleted to work for me!” I did have the presence of mind to challenge him saying “How then can a black man get a job in your world?” 

Racism is alive and well in our whole white world.

Therefore, especially in the context of this moment in history I would like to begin by speaking with you my white friends about White Privilege. You may or may not realize it but we are all children of extraordinary entitlement.

In my case alone let me describe where I began my journey as a child of White Privilege. To be sure, it was a modest beginning in a Blue Collar family on a single parent’s income.

My mom did have a full time job with full benefits including health care, sick leave and paid vacation. She worked payroll in a bank and was paid a different pay scale than men doing the same work. She was told the men had families to support. My mother asked: “What do you think I have; sliced liverwurst?” This often repeated story led me to become a feminist of sorts if you want to call me that.

We had three squares and a roof over our heads. There were two grocery stores within walking distance of our home. My mom eked out enough to buy a modest house in a working class neighborhood in West Somerville which is close to Boston where she worked. 

We had outstanding health care. We had a family doctor and when there were health issues we all went to Massachusetts General Hospital. That’s la crème de la crème of health care in the United States.

Our schools required the best of us. There were good teachers, new text books and clean buildings. We were instilled with confidence in our future and we were disciplined firmly but fairly. 

On the matter of public safety, the police were there to serve and protect us. Jimmy the cop knew us by name and if there were scrapes with the law, he’d take us by the ear to the house where we received yet more discipline. He was one of us. All of our police were one of us in those days. Irish ones of us. On the way home from school Jimmy often gave us a few M&M’s and stopped the traffic to make it safe for us to cross busy Somerville Avenue. We all loved Jimmy because he loved us. Perhaps you are beginning to see where I am coming from and where I am headed with this notion of White Privilege. 

The bus to Lechmere station was a block away. We had access to the entire subway system that could take us to the Beach, all the Boston Museums or to downtown shopping. All within a short walk away. We were welcome everywhere. It was all ours. 

We were free go to the public parks and play in safety. While we had to be street smart, we never had to fear anything like drug dealers or serious crime of any sort. That kind of thing was unheard of then. 

We all paid our taxes. During the Eisenhower years the Rich paid a whole chunk of taxation, far more than they pay now.

All this was a given. Good Jobs. Good Food. Excellent Health Care. Good Public Education. Cops who cared. Good public transportation. Free Access to Parks and Recreation, Beaches and cultural enrichment. And the Rich paid their taxes and paid the bulk of the bill.

Listen up my fellow white folks. All of this is denied. Let me repeat; All of this is systemically denied to Black folks, people of color and other minority people. As to Native folks, they didn’t even get that far but were herded off to reservations to fend for themselves. To be sure there has been some progress. But to be very sure the vast majority our our sisters and brothers of color have been been given the very short end of the stick.

We’ve been down this road before. Race riots are nothing new in America. The Tulsa event is just one of many. After the Chicago Race Riots of 1919, a panel of 6 blacks and 6 whites met to make sure this would never happen again. In that case, a black teenager went swimming and strayed into the white section of a beach in Lake Michigan. He was stoned and drowned. The police refused to arrest anybody. Riots ensued. Pent up rage burst forth. The final report of 1921 urged us to be fair to black folks and make sure they had jobs, health care, decent housing and good public education. You guessed it. Nothing happened. Chicago and other American cities continue on their merry de facto segregated way denying the basics of what White Privilege gives to us as a matter of course.

For Black Lives to Matter we white folks need to step up to the plate and make sure Black Lives Matter. I know All Lives Matter. But when you say that to me, you’re letting yourselves off the hook. We cannot say All Lives Matter until we put some heft into the words Black Lives Matter. We cannot erase 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow, and systemic racism without making things right.

If you want Peace here’s what’s going to happen. You must step up to the plate and provide Justice first. Here is a partial prescription.

One. You must provide good paying jobs to everyone in this country who wants to work. The rate of pay must be at least twice the poverty rate. After all the years of slavery, this is the least you can do. Make sure everybody has a good job. This means all poor folks in Appalachia too who have been sold a bill of goods by that New York snake oil salesman. The rate of unemployment in the Coal Fields of West Virginia still remains near 70%. 

Two. Make sure there are Black owned, Black managed and Black staffed grocery stores in every inner city neighborhood. Same thing in Appalachia and all of rural America…local ownership, management and staff.

Three. Provide good housing throughout America. Locally owned, built by local tradesmen and women. 

Four. Make sure everyone has first rate health care. Period.

Five. Provide first rate public schools. Led by and taught by people from the neighborhoods. 

Six. Rethink Public Safety. As a priest of 48 years, I’ve had to do”pa-lenty” of soul searching every step of the way. At the very least the police should be from and live in the neighborhoods they serve and protect. 

Seven. Provide good public transportation to make sure everyone can get to work, shop, cultural attractions, parks and recreation and churches, synagogues, and mosques. 

Eight. Provide nice Parks and Beaches and Cultural enrichment for all.

Nine. You may ask; how are we going to pay for all this? That really is quite easy. You pay for it. In your taxes. There was a time when rich folks paid their fair share and it wasn’t all that long ago. In the fifties during the Eisenhower Administration, you rich folks ponied up big time and there was a redistribution of wealth from the rich to the rest of us. 

It is time again for you to pony up. After 400 years of slavery and oppression all we are asking for is a fair shake. Did you notice? Jesus said so in today’s Gospel; “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

When I was growing up, one income provided for all the necessities of life; housing, food, education, health care, vacations and so on. I could work summers and pay for my tuition and housing. No more. The Reagan “trickle down” sleight of hand has hood winked us all into quiescence. Now we’re working two and three jobs just to tread water. The harder we work the further behind we get.

This is the essence of the Green New Deal but I hasten to add we cannot merely ask for it politely. We will have to “take it”. One thing I do know about White Power is that mere moral suasion is not sufficient to effect change. We have known the difference between right and wrong for a very long time. And still we traded in human lives as if they were property. If anyone knows about “taking” what’s theirs it would be the Irish. We simply took over the government and it was ours!

No. It is time for us to vote. Black and white, rich and poor, male female and every orientation in the rainbow, young and old alike. Honorable and decent people everywhere must be done with this national nightmare that has so clouded the good name of America to make us the Pariah among Nations. 

So listen up all you who have taken to the streets. Keep it up. Don’t let up for a minute. March, organize and vote and then as the Good Book says; “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” ~Amos 5:24

In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity.

Amen.

Prayers for the Church and the World.

I ask you prayers for Jackie Smith Miller form First Parish Church in Duxbury. She had a massive stroke last night and is not expected to live beyond today. Peace be upon her and may light Perpetual shine upon her. 

And for Nicolina recovering from surgery in North Caroline. Please say a word for her too.

Lord’s Prayer

A Blessing

See that ye be at peace among yourselves, 

and love one another.

Follow the example of the wise and good

and God will comfort you and help you,

both in this world

and in the world which is to come.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,

wherever He may send you.

May He guide you through the wilderness,

protect you through the storm.

May He bring you home rejoicing

at the wonders He has shown you.

May He bring you home rejoicing

once again into our doors.

And may the Blessing of God the Most holy undivided and everlasting Trinity be upon you this day and always. Amen.

God  Bless us everyone!

Fr Paul

Bread to Dogs or Bread of God?

Bread of Dogs, Bead of God?

My dear friends, I bring you greetings from the faithful who gathered yesterday at St Paul's Cathedral, on the Boston Common, the oldest park in these United States of America. Bishop Alan Gates asked my son David about you and me, during a service of prayers for peace. And thank God there was peace in Boston yesterday as more than 40,000 gathered to provide a visible sign that hate has no place in the City of Boston. What a relief that is.

As for the President, he has done for us one thing that no one else has been able to do. He has forced us into that exquisitely uncomfortable place where we must talk about issues such as Racism. I’ve been to dozens of conferences, there have been thousands of sermons on Racism, but this one man has done something that no one else has been able to do. He has put us all on the spot as to where we stand. We are all forced to look into the mirror of our own souls and ask; “Who are we?”

I have spent a lifetime working against racism. I began my ministry in Hyde Park in Boston during the integration crisis in the 70’s. There were Nazis there too trying to egg us on into racial warfare. When Cindy and I moved to Euclid, Ohio, again we faced the integration of the public schools. When we were in West Virginia there was a cross burning. It seems a black kid took a white girl on a date. I immediately spoke with a black pastor in town and hundreds of us marched together from St Mark’s Episcopal Church to St Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church. Even the Governor of West Virginia joined our efforts to renounce this act of hatred and intimidation. We demonstrated our solidarity for racial and human harmony. 

By the way my life has been threatened several times along the way. I have found myself at the center of many struggles. There was a time when someone called Cindy to say; “We’re going to kill your husband!” Cindy had the presence of mind to say, in her best Boston accent; “Yeah, take a numbah, I want to kill him too sometimes.”

The events of this past last week have left many of us shell-shocked. Where are we headed as a country? Can you imagine a march where the message of racial superiority, anti-semitism, hatred and violence is not soundly and convincingly renounced by the chief executive officer of the nation? 

Even before yesterday’s demonstration on the Common, one Bostonian travelled to Charlottesville and proudly declared in an interview; “Hitler was right!” and “Auschwitz was a five star resort!” Others chanted “Blood and Soil” during a torchlight parade last week. The expression was popularized by the prominent Nazi theorist Richard Walther Darré in 1930. The Nazi Party embraced the expression “Blood and Soil” as one of its chief ideological slogans. I renounce such statements as utterly contrary to everything this country stands for and contrary to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. I only wish that our chief executive leadership knew this history well enough to renounce it with equally convincing authority.

Driving an automobile into a crowd of demonstrators in Charlottesville or a van into a gathering of tourists in Barcelona are both acts of terrorism. Period. When anyone uses theology or ideology to justify acts of violence, we have no choice but to renounce such acts immediately and hold those responsible to account swiftly.

Enough of that for now. Lets look at what the Scriptures have to say to us today. Interestingly enough the assigned lectionary for the day deals with issues of racism, slavery and oppression. Isn't that interesting!

We begin with the Gospel for the day. At no time in history have we needed the Gospel more urgently than we do now. Jesus led his disciples on a walk to Tyre and Sidon. By the way, that's a walk of about 124 milesfrom Jerusalem. Quite a hike! There must have been some discussion along the way about the conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities in Jerusalem and then I suggest to you that there must have been questions about why they were heading deeper and deeper into Canaan. Was he not sent to the House of Israel? Why then did they find themselves so deep in foreign territory?

Finally a Canaanite woman confronted Jesus with a plea that he heal her daughter who was possessed by a demon. Let’s be clear, this was a Canaanite woman, a woman of a different racial and ethnic class than the Jews. She was, horrors, a Gentile, a foreigner! Jesus, playing into the disciples’ prejudice and racism, ignored her. They told Jesus to send her away. Jesus made it clear he was sent by God to the lost sheep of Israel. She knelt down before him and begged him for help. His answer to her doesn’t sound like Jesus to me two thousand years later. We know now that Jesus’ love was for all people without regard to race, gender, ethnicity, or orientation. But we did not know that then. So, reflecting their prejudice and bigotry Jesus said to her; “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” The woman’s response was astonishing. Instead of slinking away in dejected rejection, she said; “Yes, Lord yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” 

In an instant the Savior’s face was transfigured by the love of God made flesh and blood in him; “O woman great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” Jesus breaks the dividing wall among us then and there. Whatever dividing wall you wish to erect, Jesus breaks it down. Racial divides, gone. All other convenient pigeon holes we wish to use to classify folk. No more. 

Thankfully, more and more we as a church are becoming a “House of Prayer for ALL People.” In our own historic context in Montana, our relationship with Native American folks also needs an honest to God reality check. As a matter of fact, I thank God for recent events. For now we all have some soul searching to do.

You know, I have a vision for us as a nation and as a people. The vision is not new to me but as old as the Republic itself. Imagine if you will the American Bald Eagle. It is a noble vision the Native American community revered deeply. Thankfully, I’m bald so it may help envision what I seek to say. The eagle has two wings. A left wing and a right wing like all birds. Ben Franklin, is reputed to have suggested the turkey as our national bird given the factious nature of the body politic. But consider the eagle. On the left wing let us postulate the possibility of Democrats, progressives, and liberals. On the right let me suggest we may find Republicans, traditionalists, and conservatives. For an eagle or any bird to get off the ground, it will need both wings, but for it to soar it will need every single feather working in concert together. 

This will mean that as responsible citizens we must reclaim the center. We must renounce the extreme. By that, I mean there must be a place where we can hold conversation with one another when we agree and when we disagree. True enough, we tend to seek out like minded people for much of our lives. But where we really soar is when we can work in concert with those who most differ from us. There is a thing called bi-partisanship and Congress. If we are to deal with matters of urgent concern such as health care, infrastructure, unemployment, poverty, the national budget and so on, we must work together. This will allow the great symbol of our national experience not only to get off the ground and fly, if we begin to act as grown ups and responsible citizens, we can soar!

As for those in the extreme where hatefulness and violence are embraced. We categorically reject that. The politics of “divide and conquer” is much in vogue these days, often has been in history. But such an approach to our common life is not reflective of our better angels. Since a boy the American credo I hold dear has been and continues to be that we are “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

As for slavery, Joseph knew first hand what that was like. In our first lesson today we read where Joseph said; “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into into slavery in Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” God has redeemed history before. God will redeem history again as soon as we listen up to God! In the sweetness of reconciliation Joseph “fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.” That’s when their spirits soared like an eagle. 

The spirit of the Psalmist soars today with these words;

“1 Oh, how good and pleasant it is, *

when brethren live together in unity!

2 It is like fine oil upon the head *

that runs down upon the beard,

3 Upon the beard of Aaron, *

and runs down upon the collar of his robe.

4 It is like the dew of Hermon *

that falls upon the hills of Zion.

5 For there the Lord has ordained the blessing: *

life for evermore.”

   ~Psalm 133

Eternal Life folks or hatred, violence, and death? That is the choice that always stands before us. Bishop Brookhart writes of what happened in Charlottesville; “This event, which included the death of a young woman, reminds us that disciples of Jesus cannot tolerate or condone white supremacy and racism.” 

Allow me to add this from my namesake Paul in today’s Epistle; “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Or as we read in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus; “Bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all…until all of us come to the unity of the faith…to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” Soaring words indeed.

Yes, my spirit soars in Jesus. I pray this is how it shall always be with us. May God bless us, everyone!

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity.

Amen.