A Voice In Ramah

In Donnie McClurkin’s song, “That’s What I Believe,” he sings of going to God for deliverance, salvation, and for God’s word — and trusting that God would give just what God promised — deliverance, salvation and even the word (of course, not necessarily in that order.)

I love this song and the words and the tune are often floating in the back of my head. But our theology has to be bigger than the lyrics of this song.

I believe that we do indeed go to God for many things — but God often touches us with more than we could ever imagine. “Eyes haven’t seen…ears haven’t heard….neither has it even entered into our hearts what God has in store for us….” (I Corinthians 2.9)

We go to God for deliverance and the Big Mercy of God blesses us with purpose, call and vocation pulled from the depths of the very stuff that used to imprison us.

We go to God for the Word and the Big Grace of God blesses us with insight, wisdom and the ability to see ourselves and each other in the big story, not just the verses.

We go to God seeking our own salvation and the Big Power of God pushes into our faces opportunities to be instruments of saving grace for others.

Dreams — small ones and big ones — all have to go through God if they are to be fulfilled in the will of God.

Here’s what I am dreaming about….

Children who can run and jump and play…

Children who can go to good schools, learn and grow up ready to face their own “such a time as this”….

Children who are loved…..

Children who can see good doctors when they are in need regardless of where they live….and a world which sees every child as deserving of these little dreams.

My small dreams and eyes haven’t seen…but God dreams big and sees.

My small dreams and ears haven’t heard…but God dreams big and hears.

My small dreams and mind cannot conceive…but who can understand the mind of God?

It hasn’t entered into my small heart…but in God’s heart resides the least of these.

So, on behalf of children whose dreams may never come true with my courage, I’m going to God with my small dreams…trusting God who is….big.

We did something today – January 20, 2009.

In the United States of America, a Black man took the oath for the highest office in the land. So many millions of people thought that they would never see this day. Private hopes and a few attempts by African Americans in the past notwithstanding, most people just never thought this day would ever come to pass.

I believe that the real reason this has happened is because tens of millions of average people decided deep within their own convictions that not only did they want this to happen, they were going to do the work necessary to make it happen.

That is the way most difficult things are done.

We decide that we can do better.

And then, we do it.

We can do better by the millions of children across the globe who are suffering because of wars and conflict. We decide. We work. We make it happen.

It sounds simple, but it is not. Again, nothing worth doing ever is.

But if I made up my mind and you made up yours — and we joined together with others who were also resolute, we can certainly do anything.

When I look into Barack Obama’s face, I think about the millions of people he inspired to just work it out. He touched something deep within us, something that many of us had lost touch with long ago: hope in ourselves, and the knowledge that together, we are called to do something bigger than ourselves.

We can do this.

Has the Congo been on your radar screen? It should be — a modern day Herod lives there.

It has been reported widely that for the last 20 years, children in Northern Uganda have been abducted, tortured, brainwashed, sexually mutilated and forced to serve in the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army.

The Lord’s Resistance Army?

What a misnomer!

What a lie!

Herod is still alive. He is still stealing children from their parent’s bosoms. He is still a wrong-headed religious fanatic.

The worst thing we have ever done in human history is to turn a blind eye toward the eggregious ways in which religion is used to abuse people, to abuse the poor, to wrestle power. Herod slaughtered a generation of little boys in an effort to head off the ascendancy of Jesus. Now, evil in the Congo — and bloated, selfish evil in America that has grown complacent with our own society which regularly throws away children — the 21st Century Herod — is on the rise.

Rachel — refuse to be comforted.

Children in the Congo deserve safety, clean water, food, shelter and the right to grow up in the arms of their parents.

Children in Haiti deserve safety, clean water, food, shelter and the right to grow up in the arms of their parents.

Children in Brooklyn deserve safety, clean water, food, shelter and the right to grow up in the arms of their parents.

Only Herod disagrees.

Only Rachel can do something….so, lift your voice, Rachel!

I love this photo of little boys dressed up as Indian independence Leader Mahatma Gandhi. It was the eve of the 139th Anniversary of Gandhi’s birth and children were celebrating the occasion by dressing as one of the most important figures in human history. Gandhi influenced leaders worldwide — like Martin Luther King, Jr. — with his approach to nonviolent, peaceful civil disobedience. Gandhi’s leadership met the moment, not because he was charismatic, pleasing on the eyes or entertaining. His leadership met the moment because it was grounded in timeless principals, timeless and universal truths. You could not follow Gandhi if you were afraid to be stretched, afraid to grow, afraid to do something new, afraid to see the “other” as a human being deserving of abundant life.

The leadership was not in the clothes, not in the attire. It was in the soul. Dressing the part, however, honors the power of those souls. I’d love to see more children dress up like Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm, Marian Wright Edelman, and Nelson Mandela.

I’d like to see more adults dress up in compassion, integrity, determination…

Lord, I want to be more loving
in my heart, in my heart.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Start dressing the part now….

On this day – October 2, 1967 Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States. He was more than just the first African American elevated to the highest court in the country: he was the grandson of slaves, the standard bearer in the fight against injustice and a voice for voiceless Americans.

My favorite photo of him was taken in 1958 — he is sitting on the steps of the Supreme Court surrounded by the Little Rock students. As counsel for the NAACP, that photo captured just one moment of many battles. A few years later, he would be photographed again — but as Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States.

On this anniversary of the swearing in I am including an excerpt of a speech he gave before his death entitled “We Must Dissent.” It is a timeless and prophetic word for all of us. For all of the reasons he talks about here, we who care must still be in the business of dissenting.

“American must get to work. In the chilled climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing winds. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that buried its head in the sand, waiting for the needs of the poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education, or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and timeless absence of moral leadership. We must dissent, because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.”

Thurgood Marshall, 1992

What Is A Leader?

There has been a perpetual knot in the pit of my stomach throughout this election season. Because of its historic nature, more people than ever before have been paying attention, listening to debates, weighing in….that’s absolutely wonderful! The pit in my stomach, however, is formed by our “election season” definitions of leadership.

• Leadership is not a good speech. However, a good speech articulating a compelling vision can capture the imagine of people who will want to follow you to where that vision leads.
• Your leadership is certainly not affirmed by merely listing the other person’s inadequacies.
• Leadership reaches for the best in people. It does not reach down for the lowest common denominator of our humanity — our shared brokenness, our biases, our fears — in order to “organize” us in an “us against them” fight against all who are not like us.

I am asking the same questions of every candidate who seeks to lead: what’s your vision for our future? Who do you think needs to be involved in realizing that future? Where am I and the issues I care about in that vision?

Because I believe in growing and stretching and don’t trust leaders who promise and preach the familiar, easy roads devoid of any of the incredible challenges and gray areas that so define our times, I want to know — will your leadership and vision encourage me to stretch? If we try to take the path you are suggesting, will we leave the world a better place or will we just have more useless stuff in our own closets, more food in our own refrigerators, more enemies around the world, more stuff, stuff, stuff just for us?

A leader who does not fundamentally understand that we have no future if we continue to do the same things we have always done with respect to our children is a leader who does not comprehend the questions of our times. What kind of country we will be in twenty years has everything to do with the decisions we make for children’s interests today. Our strength and vitality is not about dollars but about decisions. There is no future strength and vitality for us without children who benefit today from our willingness to stretch and invest in them, in us.

The leadership question is not “how can we cut health care costs?” The leadership question is “what do we need to do to grow healthy people, healthy communities?”

I don’t want a leader to give me a good answer. I want leaders who, in the words of CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria, have taken the time to understand the questions that define our times. If you don’t get the questions, chances are that your answers won’t help us very much. Leadership is not about being quick with the answers for people — it’s more about being willing to walk with people through the rough, self-interest stripping terrain of the questions.

And, what in the world are we going to do if we continue to elect leaders with no questions, no vision for children, no vision for us, no vision for the future?

The New York Times reported on this day — September 25, 1957, that the President of the United States sent National Guard troops into Little Rock, Arkansas so that nine Black children could go to Central High School. When I read this I thought, “How sad. Then, troops were sent so that Black children could integrate a White high school. Now, we need troops so that children can attend any school. The violence they experience is not from small-minded people who are afraid of change, but rather from stray bullets, drive-buy shootings and senseless community violence.” So, on this day — pray for the children who navigate violent streets every day — just trying to get an education.”

President Sends Troops to Little Rock, Federalizes Arkansas National Guard; Tells Nation He Acted to Avoid An Anarchy

By ANTHONY LEWIS

Special to The New York Times

Washington, Sept. 24–President Eisenhower sent Federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., today to open the way for the admission of nine Negro pupils to Central High School.

Earlier, the President federalized the Arkansas National Guard and authorized calling the Guard and regular Federal forces to remove obstructions to justice in Little Rock school integration.

His history-making action was based on a formal finding that his “cease and desist” proclamation, issued last night, had not been obeyed. Mobs of pro-segregationists still gathered in the vicinity of Central High School this morning.

Tonight, from the White House, President Eisenhower told the nation in a speech for radio and television that he had acted to prevent “mob rule” and “anarchy.”

Historic Decision

The President’s decision to send troops to Little Rock was reached at his vacation headquarters in Newport, R.I. It was one of historic importance politically, socially, constitutionally. For the first time since the Reconstruction days that followed the Civil War, the Federal Government was using its ultimate power to compel equal treatment of the Negro in the South.

He said violent defiance of Federal Court orders in Little Rock had done grave harm to “the prestige and influence, and indeed to the safety, of our nation and the world.” He called on the people of Arkansas and the South to “preserve and respect the law even when they disagree with it.”

Guardsmen Withdrawn

Action quickly followed the President’s orders. During the day and night 1,000 members of the 101st Airborne Division were flown to Little Rock. Charles E. Wilson, Secretary of the Defense, ordered into Federal service all 10,000 members of the Arkansas National Guard.

Today’s events were the climax of three weeks of skirmishing between the Federal Government and Gov. Orval E. Faubus of Arkansas. It was three weeks ago this morning that the Governor first ordered National Guard troops to Central High School to preserve order. The nine Negro students were prevented from entering the school.

The Guardsmen were gone yesterday, withdrawn by Governor Faubus as the result of a Federal Court order. But a shrieking mob compelled the nine children to withdraw from the school.

President Eisenhower yesterday cleared the way for full use of his powers with a proclamation commanding the mob in Little Rock to “disperse.”

At 12:22 P.M. today in Newport the President signed a second proclamation. It said first that yesterday’s command had “not been obeyed and willful obstruction of said court orders exists and threatens to continue.”

The proclamation then directed Charles E. Wilson, Secretary of Defense, to take all necessary steps to enforce the court orders for admission of the Negro children, including the call of any or all Arkansas Guardsmen under Federal command and the use of the armed forces of the United States.

Later in the afternoon the President flew from Newport to Washington, arriving at the National Airport at 4:50 o’clock.

He began his broadcast speech with this explanation of the flight:

“I could have spoken from Rhode Island, but I felt that in speaking from the house of Lincoln, of Jackson and of Wilson, my words would more clearly convey both the sadness I feel in the action I was compelled to take and the firmness with which I intend to pursue this course. * * *”

It was a firm address, with some language unusually strong for President Eisenhower.

President Traces Dispute

“Under the leadership of demagogic extremists,” the President said, “disorderly mobs have deliberately prevented the carrying out of proper orders from a Federal court. Local authorities have not eliminated that violent opposition.”

The President traced the course of the integration dispute in Little Rock. He noted especially that the Federal Court there had rejected what he called an “abrupt change” in segregated schooling and had adopted a “gradual” plan.

“Proper and sensible observance of the law,” the President said, “then demanded the respectful obedience which the nation has a right to expect from all the people. This, unfortunately, has not been the case at Little Rock.

“Certain misguided persons, many of them imported into Little Rock by agitators, have insisted upon defying the law and have sought to bring it into disrepute. The orders of the court have thus been frustrated.”

The reference to “imported” members of the mob was seen as a sign that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had information, obtained through agents in Little Rock, on the organization of yesterday’s violence.

The President tried to make it plain that he had not sought the use of Federal power in Little Rock, nor welcomed it. Rather he suggested that as Chief Executive he had no choice.

“The President’s responsibility is inescapable,” he said at one point. At another he said that when the decrees of a Federal court were obstructed, “the law and the national interest demanded that the President take action.”

“The very basis of our individual rights and freedoms,” he said, “is the certainty that the President and the Executive Branch of Government will support and insure the carrying out of the decisions of the Federal Courts, even, when necessary with all the means at the President’s command.

“Unless the President did so, anarchy would result.

“There would be no security for any except that which each one of us could provide for himself.

“The interest of the nation in the proper fulfillment of the law’s requirements cannot yield to opposition and demonstrations by some few persons.

“Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts.”

The President appeared fit and vigorous when he stepped into his White House office tonight to face a battery of news and television cameras.

His face showed the ruddiness of the outdoors exercise he has been enjoying on the golf links.

The President, who wore a gray single-breasted suit with blue shirt and tie, spoke calmly and his voice, after setting a steady deliberate pace, rose only occasionally as he sought emphasis for certain words and phrases.

It rose on the word “firmness” when he spoke of his course in this grave situation, and “mob” when he referred to the perpetrators of the Little Rock violence, and “agitators” he said were brought in from the outside.

At either side on the wall on either side of him as he spoke hung portraits of the four leaders whom the President had stated he regards as the greatest American heroes–Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee.

But in his thirteen-minute address tonight, General Eisenhower mentioned only Lincoln.