wizdUUm Blogs on Social Justice

continued from Ching Ming and King - part I.

Today was Ching Ming, or Grave-Sweeping Day - the day one pays homage to one's ancestors by tending to their graves (hence the sweeping) and making offerings. Today is also the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I occurred to me today, because of the coincidence, that ancestors can be more than just those who shared the same blood. Certainly, as an American, Dr. King is one of my ancestors. I have been to King's grave in Atlanta, GA to pay homage. But since I can't be there today, consider this blog post my offering:

Some people think that a prophet predicts the future, like some carnival fortune teller.  Others think that a prophet is chosen by God in some dramatic fashion like a talking burning bush.  As Unitarian Universalists we agree with the poet Carl Dennis, who said a prophet doesn't predict the future; he (or she) redeems it. Unitarian Universalism stands in the prophetic tradition, where prophets bear witness to injustice and call society to its better self.  We know that what makes a person a prophet isn't that he or she is called by God in some dramatic fashion. Everyone is called by God to do good every day. But not everyone responds. For UUs, the making of a prophet begins with the fact that he or she responds to the call of justice.

But that's not all.  Many a person has dedicated her or his life to a social cause, and made a meaningful difference. Yet while they have our respect, maybe even admiration, they do have not our reverence. That is reserved for the prophet.  For the person who seems to see more than others see. Who can make connections between things that others view as separate.  A prophet sees the whole picture instead of in parts. A prophet sees interdependency.

Martin Luther King Jr. was such a prophet. No need for burning bushes. When he saw the injustice of legalized segregation and racism, he responded to the call, organizing bus boycotts, lunch-counter sit-ins, freedom rides, marches, and rallies. And he didn't confine it to just his location.  When King was criticized in Alabama for being an "outsider" and told to mind his own business, he responded with "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," in which he stated:

I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

King bore witness to the injustice of racism, firmly but with love, until the nation remembered its conscience and began to reform.  But King didn't stop there. As he said in Birmingham, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. So even as he continued the struggle for racial equality, he expanded his message of love to include criticism of the Vietnam war that was killing so many people. Again he was urged to stick to his own cause.  And again King responded by transcending borders. In a speech given on April 4th, 1967 - exactly a year before he was assassinated - King said:

Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood... We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

In the last year of his too brief life, recognizing that the greatest barrier to equality in the U.S. was economic disparity, King began the "Poor People's Campaign," focusing on worker justice for the poor of all races.  That's what he was working for when he was killed.

MLK was a prophet, who called his society to heed its better nature. To resist the fear of "Other" that creates boundaries and embrace the expansive power of love. Like Moses, King delivered his people - all of his people - out of the bonds of legalized, overt racism. But also like Moses, King did not live to see the promised land.  Since we lost him 40 years ago we have been wandering in the desert, delivered from legalized bondage but still struggling with systemic oppressions. But at least we are freer to wander.  It's undeniable that our lives are the better because of his.

Dr. King, I tip a glass for you. Would you prefer Chinese liquor or diet 7-Up?