Four Steps with Dr. King

I've been thinking about Dr. King a lot lately; especially with last Friday's 40th anniversary of his cowardly, evil murder.

It seems to me a great deal can be gleaned regarding our progress as a nation by looking at the silly reaction to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's preaching. If you have never had the privilege of sitting (and jumping up to sing your lungs out and/or shout) at a church steeped in the Black Church tradition, you might be shocked by the 10-second video bits shown by Fox News and others.

I am a proud graduate of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, whose Black Church studies program is the oldest in the nation; the origins of which go back to April 5, 1968. At CRCDS, when I attended in the early- to mid-90s, we had chapel every day, with the different faith traditions rotating leadership. By far my favorite services were those led in the Black Church tradition. They tore you down and built you back up stronger, cleaner. They welcomed in everybody, even this dorky little white boy. The singing, the Spirit, the prophetic Word launched from the pulpit were stunning, inspiring. We'd leave the chapel ten feet off the ground and ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead.

Much of what I heard rocked me to my core. I wasn't used to such strong talk coming from the pulpit. Of course I wasn't in total agreement with every single thing said (and if you are in your church, you'd best ask yourself if you are really hearing the Word of God), but, man, was it prophetic.

My point is, you've got to hear a sermon in any tradition in its entirety. I often make statements in my sermons that, taken out of the greater context, would be easily misunderstood. But, in my experience, this is somehow even more true in the Black Church tradition.

Rev. Wright is a brilliant preacher who has brought thousands to Christ. He speaks cold, hard reality to all who will listen. But you need to hear his sermons in their entirety to appreciate the scope of repentance and positive change he calls for in the listener's heart, the neighborhood, the nation and the world. The post-9-11 "America's chickens are coming home to roost" comment, for example, is part of a longer sermon available on YouTube in which he speaks prophetically of some Americans' tendency to want to lash out at anybody for revenge, regardless of how many innocents are crushed in the process. This was preached in 2001, well before the Iraq invasion.

But Rev. Wright preaches on, relating that when he asked God how to respond to the evil horror of the 9-11 attacks, God told him to first purify himself. If we respond to evil with evil in our own hearts, we risk slipping quickly out of the will and protection of God.

This point reminded me of Dr. King's words in one of the greatest documents ever produced in our nation, his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "In any non-violent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts..., negotiation, self-purification, and direct action." Rev. Wright echoed these principles, suggesting we must first get our facts right, speak with our allies and opposition, and check our own motivation before we lash out or invade anybody. I believe we'd be in better shape today if Rev. Wright had had the ear of the American people, Congress and the White House when he preached that sermon six and a half years ago.

Many of my colleagues in the UCC felt the need to come to the public defense of our fellow UCC pastor. One of them wrote an excellent piece published in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. When published, it was noted that 11 other area UCC clergy supported the letter. Well, some enterprising reader saw this, did some sort of search to find e-mail addresses for local UCC clergy, and sent me the following:



From: olbuddy
To: revkeyes
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 11:05 AM
Subject: Rev. Jeremiah Wright aka (Hate monger)

You should be ashamed of your self for supporting the Rev.Wright what is wrong with you. If the Rev. Wright or any other Rev from the GVA ASSOC. want's to GOD DAM AMERICA maby you should get the next plane out of the US OF KKKA.
L** G*** H****n NY USA

And here was my response, written after a great deal of time spent in Dr. King's and Rev. Wright's self-purification mode:

Well, that's an interesting way to start a dialogue, olbuddy.

Why are you so angry? What's got you so scared? Seriously, Mr. G***, the land of the free and the home of the brave means exactly that: free enough to speak out, brave enough to listen to what others have to say. In that spirit, I'd like to hear what you have to say. I can deal with the anger, but please refrain from profanity and racial slurs, if you don't mind. I'll afford you the respect you deserve. Just return the favor and respect me as well. That would be the American way.

And there is no way I'm leaving my country. I love it enough to want only the best for it. Just as I love my children enough to have very high expectations for their behaviors and actions, I love America enough to criticize, question and suggest corrections to make it the best it can be. I believe that makes me a patriot.

I wish you peace and the blessings of Christ,

Rev. Corey Keyes, West Bloomfield, NY

Thus far I have received no response from "olbuddy." It would suggest he was interested only in diatribe, not dialogue. I find that is often the case with Americans dwelling at either political extreme. We become so addicted to the power of arrogance. We relish being contradicted; even go searching for it. But then we don't listen to what our opposition is saying. We simply scream our slogans, slap on a new bumper sticker and march down the road to ruin of our choosing, marvelously self-affirmed in our obstinacy.

It seems to me America is again waking up, hungover, from this very human tendency toward radical ignorance. We are finally collecting facts. I pray we follow Dr. King's steps from here: moving methodically, faithfully through negotiation and self-purification, so our next direct action might be constructive.

And Olbuddy, if you're still out there, I anxiously await the chance to start this process with you, brother.