{"id":726,"date":"2013-06-10T11:31:06","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T17:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jonathanwilsonhartgrove\/?p=726"},"modified":"2013-06-10T11:33:03","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T17:33:03","slug":"the-heart-of-moral-moday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jonathanwilsonhartgrove\/2013\/06\/the-heart-of-moral-moday\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heart of Moral Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Clergy sing and pray in the rotunda of the NC Legislature building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hundreds of clergy from across North Carolina will gather in Raleigh today to lead the Moral Monday<\/a> witness, a growing movement organized by the NC NAACP<\/a> which has brought thousands of protesters to the General Assembly during this session, over 300 of whom have been arrested while petitioning their legislators. Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, a Presbyterian pastor from Durham, NC,\u00a0 organized the clergy witness because, he says, there is a great need for people of faith to say, \u201cWe stand with the poor. We stand against any policies that hurt the most vulnerable in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rev. Hawkins is right. God\u2019s people need to be here for Moral Monday.<\/p>\n

The good news is that God\u2019s people have been at the heart of Moral Monday since its beginnings.<\/p>\n

Historians who look back on the black-led freedom movement of the 1960s often note the difference in culture between the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. King and other black ministers, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, led by students who cut their teeth on nonviolent struggle at lunch counter sit-ins and on the 1961 Freedom Rides. SCLC played on the social power of respectable ministers who spoke on behalf of their communities, often in the rhythmic cadence of the preaching style that Martin Luther King mastered. But under the tutelage of Ella Baker, SNCC practiced the adage \u201cstrong people don\u2019t need strong leaders.\u201d In the rural communities of Mississippi and Alabama, SNCC field secretaries worked to identify and shine the spotlight on folks like Fannie Lou Hamer and Amzie Moore. These people were God\u2019s children, too. If given the opportunity, they could speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

SNCC showed America that the heart of the freedom movement is people who\u2019ve been silenced finding a space to speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

The beautiful truth at the heart of Moral Mondays is that all God\u2019s children have been gathering for six weeks to speak for themselves about policies that are hurting them and their communities. The people\u00a0 of North Carolina have not come out to simply complain about bad leadership. We\u2019ve not been organizing in desperate hope for some new, great leader. No, we have been speaking as clearly as we know how the truth that God speaks to each of us: \u201cYou are my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because we are loved, we are called to be our brother\u2019s keeper. And because so many of our sisters and brothers are hurting, we cannot keep silent.<\/p>\n

This is, of course, the heart of the message that clergy are called to preach in our communities each week. As keepers of our truest story, clergy in their robes and collars need to be among those speaking out and, if necessary, going to jail.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve been a preacher long enough to know that those of us who aim to preach God\u2019s word are often prone to talk too much (I started preaching when I was sixteen, so I\u2019ve done my fair share). I suspect this movement doesn\u2019t need us to lead as much as it needs us to follow\u2013to listen carefully, to pray fervently, and to ask how what is happening before us is rooted deeply in the story of what God has been doing since the foundation of the world.<\/p>\n

Last night here in Durham, we had a wonderful performance of The Best of Enemies<\/a>, a play about the unlikely friendship between a militant black activist, Ann Atwater, and a local KKK leader, C.P. Ellis, who both realized that their fears and hatred of one another were keeping them from helping their children find a better future. In a striking scene toward the end of the play, Atwater visits Ellis in his hospital room, where he confesses that he almost killed a black man when he was working with the Klan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost killed a man, too,\u201d Atwater says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah,\u201d Ellis replies. \u201cWho was that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ann has been my mentor here in Durham for years, and I\u2019ve heard her tell the story of how she pulled her knife out of her purse and stood up in a City Council meeting once to go cut C.P.\u2019s head off. What stopped her? It was the hand of her pastor\u2013the man who preached the radical love ethic of Jesus on Sunday, but was also there behind her on a Monday evening, watching and praying. He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, \u201cDon\u2019t do it, Ann. Don\u2019t let him get to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I reckon every movement needs its pastors. Sometimes up front, letting everyone see that the church is present. But just as often in the crowd, whispering the gospel in a sister\u2019s ear. And following where only she can lead, one step at a time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of clergy from across North Carolina will gather in Raleigh today to lead the Moral Monday witness, a growing movement organized by the NC NAACP which has brought thousands of protesters to the General Assembly during this session, over 300 of whom have been arrested while petitioning their legislators. Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, a Presbyterian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[268,266,265,267],"class_list":["post-726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-clergy","tag-forward-together","tag-moral-monday","tag-nc-naacp"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Heart of Moral Monday<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hundreds of clergy from across North Carolina will gather in Raleigh today to lead the Moral Monday witness, a growing movement organized by the NC NAACP\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jonathanwilsonhartgrove\/2013\/06\/the-heart-of-moral-moday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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