Serving at the intersection of Faith, Healing and Justice
Sharing my meditations as I travel the road to becoming Rev. Rolle.
It’s May Day
and in honor of this legacy
I spent the day in a church
Helping to form a coalition
based on love and power and faith and healing
based on the values of worker movements
and populist movements
and the values of my own working class family.
Read MoreToday, my heart wants to believe that help is coming. That the tide is turning. That trends are changing. That the organizing and the protests and the advocacy and the public education and the communications and messaging strategies are working.
I want today to feel like hope.
But honestly, I just feel tired.
Read MoreRemembering God and Remembering Each Other on Today
God be a fortress and a comforter for your people.
Sometimes we escape, sometimes you protect,
Sometimes we rely on your comfort in the midst of destruction.
We travel a world of uncertainty, where we can lose our footing, our faith, and sometimes ourselves.
Lord, help us not lose sight of each other or of you.
God, we seek your strength to rebuild our communities, our lives, and ourselves.
Grant us the courage to remain open to transformative possibilities in the wake of devastation.
We are often seized by hopelessness, fear, and despair.
When we cannot see the path to safety,
Hold us in your loving arms and show us your way.
We offer eternal thanks for all the ways that you abide with us.
Healer, comforter, deliverer, protector, miracle worker;
You are the God of benevolence, Christ of redemption, the Spirit of peace.
Crucifixion was a political death, akin to dying by firing squad or public lynching.
So, help me understand how a religion whose foundation is based upon the crucifixion of Jesus and his rising again after such a death can consider itself apolitical?
To divorce politics from the faith is to carry a shrunken gospel.
Our savior died a revolutionary’s death, so I am committed to the revolution.
I’m declaring that we have been spoiled (rotten) with inspiration. It is a thing that will not come easily, might not come at all, and doesn’t do much in the worldwide theater of American politics, other than give people hope in the midst of a system that is not built for them. This is not to say that inspiration is bad. It is just woefully insufficient.
Read MoreFor Black Radicals When Colored Girls on the Presidential Ticket Are Not Enough
I want something that we are not going to get. I want inspiration from the candidates for president & vice president. After a long campaign road last year, and a puzzling and bumbling journey this year, one thing is clear about the Democrat Party and where we stand in national politics.
Is it good? Eh.
Is it radical? Certainly not.
Is it strategic? Debatable. It depends on whose strategy you might be thinking of.
Biden is woefully disappointing. Harris brings no new voters that Biden would not have gotten on his own. Both have painful political histories that have wreaked havoc on black communities.
Still, I see no viable progressive alternatives available to us in the 12 weeks between now and the general election of 2020. Like so many other things coming out of 2020, this blunder of wonder twins is so out of step with where the country is trying to go. It is a reminder of that which we need to let go. It is a reminder that we need better, I want better, and still I am radically honest about what is real. This is the best that we are going to get.
We have to pave a road that leads to life after this election, because while this ain’t it, it is what we have. And I’m using the best tools that I have.
I’m just trying to survive the moment so that we have a fighting chance to make it to the other side. Sometimes, that is the best you can do in the moment before creating the conditions for a better moment.
Keep creating the moments that lead to liberation.
On the night of the full moon (in Libra), I’m meditating on what it means that believers across the globe are also honoring Good Friday. In both instances it is a time of letting go and a time of hope that grows from the release. So, this first sermon, “It Is Finished”, almost had me laid out in awe at how freeing and powerful that letting go, that release, that finishing of things can be. I’m convinced that as God guides me to the next stage of life, I’m being reminded with love and warning that the things that had me bound before are finished. That life of self doubt is finished. That life of fear is finished. That habit of making myself a human sacrifice (as if I didn’t personally believe that Jesus paid it all so that I don’t have to), it is finished. That thing where I’ve tried to live much smaller than who I am? It is finished. The word and the world and the heavens are in agreement.
So often, looking at our circumstances logically and practically could lead us to believe that we’ve already lost. If faith is the substance of things hoped for, then the decisions to organize, to move forward against powers that seek to destroy you, to build when you know some force is already plotting to tear you down, to run the campaign even though you know you’ll be outspent and double crossed are decisions based on hope. This radical faith is the will do something about the world that we hope for until it manifests. Hope for something different drives us to keep showing up. Hope is at the core of that kind of radical faith. It is the desire for something better.
“You so no manners”.
I can clearly hear the cadence of my mother’s voice in that declaration. She would say that to myself and my sisters whenever we did something that was particularly disrespectful, unbecoming, unladylike or at odds with the appropriate behavior of a southern woman raised well by good parents in a good home. This accusation wasn’t just about Emily Post style manners. It was a cautionary statement, that we were on the edge of appropriate society and could soon face the consequences of being outsiders. There was much attention paid to how we were to speak, dress, and even walk. Almost all of it had to do with acceptance and imagery. Very little of it was for vanity. These expectations of being mannered were about survival. To be “No Manners” was intentional disrespect that rejected socially acceptable behavior. It is to know “better” and not do “better”.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) has intentionally and strategically chosen to be no manners in ways that the African American church has not yet subscribed to. The church is still holding onto the idealism of respectability and respectability politics, the antithesis of being “no manners”. As the goals of today’s liberation movements shift and expand and the Black Lives Matter movement leads the charge for racial justice in America, so must the approach and the theoretical grounding for movement building.
In the Jim Crow south, respectability was a tenuous safety net. Being seen as the right kind of person, one who caused no problems and garnered social approval could mean that one’s life or physical safety might be maintained another day, avoiding physical harassment and even death based on how a person was viewed by white citizens and the local power structure. However, that also lead to a public image that the African American community, and by extension the African American church cultivated which signaled who the right kind of person is; what they look like, sound like, and how they might act.
To take on an anti-respectability ideology and approach to life defies black survival. Being “no manners” on purpose is a decision to survive on your own terms; to push the world to bend its edges such that social conformity, public approval and respectability are no longer the only ways in which Black lives are allowed to exist or gain affirmation. It challenges the idea of worthiness, in general. Who is deserving of life and whose life can be snuffed out has too often been socially decided based on who is deemed acceptable and respectable. The African American Church in America found itself on both sides of this line, operating both as liberating entity in the era of the Civil Rights Movement and at other times as an oppressive or problematic institution, as it holds onto fading concepts of worthiness and appropriateness that are linked to respectable idealism.
Strategic respectability politics was a powerful tool used in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s to gain national and international support of policy initiatives aimed at gaining voting rights and other civil rights for African Americans. However, this theology of respectability conflicts with the liberal goals of new freedom movements like Black Lives Matter. BLM works to expand the understanding and reality of Black liberation, and in its expansion, has included people and issues in their mission that eclipse the narrow focus of the Civil Rights Movement that the Black church was so involved in. On its website BLM states “We are guided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location.” Thus, conflicts arise within the Black church about BLM’s theological soundness in public policy and social justice.
The rejection of respectability is both a strategy and a value of the Black Lives Matter. This value does not coincide with the overwhelming trend of the present-day Black church. Young ministers and pastors are often able to ascend in professional ministry through the established channels controlled by the African American church of visible respectability. When youth are able to look the part of a polished preacher, and sound like the new Martin Luther King, Jr. or one of his ilk it is that much easier to be embraced and groomed for church and communal leadership. However, it is the very opposite image that we so often find in the leadership of the grassroots movement that is Black Lives Matter. Instead of trading on the imagery of the upstanding citizen and devout Christian, the movement has intentionally crafted a space that amplifies the voices and visibility of those who do not appeal to the sensibilities of White society or to the valorized symbolism of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.
The Black Lives Matter movement has let go of respectability and, instead, opted for radical inclusion and empowerment. They have drawn wide the circle of humanity such that the most marginalized voices and struggles are centered and form the leadership. Women, queer-identified individuals and poor people visually and verbally disrupt traditional perceptions of what appropriate leadership should be as well as how appropriate messaging should be delivered.
For the BLM movement, the goals have not simply been so cut and dry as a list of wins on paper. The goal is to be free to live in liberty, moving in the world based on one’s own inclinations. The goal is to be liberated from the white gaze, white scrutiny and the mishandling of Black bodies that seeks to realize white utopic visions of a sanitized America.
Their objectives push past winning legislation on the basis of righteousness. While policy wins are on their agenda, the core of their mission is to usher in a reality that offers each person justice as righteousness, not securing perceived safety for the seemingly upright. I believe in a God that pushes us forth, such that we might all be free.
May we all be a little no manners.
“All things come of thee, Oh Lord. And of thine own have we given thee.”
All of it.
Not a little bit. Not most things. Not the things we pay attention to or the things we like the best. ALL things come of thee, Oh Lord. I love singing this at church during offering time. It’s a reminder that bit only is God a provider, but that our provision is purposeful.
I think of my mom a lot, lately. One thing that I meditate on is how she would give so freely whenever she had something. Food. Clothing. Money. Time. Comfort. It makes me think of the promise I made to God; to give everything to God in honor of my call. This short hymn and my mom’s legacy are reminders to keep examining my life and keep offering up the many parts of my life to God with the belief that it will be blessed.
Just like we believe on Sunday during offering time that collectively, we will give what we have, offer it up to God and expect a blessing; I am challenging and allowing myself to do the same. My financial life. My love life. My professional and ministerial life. Those undiscovered parts of myself . . . I’m offering it all up.
And I believe God will bless it all. All things.
I was in tears in a good way.
I was moved the day that my morning meditation and prayer time was set with this beautiful worship from St. Paul’s Baptist Church.(Vince Anthony & Guthrie Ramsey & Deacon Watson).
I can feel so many of us struggling to “be free”. That desire for freedom is divine.
I believe that God wants us all (All!) to be free. We will have to change. We will have to learn. We will have to struggle for it. We will have to extend grace and diminish ego in many cases.
We will have to lift up prayers and chant down Babylon, tear down systems and build a new world.
But freedom can be ours.
Keep praying and working for divine freedom,
#OnEarthAsItIsInHeaven.
Let’s follow God to freedom.
Over the past fourteen years much of the work I’ve been involved in, I’ve been able to consider it a ministry. Community outreach and social justice in its intent and practice is, indeed, ministry. However, what I’ve come to notice is a need to minimize the politics and polarization of these things and increase the focus on the human aspects of the work. So often, jaded activists and political strategists are crafting the messages and mechanisms for positive change that most directly impact who the Bible describes in Matthew 25:40 as the least of these. Unfortunately, these efforts are frequently lacking the necessary spiritual and personal components of social change. The disconnect between the urgency for change and the love, affirmation and wellness needed to reach, mobilize and transform aggrieved communities and individuals is great. In essence, we are sending wounded soldiers back into battle with no care or restoration. I've been fortunate enough to use my time of study to help create a vision and a practice for bold, faith-rooted, transformational social justice that helps to empower and make whole those who are broken, even while we challenge structural and societal oppression. I believe the opportunity to engage in deep, analytical and critical study of the scriptures, devoid of a hegemonic, patriarchal lens allows us to develop an approach to God’s social mission that speaks to the underserved while creating spaces for the personal and societal healing needed to help break down the spiritual walls that block our communal advancement.
This happened less than an hour after my sister, Meme, and I returned home from a 20 hour road trip from Princton, NJ to Orlando, FL.
Me: *sees bacon cooking in the pot*
“Meme, what’re you going to do with the bacon?”
Meme: “What do people do when they love you?”
Me: *Dazed and confused after our 20 hour road trip*
“What???”
Meme: “When people love you, they cook you peas and rice.”
Me: *tears up*
“You’re absolutely right.”
Peas and rice, fried chicken, baked pork chops, tomato salad.
This is what love looks like.
The actual plate looked even better. I was too hungry, too tired, and too emotional to stop and take a picture.
Sometimes we have to go to the garden, but sometimes we have to go to the crowds.
Nehemiah 2:1-9 ". . . Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
Sometimes I feel like Nehemiah, wanting to rebuild the city. Whether it’s the little neighborhood where my parents raised me in Orlando or the out island where my father was raised in The Bahamas, I often think about what would be possible if I were to stop and try to rebuild. Could we create affordable housing? Could sustainable, locally owned and clean development on Andros be within reach?
I think about the role of younger generations to restore and build upon what was created by our ancestors.
At the same time, I think about how hard it is for younger generations who are saddled with educational debt, facing bleak job prospects, navigating a hostile market, witnessing the obvious decline of our already inconsistent democracy and I think “What can we build”?
Nehemiah asked the king for resources, but what happens when your “king” is hostile and intent on taking what little you have?
The king will not restore.
I know that our world is in a period of transition. I know that we struggle to survive and sometimes that’s the best you can do.
Still, I can’t shake the feeling that we owe it to our ancestors and to ourselves to rebuild.
But we need a blueprint.
Thank God for friends who will tell us the truth.
He said it with such friendly, loving resolve that I had to look down and center myself.
One of the great and powerful things about being in seminary is that you’re surrounded by deeply spiritual people that, if you are open to it, will speak into your life and your heart at a moment’s notice. At least, that’s been my experience. I know everyone hasn’t gotten that. But that’s certainly been the case for me and that was the case one night as I was parking my car and heading in. I saw one of my neighbors / recent graduates / buddies in the parking lot and we got to chatting.
He decided to share a story about a group dinner we’d been at almost a year ago where he and another classmate were discussing . . . me. The comments were complimentary and I started doing that thing that I do when I am trying to be humble while also not deflecting.
And like a knife, he cut through that forced humility and discomfort with sweetness and immediacy.
“You know who you are.”
He didn’t say these words in one of those pep talk or cheerleader ways; just in gentle affirmation that he saw me.
And this is the problem that many women face.
We actually do know who we are.
Statistically, Black women have a higher self-concept than their white American female counterparts. Statistically, Black women are more highly educated than any demographic in the United States. Black women are also statistically the most religiously faithful demographic in the nation.
And yet they're still treated like the most unlovable and undesired creatures in the country.
What must it be like to be excellent, know your worth, have a deep spiritual connection to your brilliance and still be devalued?
