For the Transformation of the World: Meditations from the Civil Rights Journey

Rev. Kevin Witt, Director of Growing Spiritual Transformational Leaders

In June, 41 leaders from the Susquehanna Conference visited key sites within the Civil Rights Movement. We spoke with people directly involved and heard first-hand the struggles and suffering they willingly endured to dismantle racism and transform the world through the power of love. Repeatedly, we discovered the active role of people of faith inspired by God. 

Powers confronted were not simply individual acts of racism against people of color. With non-violent resistance and creative alternatives, they challenged structures and perspectives weaved into the very fabric of community life. They called for new ways of relating by doing good and avoiding harm. They shed light on and resisted laws unequally and unfairly applied, disparity in access to health care, devaluing of people of a different race, efforts to hinder economic and educational opportunities, blaming victims for brutality and injustice inflicted upon them, and denial of voting rights for vast numbers of African Americans. 

Courageous, everyday people asked what love calls for, spoke truthfully, marched peacefully, went to jail, worked to build Beloved Community in America, risked ridicule and beatings, and even died side by side with others suffering. Stiff opposition came not only from those wanting to maintain the status quo but also from those uncomfortable with any discord, difficult conversations, or targeted reactions by people bullying others into submission. Fear and conflict avoidance impeded love and justice. 

What wisdom can we glean as we tackle racism and injustices in our own time and join God in the transformation of the world? 

 Jesus clarifies the core of faith and life. 

“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-39

Let us not relegate justice to law and politics, as if it has nothing to do with spiritual practice. Cornel West says so well – “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Remain keenly aware that love involves more than compassion – “feeling with or for people”. Justice, also, calls for intentional relationships with people being harmed. It means suffering with those who suffer at some level to bring about change. There is no way to love and work for justice without giving and sharing of ourselves in some real way. It can be joyful, but it isn’t passive.

For perspective, here is a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King

“We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.” 

George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, Osaze Osagie... Wait? Who?

By Rev. Dr. Renee Ford, Gray’s UMC, Port Matilda

Osaze Osagie was born on Aug. 2, 1989. He was the son of Iyunolu Osagie, an English Professor at Penn State University and Sylvester Osagie, Director of Water, Energy, and Food Nexus (West Africa) and the University Faculty Fulbright Adviser in Global Programs at Penn State. Both of Osaze’s parents have Ph.D.’s from Cornell University. As a teenager, Osaze was in the youth ministry at State College Assembly of God where he attended meetings weekly. “Just after 2 p.m. on March 20, 2019, a white State College police officer shot and killed Osaze at his apartment on Old Boalsburg Road. It was the first fatal police shooting in the department’s 103-year history. Three officers were there to serve a 302 warrant, which would’ve allowed them to take Osaze to the emergency room for a doctor to evaluate his mental state and determine if he should be involuntarily hospitalized” (Source: https://www.statecollegemagazine.com/articles/remembering-osaze/). 

We keep hearing about how we are living in unprecedented times. Unfortunately, that also rings true for racial and ethnic injustice as well. And sadly, it IS an issue that has directly affected the State College community. As United Methodists, particularly as we’ve been wrestling with the challenges of this pandemic, we are all struggling to be true to our membership vows of resisting evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves while having to practice physical distancing. Nevertheless, we can’t remain silent about things that matter. Indeed, all lives matter which is not possible unless black lives matter, and people of faith in State College are desperately seeking a path toward healing informed by our faith.

The State College Cluster and State College Interfaith Leaders Group learned about the Local Initiatives Grant offered by the Council of Bishops, applied, and were granted the $1000 grant in September 2019 for our project: Diversity, Inclusion and Faith in Dialogue: Online Discussions and Collaboration to Promote Peace with Justice and Tolerance in the Face of Systemic Racism and Rising Concerns About our Criminal Justice System. The goal of the project is to engage in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, support one another in our common vocations, and identify opportunities to partner and collaborate to respond to common needs within our community. to guide our faith communities to practice peace with justice and tolerance in the face of systemic racism. The group is comprised of clergy and spiritual leaders from the following denominations and faiths: African Methodist Episcopal, American Baptist, Baha’i, Church of the Brethren, Episcopalian, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Jewish, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist. The grant covers the cost of participant study guides and a portion of the speaker’s fee.

Project activities will include bi-monthly Zoom meetings to study “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander and provide opportunities for discussion about race, diversity and inclusion. The group will invite community leaders, as available, from law enforcement, education, healthcare, social service agencies, and community groups to help raise our awareness and response to concerns in our community. This project will provide opportunities to reflect and dialogue about how our faith informs our response to community concerns and needs, to share resources and discuss ways we can work together to make a positive impact on promoting positive community relations and reducing racial tensions. In order to extend the dialogue between our live meetings, participants will be able to participate in activities in the Teachable learning management system platform, provided by The General Commission on Religion & Race. Additionally, we will host a webinar this spring (details are being finalized at the printing of this article) and will open registration for this event to members of our conference. 

We look forward to learning together and, most importantly, identifying ways that our faith communities can work collaboratively to do all that we can to prevent future tragedies like that of Osaze, identifying and responding to our local needs while striving to build a beloved community right here in Happy Valley.