reflections on the nativity of st. john the baptist and the mass poor people's campaign

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This weekend was momentous in a number of ways. The work that the Reverends Barber and Theoharis - and their excellent staff and organizers -have accomplished over the pat two years is staggering in depth, integrity, and power. It authenticates the sense that this moment IS a kairos moment when the direction of the nation will change. Another sign must include the pitiful turnout at the Tulsa "Klandemic" rally sponsored by the regime's re-election campaign. And do not forget the on-going civil rebellion in our streets driven by the Holy Spirit and Black Lives Matters organizers. The fear, grief, rage, hope and possibilities for healing of our long-suffering people has bubbled over the top and out into every village, city and hamlet - including many throughout the world. 

In an interview with Bill Moyers, the Rev. Dr. James Forbes put it like this: "I hope that white people can see there’s no need to deny any longer. There’s no need to lie any longer. There’s no need to claim somebody else and blame somebody else for the evils of the past. They are part of our history. I hope that they would be able to see how great will be the day when we, having made peace with the evils of the past as our evils, but accept the grace of God as forgiveness, and the invitation of God to be participants in building the new reality, the new world. I hope white people can see forgiveness is available if you decide you want to be a part of the human race in unity and justice and peaceful resolve. I hope they will see the prospect of living in the forgiving grace of God, and walking toward the beloved community, or as we like to say, the more perfect union."

And the Reverend Dr. William Barber II underscored the Jubilee possibilities when he said:

But the fact is that people are both mourning in the street and marching in the street and nonviolently facing rubber bullets – and THAT is the hope of this nation and this world. The very fact that people are protesting means they haven't given up on this society. This kind of protest means hope is still alive and people are willing to fight for it. Because you don't protest what you think is done and finished. As a minister, I believe that what we are seeing in America with all the people coming together because of George Floyd's killing and the marching and protesting to make a better country and world is a kind of political Pentecost. It is, in fact, the spirit of the Lord, grabbing people from all different directions and saying, we will refuse to be comforted. And we are not ready to give up, not just on this democracy in America, but we are not willing to give up our humanity. This is a movement trying to help American democracy to breathe. Justice is trying to breathe. What we are witnessing is the breath of the people and the breath of God resisting the suffocation, resisting the lynching and resisting the death. And in a real sense, when George Floyd breathed his last breath, that breath came into us. And now all those breaths of the past, all those sufferers and martyrs of the past, when they give their last breath it does not go away, it comes into us. Right now, in America with this movement there is love and truth and justice breathing, the American people are resisting the suffocation and resisting the death. And I thank God it is happening.

So, do I, Dr. Barber, so do I.