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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in Gods work to save the world.

"Why Sit We Here Until We Die?"

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“Why Sit We Here Until We Die?”

2nd Kings 7:3

Rev. Emmanuel Scott Sr. once told a group of young preachers wrangling over the narrow obstructionism in so many African American churches that often prohibits prospects for meaningful progress that, “when people hate you without a reason, you can give them “reason” to love you.” Some problems are not rooted in mere ignorance. They are not the consequence of a failure to communicate. It is not a case of whether or not they understand what you are trying to do or convincing them of your sincerity and desire for cooperation. They are just committed to your failure for reasons that lay so deep in their own subjectivity and psychology that reason, particularly your reason, can’t reach deep enough to unearth them. This is the problem President Obama faces. However long he pursues a politics of compromise and denial, at the end of the day, this is what he is facing. Moreover, it is complicated by factors that he may grasp intellectually but I am afraid does not appreciate existentially. If he does, his political approach and tactics do not reflect it. His desire to help the whole country does not mean the whole country will help him, and certainly not the current cast of Character’s in congress, many of whom exercise disproportionate power that undermines the will of the people for change--a will expressed clearly in his election.

There is a difference between a naked ethic of negotiation and an ethic of struggle. There is compromise in both. However, the timing of negotiation is different. In an ethic of struggle the timing is determined only after a crisis is precipitated after serious and critical struggle is engaged. History has taught us that to reform any of America’s fundamental institutions (for reasons that exceed the parameters of this brief note) an ethic of struggle is required. Dr. King, who understood the reality in front of him far better than President Obama (despite the President’s somewhat dismissive reference in his Nobel speech), clearly appreciated this. Frederick Douglass clearly understood this. To paraphrase him “Privileges are not freely given up by the privileged, they must be taken by the under privileged.” The struggle must be public and the differences and divisions must be dramatized so that they are clearly perceived by a public jaded by years of ideological indoctrination. Stated clearly, congressional votes must come after a showdown; they cannot and will not serve effectively as the showdowns in and of themselves.

There must be a call to action issued throughout the progressive spiritual universe. We do not have the luxury of sitting idle hoping that those in power will do the “right thing.” To trust “being right” without a dramatic struggle to show our commitment and demonstrate our passion is a council of defeat. History clearly shows that the better angels of our nature will not prevail without out the better efforts of our actions. “Why sit we here until we die!”

A Friend of the Crucified,

Dr. Matthew V. Johnson Sr.

National Director, Every Church A Peace Church

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