SELMA REMIXED

“But let justice roll down like waters,

and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

--Amos (Hebrew Prophet from the 8th Century)

Last night my wife and I finally watched the movie Selma. It is a critically acclaimed film and though far from perfect was nonetheless nominated for Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards and won Best Original Song award.

Quite frankly the film left me emotionally disturbed. I remember well that dark era of racism and segregation portrayed in the film since I lived through much of it. I was a mere teenager when the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was signed into law, thus theoretically ending legalized segregation in the United States. I remember being against that historic bill simply because everyone else in my family and town opposed it—all white folks of course.

That piece of historic legislation did not end segregation and racism in this country; it did little to change the attitudes of whites toward the so-called American “Negro” of that era. The Civil Rights Bill may have made segregation illegal but it did not effectively end the practice of prohibiting African Americans from voting in local, State, and Federal elections, a gross injustice and major premise of the film Selma.

I remember in 1965 shortly after the Civil Rights Bill was passed an African American family visiting my hometown was rudely told to leave the restaurant they had entered to have Sunday lunch. I also recall vividly the signs on the front of the town’s municipal building clearly stating: “Negro Restrooms in the Rear” and “White Only” signs affixed to the restroom doors in the front of the building. The schools I attended were all white and the military in which I served in the 1960s was laced with racial tensions.

My children and grandchildren have no idea what it was like to live in such a potentially explosive  environment during the Civil Rights era.

But that was then . . .

Here we are now in 2016 and the big elephant in America’s living room is once again racism. This is why I was so emotionally disturbed by this film: White America has yet to deal with the latent racism that seems to have been revived with the election of our nation’s first African American president. Of course the denial of such a claim does not make it less real or invalid.

But what really disturbed me the most about the film was that I never recall hearing one sermon on racism in all the years I attended church during he 1960s—not one, nada! I was beginning to experience some cognitive dissonance however between the racial injustices I witnessed and the Christian faith I had come to profess as a young man. Sadly I received no guidance from my church or pastor concerning the issues of racism and it certainly wasn’t because the racism of the day was hidden from plain view.

I am disturbed by today’s campaign rhetoric that is laced with racial overtones. Even more so is the continuing deafening silence from the white American pulpit. Presidential hopefuls are scapegoating Muslims and Mexicans while most white churches remain silent on the issue. An African American president has been shown incredible disrespect by his detractors and just might be one of the most hated presidents of our time by his partisan opponents. Once again I hear very little being said from white pulpits today reminding us of our own complicity in the egregious sin of racism.

American white preachers are failing to publicly speak out against the blatant racism concealed behind the guise of keeping America safe and secure and protecting our borders. Lord forgive us preachers who fear offending the political sensitivities of our congregations while preaching on less dangerously insipid sermon topics such  marriage or parenting or prosperity.

The movie Selma reminds us all of a very dark period in American history. But it also reminds us that justice cannot be created nor sustained by legislation alone. America today stands in need of a heart transformation. We need to collectively confess the sin of racism even as it exists among us today. Racism did not die in 1960s Alabama or Mississippi or as the result of the signing of the Civil Rights Bill.

I truly believe that Jesus came to knock down walls of hostility that we humans erect to divide us from one another, particularly from those who are not like us or who do not look like us. Racism is a sickness that needs healing. I pray for a healing of our nation’s heart. I pray for God to heal my own heart and remove the things that prevent me from acting and living justly and from recognizing racism regardless of the form in which it presents itself.

I pray for the courage of American pastors (myself included), priests, Rabbis, and Imams to speak up and out against the reality of racism in this country and around the world, for it infects us all. It is dangerously corrosive and unhealthy for all people. I pray that we all hold our politicians accountable for perpetuating racism by their actions and their campaign rhetoric. I call on all people of faith to rise up against racism in any form for it is indeed a sickness unto death.