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O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack, and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous; therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
— Habakkuk 1:2-4
Dear Beloveds of the Minnesota Conference,
I am on a week-long Civil Rights bus tour traveling to Memphis, Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery, traveling with seven others from the Minnesota Conference and 40 people from the Wisconsin Conference. We have been on a journey to increase our racial intelligence and do our own work to understand the conditions that created the sustained violence and discrimination against our black and brown siblings during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Yesterday we were at the Montgomery Legacy Sites, which includes The Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration. It is phenomenal. Among the sites is the moving National Memorial for Peace and Justice, commonly known as the Lynching Memorial. We have been witnesses to the harm, the violence, and the state wielded death crushing the ancestors of our black siblings in the United States.
It does not take long to notice all the similarities between our current crisis in Minnesota — from small towns to the Twin Cities. People are being snatched. People are facing tear gas. Clergy are risking their lives. We are marching for our neighbors and friends to live a life where human rights are not ignored—where people, regardless of their documents, are encouraged to flourish.
Habakkuk chapters 1 and 2 seem particularly poignant right now. I invite you to get quiet and read them. Today was my turn to lead reflections on our bus tour. You can read a portion of that reflection here.
The prayer that follows was written on a hard day sitting at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham where the four little girls in white dresses were killed by a KKK bomb blast that rang out on a Sunday morning. We watched a film that noted the bomb came just a few days after the March on Washington when they were feeling so much joy and satisfaction. I wept remembering our own journey less than two weeks ago. Despair seemed like it would win after Alex Pretti’s murder.
We have some good news coming soon to help you on your journey, especially for our leaders. Hold on. Be brave. Remember you are made in the beautiful image of God.
Dear Lord,
I know our experiences are similar but not the same.
I know our pain is similar but not the same.
I know our grief is similar but not the same.
But our call for peaceful communities is the same.
Our demand for justice for lives killed is the same.
Our tears stain our faces hot with holy rage
yet they cannot be wiped away with tissues
of federal complacency and lies of convenience.
They faced dogs and water cannons.
We face SUV’s, and sonic cannons.
They choked in tear gas.
We are still choking from the tear gas.
They were beaten with billy clubs.
We are ripped from our cars, kicked and punched and left out in the cold.
Some of them were shot and killed.
Some of us are still being shot and killed.
Clergy risked their lives then.
Clergy risk their lives now.
There is injustice.
There is violence.
There is hope unfulfilled.
Our eyes are burning.
But you can’t cry in the midst of it.
You gotta keep showing up.
The tears can only flow when you step away just long enough to feel the pain.
Lord forgive us our cowardice.
Lord forgive us our sins of silence.
Lord forgive us our fear.
We are grateful for all the Civil Rights activists and martyrs that came before us.
May we embody their courage in this moment.
We are grateful for the churches that hosted mass meetings and organized the people and healed their wounds after hard days. We are thankful for the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Brown Chapel AME in Selma, and Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery.
May we use our sanctuaries for community building and organized actions for love and compassion. Sanctify our sanctuaries for this holy urgent work.
Help us hold on to love.
Help us sing for justice.
Help us live for peace.
Not for some,
For all.
Amen
—Rev. Dr. Tanya Sadagopan, Conference Minister
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