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Forward Together , livre ebook

Chalice Press - Barber II Rev. Dr. William J. , Barbara Zelter

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In the spring of 2013, seventeen people gathered at the North Carolina state legislature to protest extreme legislation passed by the General Assembly attacking health insurance, unemployment insurance, labor, and voting rights. The ministers, labor, and human rights activists began praying, singing, and chanting, and were ultimately arrested. That group grew into crowds of thousands at successive "Moral Mondays" rallies, and by summer's end nearly 1,000 people had been arrested, making this sustained moral protest one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in U.S. history. The effort grew out of seven years of organizing with more than 160 groups. Rallies continued in 2014, with a "Moral March" of 80,000 people in February. Rev. Dr. William Barber II, a pastor and president of the North Carolina Conference of the NAACP, now the largest in the South, became one of the architects of the Forward Together Moral Movement. In a new book, Forward Together, Rev. Barber tells the story of a new fusion civil rights movement, a "big tent," in which black and white, gay and straight, rich and poor, old and young, Republicans and Democrats are all welcome. Rev. Barber's sermons/speeches at the protests, many of them collected in Forward Together, became the inspiration and rallying cry for a new civil rights movement. North Carolina today is at the epicenter of the political and spiritual crisis affecting 21st-century America. What happens here, says Barber, can shift the center of gravity in the American political discourse. Similar movements are now growing in states around the country. Forward Together captures the essence of what it means to preach in the public square.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Political science of religion

Ethics in religion

Religious intolerance

History of religions

Christianity

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Publié par	Chalice Press
Date de parution	30 octobre 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780827244962
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	8 Mo

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FO RWA RD TOGETHER A MORAL MESSAGE FOR THE NATION

REV.DR.WILLIAMJ.BAWITRH BARBARAEZLERTERII

FORWARD TOGETHER A MORAL MESSAGE FOR THE NATION

REV. DR. WILLIAM J. BARBER II WITHBARBARA ZELTER

Bible quotations marked NRSV are from theNew Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from theNew King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Quotations marked Message are fromThe Messageby Eugene H. Peterson, copyright (c) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Quotations marked ESV are from theESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV® Text Edition: 2011. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. Scripture texts marked NABRE are taken from theNew American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. Scripture quotations marked NET are from NET Bible® copyright ©19962006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C.http://netbible.com. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are from theKing James Version Bible.

Cover art: Eric Preston, FusionFilms.org

Cover design: Gabrielle J. Bond

Photos on pages iii, 6, 7, 20, 21, 26, 32, 34, 61, 70, 79, 81, 91, 133, 158 copyright Phil Fonville. Photos on pages vii, 41, 63, 68, 103, 120 copyright Eric Preston. Photo on page 24 copyright Eric Etheridge. Photo on page 1 copyright Sue Sturgis. Photo on page 150 copyright Rob Stephens. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

The views and opinions expressed in FORWARD TOGETHER: A MORAL MESSAGE FOR THE NATION are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Chalice Press.

www.ChalicePress.com

Print: 9780827244948 EPUB: 9780827244955 EPDF: 9780827244962

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Barber, William J., I I, 1963 Forward together : a moral message for the nation. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780827244948 1. Christianity and politics—North Carolina. 2. Christianity and politicsUnited States. 3. Church and social problems—North Carolina. 4. Church and social problems—United States. 5. North Carolina—Moral conditions. 6. United States—Moral conditions. I. Title. BR516.B33 2014 277.3'083—dc23 2014028243

Printed in the U.S.A.

With Mary Evelyn Rider O’Neill(Phil Fonville photo)

What Is Life?

What is life? Is it to be lived for or dreamed about? Perhaps both.

Maybe our dreaming determines our living to some degree. Yet so much tries to kill our dreams, snatch our dreams, take away our dreams, defer our dreams, and keep our dreams from reality.

Maybe then, we must ght for, pray for, and ask God to grant us the gift of dreaming afresh and anew. DreamingGod’s Dreams!Dreaming, hoping, and delighting in the things of God freshly poured out upon our hearts and minds like the morning dew. How we need it so! Then, perhaps if we dream right, we will live right, and then we shall know the answer to the inquirer’s quest.

What is life? Is it to be lived or dreamed about, or both?

The Spirit brings the gift of dreaming into the now. What God has hoped, becomes, even if at rst just in our thoughts, a new reality. We begin to see and dream in the now what God has always wanted since the beginning. God’s Dreamsbecome our desire when the Spirit is at work.

Men may never understand, but this is what happened deep in the soul place of Sojourner, Mary, Martin, Medgar, Malcolm, Harriet, Fannie Lou, and Mandela. What moved them and so many others?

God’s Dreams!By the Spirit, come take a look.

The cow lying down with the bear. Children playing over the hole of a snake. Lion and lamb frolicking together.God’s Dreams!redeemed. Humanity Grace imparted. Pain pushed away. Tears wiped. Death vanquished. The hungry fed. The hurting healed. Justice ruling. Righteousness prevailing. Deliverance complete. Satan snared.

God’s Dreams!What a wonder! What a look!

Our lives are transformed when we dreamGod’s Dreams!No longer mere mundane Movement. Away with despair and life without purpose! We now rise, captivated and controlled byGod’s Dreams!

And so, it seems our dreams determine our living, and we live because of our dreams. Oh, Spirit of the living God, invade! Invade! Invade! Invade once again the nightmarish corners of our minds. Loose the prophetic ow into the depths of our being withGod’s Dreams

...so that we might live anew and afresh!

— Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

Dedicated to the genius of all the justice and freedom devotees since 2006 who embraced the vision, worked to design this movement and gave their souls and time to it. Worthy of note also is the huge collection of brilliant others—lawyers, scholars, clergy/theologians, organizers, administrators, interns, volunteers, allies—who keep this movement on course.

Welcome: Preaching in the Public Square vii

Introduction to the Forward Together Moral Movement and Moral Monday Rallies 1

CHAPTER 1 Historic Thousands on Jones Street Rally 7: “The Need to Know Who We Are in Times Like These” 7

CHAPTER 2 Moral Monday Rally 1: “Witness Against Extremism” 20

CHAPTER 3 Moral Monday Rally 2: “Healthcare” 26

CHAPTER 4 Moral Monday Rally 4: “Equal Protection under the Law” 32

CHAPTER 5 Moral Monday Rallies 5 and 12: “Education, Economic Justice, and Voting Rights” 41

CHAPTER 6 Moral Monday Rally 8: “Labor, Women, and Economic Justice” 61

CHAPTER 7 Moral Monday Rally 11 (Monday after the Trayvon Martin Case Verdict): “United for Women” 68

CHAPTER 8 Moral Monday Rally 13: “This Is the Day” 79

CHAPTER 9 Fiftieth Anniversary of March on Washington Rally: “Taking the Dream Home” 91

CHAPTER 10 Historic Thousands on Jones Street Rally 8: “The Call to Higher Ground” 103

CHAPTER 11 Our Alliance with LGBT Rights: “A Look Back” 120

CHAPTER 12 Our Alliance with Labor Union Rights: “Coming Together to Go Beyond” 133

CHAPTER 13 Beyond Protest to Voter Mobilization 150

CHAPTER 14 Lessons from the Movement 158

Epilogue 162

Acknowledgments 165

Notes 169

Index 171

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II 177

PREACHING IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE

Moral March on Raleigh 2014(Eric Preston photo)

Moral messages in the pulpit or the public square are designed not just to be spoken and heard, but to shape the prophetic consciousness of a Movement and of society. To paraphrase the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, longtime pastor of the historic Riverside Church in New York:Prophets believe that what they proclaim on any day can be transformed into real action.Words can become esh. The prophetic voice rises when government systems and sometimes even religious systems abdicate their responsibility to those whom scripture calls theleast of these. When the forces of extremism become so overwhelming that they depress the hope of the people, the prophetic voice and mission is to connect words and actions in ways that build restorative hope, so a Movement for restorative justice can arise. This book is an attempt to capture the practice of preaching in the public square, which is where prophetic inquiry must be at work.

vii

viii

FORWARD TOGETHER

Messages built from the perspective of authentic prophetic inquiry will insist that political decisions and public policies——which determine who will be the haves and the havenots in the realms of wages; healthcare; public education; voting rights; workers’/ immigrants’/ LGBTQ/women’s rights; and criminal and environmental justice—are all deeply moral concerns. The authentic call of the Spirit will not allow pastors and preachers to be satisﬁed with words quarantined within the walls of the sanctuary. The moment when misery abounds necessitates messages that can move the masses to engage in deeply moral actions that question mean and hurtful public policies. Prophetic messages wake people up, not just emotionally but also to the possibility of change and their particular roles in movingForward Togetherin the push for that change. When I was a student at Duke Divinity School, Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa once raised a question at Duke Chapel:Who will join God?Progressive evangelical activist Rev. Jim Wallis has made the call for us to consider God’s politics. Duke Divinity School professor of homiletics, Dr. William Turner, has suggested that any claim of spirituality is terribly suspect unless that claim is followed by a clear quarrel with the world and its systems of injustice. And my father, a preacher and teacher like Dr. Turner and me, taught me the following principle articulated by British statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon:

Knowledge is not a couch whereon to rest a searching and restless spirit; or a terrace for a wandering mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself upon; or a sort of commanding ground for strife and contention; or a shop for proﬁt and sale; but a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief 1 of man’s estate.

The role of prophetic moral activity is to awaken people to deep consciousness ﬁrst, and then to engage them to use this new consciousness as a guidance system for framing a Movement that shifts the center of gravity of political discourse and action away from its accommodation to domination, and back to the deepest moral values of our faith. In essence, the role of prophetic social consciousness is to say to both political systems and to the people:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin,

WELCOME

and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.” MATTHEW23:23 ESV

The messages necessary for building Moral Movements must constantly refocus and critique issues around “the weightier matters,” or what matters most. This book brings you messages spoken within a particular political context and climate—that of an extremist, regressive North Carolina legislation that disenfranchised and harmed multitudes of people in our state. However, the messages speak to universal needs, values, and hopes. The proclamations recorded in this book employ our deepest prophetic moral framework to address the weightier matters before us all, in North Carolina and everywhere, as we must confront those who vow to act in our names but who act against the common good. Therefore the spirit of these messages is universal and useful to all of you who hope to enliven and strengthen your own efforts to achieve justice where you live. There can be no Moral Movement or transformational politics without a decisive and deliberate attempt to use moral language and framing in a way that builds a new consciousness among the masses of people, which gives them the kind of critical analysis and charismatic hope to carry on and carry out the Movement. Under the oppressive forces and pressures of extremism, people tend toexpire, to give up. The role of prophetic moral messaging is to inspirepeople, to breathe life into the masses who hardly dare to hope for more. It is to give people permission to morally act up! Henry Thoreau inCivil Disobediencesaid:The only thing I repent of is my good behavior in the face of injustice.He did not write a book for mere academic purposes or give speeches for mere inspiration. His speeches were a form of his own repentance, as well as a call to action. In this spirit we offer the words you ﬁnd here. This book tracks our Forward Together Moral Movement in North Carolina during the key years of 2013 and 2014, as resistance to the hateful and regressive policies enacted by Tea Party extremists since 2010 gathered great force. This Movement did not spring up overnight after the 2010 election and redistricting to stack our state with rightwing leadership. Rather, it was built on the structural bones of longlived North Carolina NAACP local chapters, and was forged on top of those with intentional alliances across many groups in our state and a vision