Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Karl Marx’s phrase “religion is the opium of the people” suggests a numbing effect for religious practice, rather than a quickening effect. Too often in modern Western society this is true: religion is for those who want to go to sleep.

Rev. Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” contains a passage (quoted at length below) in which he talks about “fostering tension” in a community. This is the opposite of the narcotic effect: to raise tension is to raise discomfort. To raise discomfort, to raise tension, is one of the marks of authentic religious practice and expression. It is nothing less than the prophetic voice of religion, canonized in the Hebrew Scriptures in such figures as Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos.

Society does not change unless creative tension is brought to crisis. Rev. Dr. King knew this. While an edgy American populace continues under the delusion that a different election result will bring about “change we can believe in,” or “renewal,” or whatever slogan catches on, the truth is spoken more clearly in the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” New life– more fair, more just, more compassionate, more hopeful– is the province of a religion that calls insistently for people to wake up.

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.

via Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.].

 

Don’t Look Here

The Politicians

EJ Dionne, another thoughtful and balanced observer of American culture, has a trenchant (love that word) commentary in Commonweal about the debt crisis, and the growing failure of politicians to provide leadership. An excerpt, and the link, are below.

We expect too much of our politicians, but even the minimum that we can expect– some semblance of seriousness– is missing. That’s a problem, but it’s hardly– sorry to say– new.

It’s my contention– and will remain my contention until I change my mind– that the problems and challenges we face here in the early 21st century are better addressed by artists, psychotherapists, theologians, and prophets than by politicians. In other words, our problems and challenges are more about spirit and meaning, than they are about law and policy.

EJ Dionne writes:

The first week of August 2011 will be remembered as a singularly irrational, wasteful, and shameful moment in the political and economic history of the United States. It reflected much of what is wrong with the priorities of our political elites and the obsessions of those who now hold effective veto power over our government….

via Debt Debacle | Commonweal magazine.

 

Established Power and Truth-Telling

Brian Haw: English Prophet?

Our popular usage of the word “prophet” casts it in the direction of  “fortune-teller” or “one who possesses secret wisdom.” Prophesy in the Hebrew Bible is not about fortune-telling, but is more accurately understood as “truth-telling”– and especially the kind of truth-telling that established power doesn’t want to hear.

Whatever one’s view of war– from the most aggressive neo-conservatism to the most non-violent pacifism– no one can reasonably deny that innocent people get harmed. (Some will maintain that there is no such thing as a “non-combatant” (i.e., “innocent person”) anymore, in this age of total war. We can dismiss this, for now, as an unreasonable view.) One’s view of war surely shapes one’s judgment regarding the moral significance of innocent people being harmed, but one’s view of war cannot change the fact that in war, innocent people get harmed.

Englishman Brian Haw arrived at the conclusion that children being killed in the war in Iraq was morally unacceptable. Acting on that conviction, he encamped in front of the Houses of Parliament in London, protesting English government policy that supported the war. Whether English government policy should have or shouldn’t have supported the war in Iraq is debatable. What is prophetic– that is, “truth-telling”– about Brian Haw’s protest, is that he confronted members of Parliament with a significant truth about war: innocent people get harmed.

And the response of established power? Entirely predictable, whether in Western democracies or in Arab plutocracies rife with nepotism (Tunisia, Egypt): marginalize the truth-teller (or tellers) whose truth-telling challenges the dominant narrative or threatens the regime. To the credit of the English legal system– and to the tradition of Western political liberalism– attempts by established power to have Brian removed failed.

While the freedom of speech protects the right of people to speak stupidity or plain falsehood, it also protects the right of modern-day prophets to speak truth to power.

Brian died last Sunday, June 19th. The link is below.

‘Unsung Hero’ Brian Haw, 1949-2011

British anti-war activist will be remembered for his unyielding protest on behalf of children killed in conflict.

via ‘Unsung Hero’ Brian Haw, 1949-2011 – Features – Al Jazeera English.

 

In Brief: An Old Story, the Prophets, and the Life of God

Here’s a real shocker (he says sarcastically) from Al Jazeera:

How did Egypt become so corrupt?

A picture is emerging of a state where wealth fuels political power and political power buys wealth.

(via How did Egypt become so corrupt? – Inside Story – Al Jazeera English.)

The old story (as old as human civilization) is the self-reinforcing connection between wealth and this-worldly power. The prophetic voice of the Hebrew scriptures exposes this self-seeking aggrandizement as unjust: not simply as unfair, but even more, as an affront to God’s word that wise rulers– people with power– express their faithfulness by taking care of their poor, and their widows and orphans. In the prophetic understanding, such care is not merely ritual observance; nor is it the hollow and lifeless, going-through-the-motions obedience to a Divine Tyrant– far from it. On the contrary: such care takes part in– participates in– the very life of God.