4 BOCNEWS.com SEPTEMBER 2018 Savior Jesus or Social Justice In recent weeks, there has been a lot of chatter about the clergy who met with President Trump. Other clergy and many black folks have derided these individuals for sitting down with the president to discuss reforms related to incarceration. As I’ve listened intently to those who were not in the meeting, some have taken the position that this was nothing more than a photo op, while others had the temerity to say that nothing was accomplished. I’ve spoken to a couple of the clergy who were there. They stated that the meeting was a good start- ing point. They said that there were no expectations of legislation coming from this initial discussion. My concern is that some clergy have attempted to use God’s Word to decry the opportunity these indi- viduals had to sit with the person who has, not only the authority, but the interest, to change things for the better. I get that many disagree with the president, some because they don’t like him and others because that’s what they’ve been told to do, and still others because they lack understanding of the constitu- tional process that America is founded upon. Those same folks are preach- ing about Social Justice instead of Savior Jesus! The worst thing to happen in the black community in the 60’s was allowing civil rights meet- ings in the church. By doing so, the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT and MESSAGE replaced the MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL in most black churches. ‘Preachers’ begin to discourse about social justice and poli- tics while they abandoned the words of the prophets! Oh it was a good attempt to deceive the people, making them think that their rhetoric was some- how aligned with the gospel! And unfortunately, it worked! This movement, birthed Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. They are preachers of social justice, not the Gospel of Jesus the Christ. I believe this is why God allowed the work and ministry of Martin Luther King Jr. to cease. His death preserved the Gospel message of Jesus the Christ in the black community. Social Justice preaching is the fuel of the contin- ued Civil War in the black com- munity. Many black congrega- tions believe SOCIAL JUSTICE is the answer to their problems, forgetting that SAVIOR JESUS is the ONLY answer! Social Justice is blacks attempting to save themselves by their own hands. Acknowledging Savior Jesus is recognizing that only the supernatural hand of God can save humans from deprav- ity. If those who constantly com- plain about this administration would follow the commands of God and ‘pray for those who are in authority’ I Tim. 2:1-2, and not focus on what they believe or are told to believe, then we will experience change and healing, as God has promised. II Chron. 7:14. When those who have been positioned by God, [if they were positioned by God], begin to follow the commands of God, then change will come! What’s Being Built on the Rock? The New Testament Gospel of Matthew records a conversa- tion between Jesus and Simon Peter wherein Jesus asks his lead disciple “who do you think I am?” Peter replies to the Savior, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” After pro- nouncing Peter blessed for receipt of divine revelation which enabled him to correctly identify the Son of God, Jesus lifted words that comprise the bedrock of Christian ecclesiology. Jesus said, “you are Peter, and Peter on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Simply put, Jesus declared Peter to be a piece of the one rock which is Christ, upon which he would build the people who accept His call to salvation; His church. On the firm foundation of His life, death and resurrection Jesus built His church that evolved to what we know today by the exercise of Peter’s faith in Jesus, the rock. My point and more accurately, my concerns are related to the number of things we who are Peter’s successors have been building on the rock lately. As best we know, none of us have perfected the calling Peter accepted from the Master, least of all yours truly. Nonetheless, I was particularly distressed by the outcome of a recent conversation between fellow clergy and the President regarding prison reform. According to White House transcripts from the meeting, there was no men- tion of reforming what we know as the Prison Industrial Complex, mass incarceration or inequitable sentenc- ing. More than that, the very idea of a conversation about prison reform in the White House is an oxymoron since the Department of Justice is promot- ing policies that will further exacerbate U.S. incarceration rates. In recent months the Department of Justice stopped commutations of sentences for low level drug offenders who’d already served significant time, resumed operation of prisons owned by private corporations and called the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act a grave error. (i) Why would the prophetic, enter- tain such a dichotomous dialogue? Why would we who are stones of the solid rock that is Christ fail to speak about the injustice complicating prison reform at the table of one who pos- sesses executive power to resolve it? The scenario begs the question, what are we building on the rock? I thought it ironic that the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was invoked when in fact Dr. King’s engagement with the Executive Office was always preceded by a requirement for mutually ame- nable outcomes. Dr. King’s circle of attorneys, non-profit leaders, socially conscious clergy and grassroots orga- nizers were part of the cadre of voices that advised his conversations with Eisenhower, Kennedy and LBJ. Dr. King’s circle of support helped ensure that outcomes from his Executive Office conversations were positively impacting the people who were being built on the rock. Either the clergy in this recent meeting didn’t consult such a circle or didn’t see any contradic- tion with a President presenting pris- on reform and a Justice Department attacking the same. The aforementioned issue explains the laughter in the room after a remark by the President about an employer who hired former inmates, “I don’t say he loved all 10, but he liked 7 of them a lot”.(ii) Beyond their laugh- ter my fellow clergy persons shared several laudatory statements about a President who watching an African American ejected from a 2016 cam- paign rally for booing said, “in the good old days they’d rip him out of that seat so fast”. Before the thirty-one-minute meeting ended one pastor described the 45th President “the most pro-black President… in our lifetime.”(iii) With all this I couldn’t help but remember Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail which was addressed to his fellow clergy in Birmingham during the Civil Rights movement. In his letter Dr. King wrote of those more devoted to “order than to justice”; who “prefer a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the pres- ence of justice”.iv Despite impressions from those on the outside looking in, the pastorate is a multifaceted, complex calling at best. For that reason, I have no desire to criticize my sister and brother clergy who may have had little time to prepare for such a critical conversation. It’s highly likely those in attendance saw no connection between the levity of the dialogue and this administration being more devoted to order than to justice. As Jesus expressed, none of us have room to throw stones, I’m simply hope- ful that the next time a clergy conversa- tion with the President is called those who attend ask themselves, what’s being built on the rock? CITATIONS i Editorial Board, “The Undoing of Justice Reform.” New York Times, February 17, 2018: Page SR8. ii White House Law & Justice “Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Inner City Pastors.” whitehouse.gov https://www. whitehouse.gov/briefings-state- ments/remarks-president-trump- meeting-inner-city-pastors iii ibid iv King, Jr., M.L., “Letter to Fellow Clergymen”, April 16, 1963. By Rev. Dr. Eugene Downing Rev. Dr. Eugene Downing Nathan L. O'Neal By Nathan L. O'Neal, PHD, CAC, CFI POLITICS The worst thing to happen in the black community in the 60’s was allowing civil rights meetings in the church. There was no mention of reforming what we know as the Prison Industrial Complex, mass incarceration or inequitable sentencing.