Posted on 04/10/2015 8:41:49 PM PDT by ferg flute
As the majority-black congregation members filed into Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church on Easter Sunday, they passed a line of young people – also majority black – standing on the sidewalk, silently holding banners that said, “Jesus was killed by the state … and so are we.”
The #BlackChurch action was intended to “spur our people into taking direct action in the communities they pray for,” said leaders of the Millennium Activists United (MAU), a Ferguson activist group that is led by black women in their 20s. Friendly Temple in North St. Louis was among three black churches that the group visited that day, that also included New Cote Brilliante Church of God near the Delmar Loop and Faith Miracle Temple Church in Florissant.
“Black churches across America, as a whole, have been largely silent in supporting the ongoing struggles against racism and systematic oppression,” MAU said in a statement. “The time to use your collective voices in service for those without a voice is at hand.”
In response, Friendly Temple staff formed a line in front of the activists, as people walked into the church. Friendly Temple Deacon James Joiner told The St. Louis American that demonstrators were blocking the entrance because the sidewalk leads to the front doors. When he tried to talk to someone in the group to understand their purpose, he said they remained silent. The demonstrators began to hum, “Wade in the Water,” and simply told him to read the signs.
Among the signs they held were, “Jesus questioned the status quo,” “Jesus was a revolutionary,” “You don’t have to choose between faith and activism” and “crucifixion=lynching.”
Joiner said the action surprised church leaders because no one from MAU had ever asked to meet with them. By coming out on Easter Sunday – when not only their 10,000 members attended church, but also some 2,000 guests – Joiner believed that they were trying to embarrass the church.
“Everything they had on the signs is what we have been doing,” he said. “We just haven’t been doing it with them. They slapped us in the face and took off. That doesn’t lead to wanting to sit down and talk to someone.”
Brittany Ferrell, a MAU leader, told The American the silent action was not meant to be adversarial but a call for help. They intentionally remained silent to avoid any conversations that could be construed as negative, she said. While many individuals within the congregations are doing amazing work to aid the Ferguson movement, she said, the institutions themselves have not stepped forward.
“This is our cry to the black church and all its power,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “We need you.”
Rev. Traci Blackmon, pastor at Christ the King United Church of Christ, wrote on Facebook that she interpreted the action to be less of a “stand against” and more of a “cry for.”
“Less as a ‘crucify him’ moment and more as a ‘Hosanna’ (meaning save, or HELP us) moment, using the ONLY language and method that has been effective so far,” she wrote, stating that she was not at the action and did not know about it in advance.
At the other two churches, Ferrell said the church leaders read their messages, agreed and even thanked them for coming. She felt that Friendly Temple leaders did not read their signs but turned their backs. However, Joiner felt the group has never tried to understand the things that the church has been doing as part of the movement.
“It’s too late at this point to try and garner a relationship, because they have already done their damage,” he said.
During the many hours that went into planning the action, MAU leaders talked about this being a possible response.
“We were scared to do this,” Ferrell said. “The black church is everything to black people. I don’t regret it. It has people asking a lot of questions and questioning themselves: Have they been doing enough?”
Blackmon wrote that Friendly Temple has a long-standing history of neighborhood revitalization.
“They were putting action to ‘Black Lives Matter’ long before August 9,” she wrote. “They, like many, have areas of liberation that must be challenged, but I believe this was more an instance of failure to communicate well with one another than anything.”
To drive home her point, Blackmon used the biblical story of the blind man who was standing by the road when Jesus came by.
“The disciples tried to shut him up too,” Blackmon wrote. “But the Bible says, he cried out all the more! It was that crying out that got the blind man what he needed. This was perhaps more ‘Easter’ than anything we might have imagined.”
The protesters (manipulated and deceived useful idiots) are alienating more and more people. The comments to this article show an awareness of how the current protest regime does not reflect the viewpoints of the majority of black people. Whatever sympathy people once held for the Mike Brown movement is fading fast and these misguided and deceived tools of those fomenting insurrection are becoming a stink in the nostrils of God Himself.
Please pray for Ferguson, that the good people here of all races will recover from the targeted attacks of the opportunistic community organizers and their facilitators in the Federal government.
Unfortunately 90% or so will vote to have a more powerful state, every election
Fortunately, the answer to this problem is moral, not political. The Black churches (NOT Jesse's, Jeremiah's or Al's) can address the sins within the Black community and possibly end the violence. After all -Black lives matter. So maybe the churches can convince the parishoners not to aid and abet their thug friends and relatives.
Good for them. They're THINKING and peacefully exercising their 1st amendment RESPONSIBILITY. Maybe there's hope for Generation XBox yet.
"The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true." --Albert Einstein
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