WHY CIVIL RIGHTS ANNIVERSARIES SHOULD MATTER TO CHRISTIANS
Our collective history is more important than ever.
One of the high-water marks of this seminal period of activism was the “Freedom Summer of 1964,” which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year During that historic summer, U S President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law That same summer, civil rights organizations mounted a massive campaign to register Black American voters in the state of Mississippi, shining a spotlight on the violent oppression against Black suffrage. We're also celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling against public school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education.
But you don’t have to be a civil rights history nerd to understand why these milestones matter today: In case you haven’t noticed, we’re currently in the midst of a major backlash against racial justice, including many of the rights and freedoms that inspired civil rights leaders
These include book bans, assaults on DEI programs, the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action programs in higher education, and forestalled efforts to transform our justice system and end racialized police violence These courageous actions taken by our predecessors aren’t just a milestone to celebrate with a nice speech and a historical plaque; these actions reverberate through time, offering us inspiration and resilience for the unfinished cause of freedom and justice.
The work of bringing about God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven” is not a straight line.
So rewind to 1954. . . . That summer, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools
was unconstitutional. When the ruling was issued, southern states quickly declared their intention to defy it through organized “massive resistance” that engaged multiple tactics to forestall school integration, in some cases for decades Many white Christians joined these efforts, and some private Christian schools were started as what historians call “segregation academies,” schools intended to remove white children from integrated public schools Today, we know all too well that the fight for equitable education for Black Americans remains what NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson described recently as “an uphill battle.” Two recent examples of this battle include the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to effectively end affirmative action and ongoing efforts to erase Black history in schools. . . . They’re part of a predictable backlash that followed greater awareness and support for racial justice in 2020.
While overt racial segregation remains illegal as a matter of law, the reality of systemic racism means that inequities from wealth to employment to housing to the criminal justice system are woven throughout our society, resulting in de facto segregation in many communities Recent research from Stanford and the University of Southern California shows that racial segregation has increased 64 percent since 1988 in the country’s 100 largest school districts
Sixty years ago, in the summer of 1964, a multiracial team of volunteers from across the country went to Mississippi to directly challenge the apparatus of Jim Crow that was still very much intact, court decisions like Brown notwithstanding Over the course of that summer, volunteers and Black residents registered voters and empowered Black students through “Freedom Schools” that taught Black history and civic and economic empowerment. The resistance from local residents was intense and in many cases violent: Eighty volunteers were beaten, 37 churches were bombed or burned, and at least seven people were murdered. The violence meted out on Freedom Summer volunteers and Black Mississippi residents alike increased political pressure on Congress and President Johnson, galvanizing political pressure behind the later passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965
When I think about all three of these watershed moments Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act, and the Freedom Summer I’m struck by the deep role that faith played Alongside people of conscience and other faith traditions, many of those within the Civil Rights Movement committed themselves to many years of action precisely because of how they understood their Christian faith
clearly wants for all God’s people. . . .
Many of those within the Civil Rights Movement committed themselves to years of action precisely because of how they understood their Christian faith.
How do we then understand the setbacks that we’ve also seen in the intervening decades, from the backsliding to the painfully unfinished work of achieving an equitable and just multiracial society? The answer is both simpler and less satisfying than we might wish: the work of bringing about God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven” is not a straight line, and it won’t be finished until Jesus returns But as Paul memorably instructed the Galatians, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (6:9) These watershed anniversaries are inspirational reminders that never growing weary of doing good and pushing tirelessly for justice can in fact move mountains and change history Now it is our turn to keep pushing
When Jesus preached his first major sermon in Luke 4:1619, he read the passage from Isaiah 61 that proclaims, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” It’s a proclamation that explains the fundamentally liberatory character of God and God’s promises Through this proclamation, we can see our own nation’s struggle to uphold equal rights for all as achieving the liberation that God so
Rev Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community Follow him on X @revadamtaylor This piece is adapted from an article that appeared at bit ly/pulseCivilRightsAnniversaries, June 13, 2024
Worth Reading
Ahhh, the Midwest Rolling prairies, big skies, mini metropolises-es, fresh air; I do love it here, truly.
Living in a “big city” in Nebraska, I describe it as a purple dot in a red state, politically speaking Ah, diversity! But there are some things I could understand better The anger What are we so angry about? Was our beloved Cornhusker football team disrespected? No, they’re just . . . on an improvement movement, that’s it Is it the actual corn? Are the beef cattle in a mood? Or do we just have a beef with the world in general?
Fortunately, I work in a magnificent library and I found a convenient title at the perfect time, because that is the magic of libraries Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman’s White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy helped connect the dots They write, “Unfortunately, rural White Americans are told daily by the people they trust that what they really need is more rage and resentment. They‘re told that their fellow Americans who live in suburbs and cities look at them with disdain and that the answer is to look back with their own brand of belligerent contempt ” And guns, I add No, they won’t give those up.
Schaller and Waldman point out that many of my neighbors are told, in the most authoritative tones, that they NEED to be angry at everything The same authoritative voices,
however, aren’t giving them substantive solutions
For example, authoritative voices are telling my community’s farmers that they need to be SO ANGRY at the Democratic party while simultaneously taking billions from corporate factory farms like ConAgra, which is running family farms out of business and destroying their livelihoods “The glaring disconnect between the economic realities that farmers openly concede and their electoral behavior is perhaps the most puzzling feature of contemporary rural politics ”
We’re left with the reality of having a demographic Angry Rural White that cannot be ignored. We can’t keep namecalling as we roll our eyes and continue to use them as punching bags on late-night TV
I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but my gut tells me the right thing to do lies somewhere between listening, empathy, and a mutual improvement movement
Marcia Nordmeyer lives and works in Lincoln, Nebraska Union Adventist University employs her, and she can be found in the library. Marcia is happily married to Jeremy They are parents to two kids who are encouraged to read banned books
White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman, Penguin Random House, 321 pages, 2024, $32, hardcover
Great presentations: just a click away.
Every summer I replay great memories from all the years I spent at camp meetings listening to inspiring speakers, renewing my spirit while enjoying veggie burgers and corn dogs, and chatting with other mamas. Every once in a while, I catch myself designing my dream camp meeting. It would include such events as worship-dancing-with-thestars, open mic night, senior Olympics, and, of course, inspiring speakers
In my “fantasy camp meeting” I would definitely ask Justin Lee to be a keynote speaker, who, according to Wikipedia, is “an American author, speaker, YouTuber, and LGBT Christian activist known for his focus on building bridges between groups who disagree ” I found out about him through SDAkinship.org
website, after clicking “resources” (By the way this tab is full of great, wellorganized information). When I saw the title of his sermon, “A Balm for Exhausted LGBTQ Christians,” I had to watch it. This is the burning question I have as a “mama bear” for my LGBTQ friends: “What keeps you going?” “Aren’t you exhausted?” Justin Lee elegantly and humorously addressed “soul exhaustion” in a 54-minute talk he gave at The Reformation Project
He addresses shame versus conviction head-on. “This shame that many of us have struggled with in our lives is, I think, a result of having grown up hearing so many negative messages about who we are from the same people who gave us the positive messages about who Jesus is It’s very hard to disentangle those two.”
Many of Lee’s points still marinate in my head He talks about the polarized world we live in, and how “truth is lost among the noise ” He observed, “forgiveness is one of the hardest teachings in Christianity.” He beautifully brings us home to where we belong at the feet of Jesus, who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened” (Matt 11:28) Lee challenges us “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NIV)
Anyone wanting a spa experience for the soul, check out youtube.com/watch?
v=UmYiUjUb0BE or visit GeekyJustin.com.
Eileen Gemmell, married to Dave, is a mother to three children and grandmother to one She is active in SDA Kinship’s Region Two
InterAct
“BORDER SECURITY’S” HIDDEN AGENDA Welcome Home
Immigration and “border security” have received a lot of press in most industrialized countries over the last couple years. What most don’t understand is that heartache and tragedy are often the primary reasons that people are forced to leave their homes in search of better lives elsewhere
No Other Choice
For example, many people displaced by war never leave their home countries, but are forced to seek shelter elsewhere Which of the following countries has the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs)
Over the last 30 years, the number of international migrants has increased in all parts of the world. That increase has been seen most in Europe and Asia. As of 2020, from which countries come the largest number of immigrants?
A. China B. India
C. Mexico D. Russian Federation
India claims the title of with the most people relocating elsewhere Mexico is the second largest country of origin, followed by the Russian Federation bit ly/PulseWelcomeHome2 The answer is B
Yearning to Breathe Free
A. Colombia B. Democratic Republic of Congo C. Syria D. Ukraine
Pro-democracy protests in Syria have led to a 12-year civil war that’s left more than half a million people dead and countless cities and villages largely destroyed More than 680,000 people have been forced to relocate Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine has seen the deadliest war on European soil in more than 70 years Nearly 600,000 people have been forced to move The Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a civil war lasting more than 30 years, has seen nearly 570,000 IDPs. Civil unrest In Colombia, largely because of drug cartels has led to more than 470,000 people displaced bit ly/PluseNoOtherChoice The answer is C
Welcome Home
Which country is the most immigrant friendly?
A. Canada B. Germany C. New Zealand D. United Kingdom
With an immigrant population of 1 5 million, Canada’s universities, low crime rates, and quality of life make it one of the most immigrant friendly countries in the world bit ly/PulseWelcomeHome1 Rounding out the list is Germany (immigrant population 15.8 million), New Zealand (195,200), and the United Kingdom (7 million) The answer is A
The largest migration corridors tend to be from developing countries to those with larger economies. Which country is the top destination for those hoping to improve their quality of life?
A France B Germany C Saudi Arabia D United States
Since 1970, the number of foreign-born people living in the United States has more than quadrupled, from less than 12 million in 1970, to nearly 50 million in 2019. Germany, the second top destination, has seen an increase from 8.9 million in 2000 to 16 million in 2020. bit.ly/PulseWelcomeHome2 The answer is D
While it’s true that people migrating to more affluent countries seek better education and economic living conditions for themselves and their families, many are desperate to find relief from war, religious and ethnic persecution, and threats of domestic violence
While it’s popular among some to see immigration as an existential threat, God reminded the Israelites: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Lev 19:34, NIV)
Stephen Chavez
InSpire
JUSTICE FOR ALL
If you’re going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can’t pick and choose who’s going to be the sparrow It’s everybody
Madeleine L’Engle
IMMORAL PRESERVATION
I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends
But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.
Martin Luther King Jr
THROUGH IT ALL . . .
I like living I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing Agatha Christie
Stendhal FABRIC
One can achieve everything in solitude except character
CONNECTION
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
Audre Lorde
Friedrich Nietzsche FIGHTING FIRE
Be careful when you fight a dragon lest you become a dragon.
NO SUBSTITUTIONS
Charity is no substitute for justice withheld Augustine
The first resistance to social change is to say it’s not necessary.
Gloria Steinem DISMISSAL BELL
Compiled by Chris Blake
WHO WE ARE
Pulse is the monthly digital magazine of JustLove Collective
This month's issue is sponsored by SDA Kinship International, edited by Stephen Chavez and designed by Jeffers Media
Unless indicated otherwise, all Bible texts are from the New Revised Standard Version.
CHRIS BLAKE
Former editor of Insight, professor emeritus, author of many books and hundreds of articles.
ANDREW PAUL HANSON
Now retired, Hanson was a professor of education at Chico State University for 30 years He and his wife, Claudia, have three children and three grandchildren
STEPHEN CHAVEZ
Retired after a career as a parish pastor, then as a staff member of Adventist Review He is director of Church Relations for Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International
EILEEN GEMMELL
Married to Dave, is a mother to three children and grandmother to one She is active in Kinship’s Region Two
ADAM RUSSELL TAYLOR
President of Sojourners, a social justice organization, and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community.
MARCIA NORDMEYER
Lives and works in Lincoln, Nebraska. And can be found in the library of Union Adventist University. She is happily married to Jeremy. They are parents to two kids who are encouraged to read banned books.
KATHERINE PATER
A Presbyterian pastor and writer who lives in Westchester County, New York.
It’s not only for those who are marginalized.
In Acts 8, we read about Philip baptizing an Ethiopian eunuch. Dictionaries define a eunuch as a man who has been castrated, especially (in the past) one employed to guard women’s living areas. . . .
I won’t impose my 21st-century language or conceptions on this person, and say that he was trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming, or queer, but it’s clear that he did not conform to the social understanding of gender binaries or sex in the ancient Greco-Roman or Jewish world. . . .
This story is an invitation to see everyone with God’s radical openness and love.
He was also from one of the farthest-off places early Christian disciples had heard of. The Ethiopian in this text is likely not from the Ethiopia we know today, and was instead likely
from a place called Kush that today is part of South Sudan. . . .
And as if all that wasn’t enough, he was also religiously different It unclear why someone from ancient Sudan would travel so far and cross the imposing Saharan desert to worship in Jerusalem. . . .
Those Deemed ‘Other’
So, one of the first stories of a singular person being baptized by an early disciple is this person who is marked by as many kinds of human differences as the ancient Christian community could classify, someone whose gender, sex, ethnicity, place of origin, and spiritual identity was undeniably “other ”
But it’s important to remember that we the queer, the binary-breakers have always been here. God’s radical grace went out of its way through Philip to welcome us from the beginning, without conditions
The text says that an angel of the Lord called Philip to “a desert place” where Philip meets the eunuch. The eunuch is reading the words
of the prophet Isaiah and invites Philip to explain the text. After hearing “the good news about Jesus,” the eunuch asks to be baptized and Philip agrees
Notice that Philip did not conclude that this person was worthy of baptism and inclusion because Philip examined all the texts that have to do with gender non-conforming people, or eunuchs, or LGBTQ+ people. Philip just met the eunuch as he was, full of genuine curiosity about Jesus and scripture
In fact, the earliest versions of this text do not even include the exchange in verse 37, the confession of faith in which Philip tells the eunuch, “If you believe with all your heart, you may” be baptized In the earliest versions of this story, when the man asked to be baptized, Philip just did it
Good News Gets Better
I could just stop here I could just say, “This is why queerness, why sexual and gender diversity has always been part of the church ” That this text calls us to fight gender and sexual discrimination in the church and society–spaces that have violently tried to legislate away these kinds of differences.
I could remind us that more than 510 antitrans bills were introduced in the U.S. last year and that this conversation is still very relevant Lives may depend on how we read this text, because hateful legislation is proven to have real-life consequences
The good news requires all of us to change.
But while the story of Philip and the eunuch is where Acts 8 ends, the next chapter begins with “meanwhile.” Which means that our story isn’t quite over
While Philip is baptizing a eunuch, someone else was experiencing his own conversion along a different road. Unlike the eunuch, in
Jewish and Greco-Roman life Paul was something of an insider. And this insider also has a holy moment one that changes him forever
The Expansive Openness of the Early Church
That is the real scandal of the gospel. It isn’t just good news for oppressed people in need of liberation or those who are poor in need of solidarity. It’s not just for Ethiopian eunuchs, and outsiders It’s also good news for insiders, sinners, and religious people who’ve gotten it wrong which is actually all of us sometimes The good news is that Jesus comes for those people, too
The point of the gospel isn’t that outsiders win and insiders lose. It’s not that the oppressed win and oppressors lose It’s not that lovers win and haters lose it’s a dissolution of those categories Everyone in No one out No exceptions
For those of us who struggle with questions of human difference in the church race, gender, sexual identity, or nationality this story is an invitation to see everyone with the radical openness and love that God views people.
For those of us who still live under threat, whose identities mean that we are still being persecuted or excluded, still seen as less than human by real people who have real power over us, the message is that God will indeed hold these people and powers accountable. God wants to do so not by defeating them or excluding them, but by converting them. . . .
The good news requires all of us to change To die to ourselves. To step into that water and rise again, if we have not done so That’s what we’re all invited to No exceptions
Katherine Pater is a Presbyterian pastor and writer who lives in Westchester County, New York This piece is adapted from
INSPIRATION
COLLECTIVE
A House on Fire: This Adventist Peace Fellowship podcast series is based on the excellent book on race and racism
Adventist Voices: Weekly podcast and companion to Spectrum designed to foster community through conversation
Red Letter Christian Podcast: Christian commentary on the way of Jesus in the world today
Adventist Pilgrimage: A lively monthly podcast focusing on the academic side of Adventist history
Renewed Heart Ministries talks about the intersection of Jesus, faith, and social justice today
Just Liberty: A fresh, balanced take on religious liberty where justice and liberty meet
What have you watched, read, listened to or otherwise engaged with that changed your mind, gave new insights, told a good story or again inspired you for the work of justice? Write a review of 300 to 399 words and send it to Pulse to share with our JLC community. Send your submissions to
When you asked as you were dying, Father forgive them, they know not what they do,
While you were taunted by passers-by and chief priests and scribes and elders and even a bandit crucified with you, someone in the crowd was listening and was forgiven.
When you cried out as you were dying,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
While they ridiculed you and called you a madman, “For did he not say, ‘I am God’s son?’” someone in the crowd knew the difference between a desperate cry for help and a declaration of abandonment
When you said as you were dying, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,
While the cynical commented “He put his trust in God; now let God rescue him if he wants him,” someone in the crowd understood that Jesus’ trust was not misplaced.
When you spoke as you were dying, hanging there under that cruel sign, JESUS KING OF THE JEWS, I am thirsty,
Someone in the crowd put a sponge soaked in sour wine on a hyssop stick and held it up to your mouth.
When you knew as you were dying that you had finished the course, that you had kept the faith, it wasn’t only the centurion who struggled to understand what it meant when you whispered,
It is fulfilled, It is finished,
Someone in every second of every minute of every hour of every year of every century since that day has loved God because you loved us Someone has always understood the ironic, terrible, glorious, eternal truth spoken by those who mocked you, himself he could not save.
Andrew Paul Hanson, now retired, was a professor of education at Chico State University for 30 years. He and his wife, Claudia, have three children and three grandchildren
If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B. why may not B snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A ? You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own. But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest, you have the right to enslave another Very well And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.
Abraham Lincoln
Gratitude
As we launch, we are particularly grateful for every contribution to JustLove Collective. Donations are tax-deductible. Though we are a global movement of volunteers, we do need to pay for expenses related to this magazine and to the Summit For more information, please see our website at justlovecollective org
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