There are reasons we do what we do here.
I have heard it, from time to time, that people don’t like it that I talk about politics or about race in America. I know that many people think that religion ought never to talk about anything but Jesus.
But the Jesus I have studied was a participant in and a critic of the political system in which he lived. Jesus got in trouble, and ultimately lost his life, because he dared challenge the injustice the political system propagated.
Liberation theology has its basis in interpreting the Bible as a book which supported justice, but many people reject that interpretation. Were we to put James Cone and Glenn Beck in the same room to talk about liberation theology and its validity, fireworks would fly.
There are so many ways to interpret important documents, and that is a problem. Those who are oppressed interpret both the Bible and the United States Constitution, for example, far differently from those of the privileged class. Heterosexuals interpret the Bible differently than do homosexuals; men interpret the Bible differently than do women, and the Constitution, it seems, is consistently interpreted in a way which supports people in power.
At the end of the day, though, we all have to go inside ourselves and ask God to reveal God’s self to us. Is God on the side of the downtrodden and oppressed, or is that just someone’s opinion? Did God ordain the American brand of slavery, and did God intend for black people to be mistreated by nearly everyone who is not black? Is God good all the time, to and for all people, or is God snob, liking some people better than others because of their skin color or social class?
When another way of looking at scriptures is presented, many people get offended and say that said interpretation is “revisionist,” yet, surely God knew that His people would interpret the words in that sacred text to fit themselves. We humans are always trying to say God is on our side, instead of living our lives so that God can clearly see that we are on His side.
As long as there is injustice in this world based on class and color and sexual orientation and ethnicity and any other reason, I will continue to preach that it is not right, not of God or from God. At the end of the day, you see, I believe in a loving, yet stern God who makes us accountable for how we treat each other. I have ingested the words that Jesus said, “How can you say you love God, whom you have not seen, when you do not love your brother, whom you do see?”
I believe that God, the Father, and Jesus, his son, are against oppression in any shape, way or form. I believe that God the Father, and Jesus, his son, want us to practice loving those whom we don’t necessarily like, and practicing forgiveness, no matter how difficult. There may be many ways of interpreting the Bible, but in the end, there seems to me a theme that runs throughout the Bible, and that is, “all have fallen short of the glory of God.” This God, it seems, loves “all” whom he has created, and we are to do the same.
I may be wrong. We may all be. There really might be just ONE way to interpret the Bible, and we’ve all missed it. God may be shaking his head at everything that everyone is saying, has said, and is teaching, but I have no way of knowing that. I know that I incline my ear toward God and I give what I believe God tells me – as does everyone else who teaches and preaches.
So, in this house, you’ll keep getting these lessons of and from the Bible from a perspective which may be different from the perspective you’ve had before. I hope that in spite of the difference there is room for you to grow and to get closer to God than you ever have before.
Have a good week!
Pastor Smith
Monday, February 7, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Kasich a Reminder
There is a cost to those who can least afford it when we do not exercise our right to vote.
We didn’t always have the right. People died getting us the right, and when we, I mean, African Americans, do not exercise that right – for whatever reason- it bugs me.
But bigger than how it affects me, it affects our quality of life. When we do not vote, we leave the way open for people who do not particularly care about “the least of these” to get into office and make policies which do not work in our favor.
John Kasich, our new governor, showed his colors this week when he said “I don’t need you people” when challenged by Ohio State Congresswoman Nina Turner about his cabinet. As of this writing, the governor has not appointed a single person of color. When Sen. Turner challenged him on it, citing the value of diversity, Mr. Kasich said, “I don’t need you people.”
Excuse me?
Mr. Kasich later said what he meant was that he didn’t need Democrats. OK, so we’ll be stupid today. Sen. Turner wasn’t talking about having Democrats in his cabinet. She was talking about him not having any person of color in his cabinet. Mr. Kasich reverted to the oft-repeated excuse that he could not find any qualified people of color. He then said the whole discussion was about quotas, and, he said, quotas are “so yesterday.”
Excuse me again. Quotas? No, we’re not talking about quotas. We’re talking about being representative of the people of Ohio. Like it or not, Mr. Kasich is duty-bound to represent us all, red and yellow, black and white, Christian, Jewish and Catholic. That mandate, that responsibility, seems lost to Mr. Kasich, who didn’t even want the media to cover his inauguration.
Excuse me?
But …we brought this on ourselves. Just a few more of us going to the polls might have made a big difference. Mr. Kasich did not win by a big margin. He just won. And now, he is in the seat of power and I shudder to think what his policies will mean for “the least of these.”
The move has been on since President Obama got elected to make sure he is a one term president. Trust and believe that the machinations to make him lose in Ohio are in motion. What will we do? Will we wring our hands, or get to work?
The Bible says that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, and who are called according to his purposes. We are called, by the blood and suffering of our ancestors, to vote, not less, but more, always more. We are called to get people hyped up and moving for a big victory.
Otherwise, what Mr. Kasich is showing us will be nothing. I am not sure of the shenanigans that will be put in place to make it more difficult for people to vote in the 2012 election, but I know to expect it. I read that some lawmakers are trying to make it mandatory for every voter to have a picture ID so they can control and reduce voter fraud.
I think that if the powers that want to be want to play hardball, then we ought to enter the game. We ought to be proactive and not reactive. I truly believe that we might have a different song to sing as far as Ohio had more of us turned out to vote, but that is water under the bridge.
We need to gird up and work as our ancestors did, to work with the passion of Fannie Lou Hamer who risked her life to get herself and others the right to vote. It was she who said, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Me too, Mrs. Hamer. Me,too.
Pastor Smith
We didn’t always have the right. People died getting us the right, and when we, I mean, African Americans, do not exercise that right – for whatever reason- it bugs me.
But bigger than how it affects me, it affects our quality of life. When we do not vote, we leave the way open for people who do not particularly care about “the least of these” to get into office and make policies which do not work in our favor.
John Kasich, our new governor, showed his colors this week when he said “I don’t need you people” when challenged by Ohio State Congresswoman Nina Turner about his cabinet. As of this writing, the governor has not appointed a single person of color. When Sen. Turner challenged him on it, citing the value of diversity, Mr. Kasich said, “I don’t need you people.”
Excuse me?
Mr. Kasich later said what he meant was that he didn’t need Democrats. OK, so we’ll be stupid today. Sen. Turner wasn’t talking about having Democrats in his cabinet. She was talking about him not having any person of color in his cabinet. Mr. Kasich reverted to the oft-repeated excuse that he could not find any qualified people of color. He then said the whole discussion was about quotas, and, he said, quotas are “so yesterday.”
Excuse me again. Quotas? No, we’re not talking about quotas. We’re talking about being representative of the people of Ohio. Like it or not, Mr. Kasich is duty-bound to represent us all, red and yellow, black and white, Christian, Jewish and Catholic. That mandate, that responsibility, seems lost to Mr. Kasich, who didn’t even want the media to cover his inauguration.
Excuse me?
But …we brought this on ourselves. Just a few more of us going to the polls might have made a big difference. Mr. Kasich did not win by a big margin. He just won. And now, he is in the seat of power and I shudder to think what his policies will mean for “the least of these.”
The move has been on since President Obama got elected to make sure he is a one term president. Trust and believe that the machinations to make him lose in Ohio are in motion. What will we do? Will we wring our hands, or get to work?
The Bible says that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, and who are called according to his purposes. We are called, by the blood and suffering of our ancestors, to vote, not less, but more, always more. We are called to get people hyped up and moving for a big victory.
Otherwise, what Mr. Kasich is showing us will be nothing. I am not sure of the shenanigans that will be put in place to make it more difficult for people to vote in the 2012 election, but I know to expect it. I read that some lawmakers are trying to make it mandatory for every voter to have a picture ID so they can control and reduce voter fraud.
I think that if the powers that want to be want to play hardball, then we ought to enter the game. We ought to be proactive and not reactive. I truly believe that we might have a different song to sing as far as Ohio had more of us turned out to vote, but that is water under the bridge.
We need to gird up and work as our ancestors did, to work with the passion of Fannie Lou Hamer who risked her life to get herself and others the right to vote. It was she who said, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Me too, Mrs. Hamer. Me,too.
Pastor Smith
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Success, not Justice
In an interview with Tavis Smiley, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter made a remark that hit me like a ton of bricks.
Carter, who was tried and convicted twice for a triple murder, was imprisoned for 19 years. He and his apparent accomplice were both sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. Carter to this day thinks it is miraculous that they were not given the death penalty, but he attributes the sentence they did receive to perhaps serious doubt on the part of the presiding judge as to their guilt.
What struck me during Carter’s interview with Smiley, however, was not his story; I had heard it and read about it before, and Denzel Washington starred in a movie about Carter’s life. What struck me was Carter’s summation of the justice system.
“The justice system is not about justice,” he said. “The justice system is about success.”
He went on to explain that police departments, prosecutors and judges have much at stake in criminal cases. The more the system convicts of wrongdoing, the more it looks like police, prosecutors and judges are doing their jobs. “A good prosecutor, with lots of convictions under his belt, can and does look to becoming a judge, and ‘good, successful’ judges might get to the governor’s mansion.
Meanwhile, many innocents sit in prisons, on death row or in the general prison populace.
“Nobody listens to you when you are innocent,” he said. “There are a lot of people in prison who are innocent and who are trying to get someone to listen, but that doesn’t happen very often,” Carter said.
His statements moved me, because for the longest time, I have marveled at how, when newly discovered evidence becomes available that will prove that someone was wrongly convicted, prosecutors seem unwilling to even consider that evidence. I watch a lot of “Dateline ID” and I have been disturbed for some time at what appears to be closed minds on the parts of prosecutors.
In fact, I have been long disturbed about the lack of justice for the poor and disenfranchised. I am still reeling at the case of the Scott Sisters, recently released, for a robbery which they not only steadfastly maintained they had no part in, and a robbery which involved no violence and netted only $11.
The Scott Sisters were convicted of two consecutive life terms, and even though Gov. Haley Barbour arranged for their release “for medical reasons,” even he, these many years later, refuses to say he believes the justice system was wrong in their case.
It seems that we the church ought to do all we can to provide programs and services for our young people so that they never get wrapped up in our unjust justice system. If it is a fact, as Carter says, that the justice system “is not concerned about justice; it’s concerned with success,” then we ought to do all we can to keep our children and youth away from that system. It is not meant to provide rehabilitation; it is set up to support the “success” of police and prosecutors. We in this nation spend so much more to imprison people than we do to educate them. The prisons, therefore, have a steady supply of people to entrap and keep their profits coming. Profit, after all, is the supreme indication of “success” in this world.
There is not a one of us who can close our eyes and pretend that there is nothing wrong with the justice system, or who can say that prisons only have “the bad people” in them.
That would be a nugatory, as my daughter would say.
Ask Rubin Carter.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
Carter, who was tried and convicted twice for a triple murder, was imprisoned for 19 years. He and his apparent accomplice were both sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. Carter to this day thinks it is miraculous that they were not given the death penalty, but he attributes the sentence they did receive to perhaps serious doubt on the part of the presiding judge as to their guilt.
What struck me during Carter’s interview with Smiley, however, was not his story; I had heard it and read about it before, and Denzel Washington starred in a movie about Carter’s life. What struck me was Carter’s summation of the justice system.
“The justice system is not about justice,” he said. “The justice system is about success.”
He went on to explain that police departments, prosecutors and judges have much at stake in criminal cases. The more the system convicts of wrongdoing, the more it looks like police, prosecutors and judges are doing their jobs. “A good prosecutor, with lots of convictions under his belt, can and does look to becoming a judge, and ‘good, successful’ judges might get to the governor’s mansion.
Meanwhile, many innocents sit in prisons, on death row or in the general prison populace.
“Nobody listens to you when you are innocent,” he said. “There are a lot of people in prison who are innocent and who are trying to get someone to listen, but that doesn’t happen very often,” Carter said.
His statements moved me, because for the longest time, I have marveled at how, when newly discovered evidence becomes available that will prove that someone was wrongly convicted, prosecutors seem unwilling to even consider that evidence. I watch a lot of “Dateline ID” and I have been disturbed for some time at what appears to be closed minds on the parts of prosecutors.
In fact, I have been long disturbed about the lack of justice for the poor and disenfranchised. I am still reeling at the case of the Scott Sisters, recently released, for a robbery which they not only steadfastly maintained they had no part in, and a robbery which involved no violence and netted only $11.
The Scott Sisters were convicted of two consecutive life terms, and even though Gov. Haley Barbour arranged for their release “for medical reasons,” even he, these many years later, refuses to say he believes the justice system was wrong in their case.
It seems that we the church ought to do all we can to provide programs and services for our young people so that they never get wrapped up in our unjust justice system. If it is a fact, as Carter says, that the justice system “is not concerned about justice; it’s concerned with success,” then we ought to do all we can to keep our children and youth away from that system. It is not meant to provide rehabilitation; it is set up to support the “success” of police and prosecutors. We in this nation spend so much more to imprison people than we do to educate them. The prisons, therefore, have a steady supply of people to entrap and keep their profits coming. Profit, after all, is the supreme indication of “success” in this world.
There is not a one of us who can close our eyes and pretend that there is nothing wrong with the justice system, or who can say that prisons only have “the bad people” in them.
That would be a nugatory, as my daughter would say.
Ask Rubin Carter.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Thank You for Serving
I am really worried.
The new governor of Ohio is none other than John Kasich, a Republican, who is also a fiscal conservative.
There is nothing wrong with being a fiscal conservative, except that it is pretty common for fiscal conservatives to favor cuts in spending which disproportionately adversely affect “the least of these.”
Cuts usually come in education, health care and social services, and other areas which help poor people stay afloat. I heard this week that a Republican is sponsoring a bill to repeal the estate tax, proceeds of which generally go to local governments to help fund needed services.
Fiscal conservatives also generally oppose tax hikes.
I am afraid and worried for “the least of these” because if some sources of financial support for “the least of these” are cut, and there are no tax increases, how will the masses of people who are suffering and who have been suffering more in the current recession ever survive?
The need for good, solid, expansive and sensitive outreach amongst churches becomes even more critical, which is why I appreciate Advent UCC so much. Despite having sparse resources, Advent has always stepped up to help, to minister to, “the least of these.”
We may have to step up even more.
We are already upping our work to feed the hungry. You are bringing food to the church which we will use to feed the needy in our own congregation and in the community. We will increase our intake of clothing so that we can make sure children in our community have needed clothing.
We are working to get a Freedom School here in the summer, and an overall literacy program to aid our youth and the youth in our community so that if cuts in education funding occur, we can still do our best to be “repairers of broken walls,” as the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 58.
Hopefully we can institute a program where we give art and music education to the youth as well, as those programs are among sure cuts in the schools.
There is so much we can do, we, the “little church that can, that always has, and will always do.” There is a place for every single one of us here to step up to reach “the least of these.” Money will come because money follows mission. If we concentrate on the mission, God will insure that we get the money to accomplish the mission.
There may be even more that we will see that we will have to do, but God will reveal it to us. We have Governor Kasich in office and some Republicans in office who may not care about “the least of these” the way we who love God are called to care. They, however, are not greater than our God.
We have all been through some rough times and times may get worse before they get better. The course of what will be for any of us is not something I know…But this I do know: that we have been given much, in spite of our struggles, and to whom much is given, much is required.
I am proud to be the pastor of a church which has so many willing servants, servants who love God enough to serve, to “do” the word in spite of their own circumstances, their own needs …and their own state government which may not, in the long run, be as concerned for “the least of these” as God calls us all to be.
Thank you ...for YOU.
Pastor Smith
The new governor of Ohio is none other than John Kasich, a Republican, who is also a fiscal conservative.
There is nothing wrong with being a fiscal conservative, except that it is pretty common for fiscal conservatives to favor cuts in spending which disproportionately adversely affect “the least of these.”
Cuts usually come in education, health care and social services, and other areas which help poor people stay afloat. I heard this week that a Republican is sponsoring a bill to repeal the estate tax, proceeds of which generally go to local governments to help fund needed services.
Fiscal conservatives also generally oppose tax hikes.
I am afraid and worried for “the least of these” because if some sources of financial support for “the least of these” are cut, and there are no tax increases, how will the masses of people who are suffering and who have been suffering more in the current recession ever survive?
The need for good, solid, expansive and sensitive outreach amongst churches becomes even more critical, which is why I appreciate Advent UCC so much. Despite having sparse resources, Advent has always stepped up to help, to minister to, “the least of these.”
We may have to step up even more.
We are already upping our work to feed the hungry. You are bringing food to the church which we will use to feed the needy in our own congregation and in the community. We will increase our intake of clothing so that we can make sure children in our community have needed clothing.
We are working to get a Freedom School here in the summer, and an overall literacy program to aid our youth and the youth in our community so that if cuts in education funding occur, we can still do our best to be “repairers of broken walls,” as the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 58.
Hopefully we can institute a program where we give art and music education to the youth as well, as those programs are among sure cuts in the schools.
There is so much we can do, we, the “little church that can, that always has, and will always do.” There is a place for every single one of us here to step up to reach “the least of these.” Money will come because money follows mission. If we concentrate on the mission, God will insure that we get the money to accomplish the mission.
There may be even more that we will see that we will have to do, but God will reveal it to us. We have Governor Kasich in office and some Republicans in office who may not care about “the least of these” the way we who love God are called to care. They, however, are not greater than our God.
We have all been through some rough times and times may get worse before they get better. The course of what will be for any of us is not something I know…But this I do know: that we have been given much, in spite of our struggles, and to whom much is given, much is required.
I am proud to be the pastor of a church which has so many willing servants, servants who love God enough to serve, to “do” the word in spite of their own circumstances, their own needs …and their own state government which may not, in the long run, be as concerned for “the least of these” as God calls us all to be.
Thank you ...for YOU.
Pastor Smith
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
No Roomfor Bigotry
There just is no room for bigotry in God’s world.
I have long felt that the underlying ethos of the Tea Party is racism. The Tea Party, at least, has been honest, to a point, about their anger and anxiety about a black man being president of these United States. Others have been much more disingenuous.
But the saddest thing of all is that this American bigotry, so special and so unique, is even worse because nobody in America wants to own it, admit it. People want to act like everything is all right and that racism is a thing of the past.
It is not, and it is in fact even worse because America has insisted on denying its existence.
The horrendous shootings in Tucson cannot be blamed on any person, but we cannot deny that toxic political vitriol played a part in the anger which we saw in the most recent congressional campaign, and I believe that the rhetoric spewed by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others fed into a culture of resentment based on race and bigotry.
People in America, black and white, have never gotten over slavery and over the years of racial indignity which has been the characteristic identifying mark of these United States. The teaching of white supremacy is deep in the souls of still too many people, and the feeling of inferiority is still too much a part of the psyches of too many African Americans.
That feeling of white supremacy, coupled with white privilege, has fed into this culture of resentment I mentioned, and that resentment has morphed into outright anger on the parts of too many people. The imagery of guns voiced by Sarah Palin was no accident; she fed into the culture of resentment and anger, and though it was couched in rhetoric about cutting spending, those who know racism and how it feels knew otherwise.
The shootings in Arizona may have produced the groundwork for some good conversation, about race, about violence, about gun control. It may get people to talk about the responsibility of having the gift of free speech. Just because one can say something doesn’t mean one should.
All that being the case, however, what these shootings have said to me, loud and clear, is that there is no room for bigotry in God’s kingdom, be it blatantly or subliminally stated. No person ought to fear for his or her life or safety because he or she advocates for “the least of these,” be they black, brown, handicapped, Jewish, Muslim or anything other than white, male, and healthy. This American bigotry is stale and moldy. It is despicable for those who say they love God.
We should internalize the great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul…and thy neighbor as thyself.”
Beginning now.
Have a good week.
I have long felt that the underlying ethos of the Tea Party is racism. The Tea Party, at least, has been honest, to a point, about their anger and anxiety about a black man being president of these United States. Others have been much more disingenuous.
But the saddest thing of all is that this American bigotry, so special and so unique, is even worse because nobody in America wants to own it, admit it. People want to act like everything is all right and that racism is a thing of the past.
It is not, and it is in fact even worse because America has insisted on denying its existence.
The horrendous shootings in Tucson cannot be blamed on any person, but we cannot deny that toxic political vitriol played a part in the anger which we saw in the most recent congressional campaign, and I believe that the rhetoric spewed by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others fed into a culture of resentment based on race and bigotry.
People in America, black and white, have never gotten over slavery and over the years of racial indignity which has been the characteristic identifying mark of these United States. The teaching of white supremacy is deep in the souls of still too many people, and the feeling of inferiority is still too much a part of the psyches of too many African Americans.
That feeling of white supremacy, coupled with white privilege, has fed into this culture of resentment I mentioned, and that resentment has morphed into outright anger on the parts of too many people. The imagery of guns voiced by Sarah Palin was no accident; she fed into the culture of resentment and anger, and though it was couched in rhetoric about cutting spending, those who know racism and how it feels knew otherwise.
The shootings in Arizona may have produced the groundwork for some good conversation, about race, about violence, about gun control. It may get people to talk about the responsibility of having the gift of free speech. Just because one can say something doesn’t mean one should.
All that being the case, however, what these shootings have said to me, loud and clear, is that there is no room for bigotry in God’s kingdom, be it blatantly or subliminally stated. No person ought to fear for his or her life or safety because he or she advocates for “the least of these,” be they black, brown, handicapped, Jewish, Muslim or anything other than white, male, and healthy. This American bigotry is stale and moldy. It is despicable for those who say they love God.
We should internalize the great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul…and thy neighbor as thyself.”
Beginning now.
Have a good week.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Nurture the Children Now to Save Them Later
The Pastor’s Page
Last week, a man named Cornelius Dupree was released from prison, after having been there for 30 years for a crime he didn’t commit. He was convicted in 1979 for rape and murder, and maintained his innocence from the beginning.
Had it not been for the tireless work of the Innocence Project, and a feisty, brilliant Dallas District Attorney named Craig Watkins, Dupree might still be in prison – as are, I am afraid, way too many innocent people.
There is a huge reason for my being so passionate about us reaching and teaching the children in our community. A recent study reported that only 11 percent of African American males, by the time they reach 4th grade, are proficient in reading, compared to 38 percent of white males.
Neither group has anything to brag about, but I really believe that when a child begins to falter in school, his or her self esteem plummets and they become ripe for anti-social behavior. All any child wants to do is to excel and to be loved, and if he or she cannot excel in school, and/or feel love from his/her home, then that child will do what he or she must in order to have those basic needs met.
It seems to me that kids who are encouraged and helped and loved have a better chance of staying out of the system than those who find themselves looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places.
It also seems to me that the more of our kids we can embrace and empower, the fewer of our kids will wind up in the system, guilty of a crime, or, worse, accused and convicted of a crime, but who are innocent.
I don’t know what Dupree’s youth was like. I do know that he was only 21 years old when he was accused and convicted of the rape and armed robbery.
From what I have come to understand, law enforcement personnel are very slow about admitting when they are wrong. District attorneys, judges and police officers, it seems, work to support each other and uphold convictions, even when compelling evidence is unearthed that suggests a mistake might have been made.
Mr. Dupree could have been released sooner had he “admitted” that he committed the crimes for which he was convicted, but he refused. It was DNA evidence that cleared him.
He is fortunate, but what I want is for us to educate and empower our kids, especially our young men, but our young women, so that they will be less and less likely to get caught by a system which has never shown African Americans any love …or justice.
I cannot imagine being in prison for 30 years, period, much less in prison all that time when I knew I was innocent. I cannot begin to imagine how much brilliance and talent is wasting away in prisons all over this country.
I know that it isn’t right, and I know that if we know the situation but do nothing to share what we have with kids who need us, we have forfeited an opportunity that our people need in order to bring hope to kids who are lost and who need to see sermons, not hear them.
Someone wrote on my Facebook page that she couldn’t believe cases like that of Mr. Dupree are still a reality. They are, and will continue to be until we take up the mantle and say “enough.” We can challenge the system, as Craig Watkins and the Innocence Project are doing, and we can take our children and nurture them when they are young, so that they become less and less likely to be the bait for a prison system which has an appetite for African American men which has never been satisfied.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
Last week, a man named Cornelius Dupree was released from prison, after having been there for 30 years for a crime he didn’t commit. He was convicted in 1979 for rape and murder, and maintained his innocence from the beginning.
Had it not been for the tireless work of the Innocence Project, and a feisty, brilliant Dallas District Attorney named Craig Watkins, Dupree might still be in prison – as are, I am afraid, way too many innocent people.
There is a huge reason for my being so passionate about us reaching and teaching the children in our community. A recent study reported that only 11 percent of African American males, by the time they reach 4th grade, are proficient in reading, compared to 38 percent of white males.
Neither group has anything to brag about, but I really believe that when a child begins to falter in school, his or her self esteem plummets and they become ripe for anti-social behavior. All any child wants to do is to excel and to be loved, and if he or she cannot excel in school, and/or feel love from his/her home, then that child will do what he or she must in order to have those basic needs met.
It seems to me that kids who are encouraged and helped and loved have a better chance of staying out of the system than those who find themselves looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places.
It also seems to me that the more of our kids we can embrace and empower, the fewer of our kids will wind up in the system, guilty of a crime, or, worse, accused and convicted of a crime, but who are innocent.
I don’t know what Dupree’s youth was like. I do know that he was only 21 years old when he was accused and convicted of the rape and armed robbery.
From what I have come to understand, law enforcement personnel are very slow about admitting when they are wrong. District attorneys, judges and police officers, it seems, work to support each other and uphold convictions, even when compelling evidence is unearthed that suggests a mistake might have been made.
Mr. Dupree could have been released sooner had he “admitted” that he committed the crimes for which he was convicted, but he refused. It was DNA evidence that cleared him.
He is fortunate, but what I want is for us to educate and empower our kids, especially our young men, but our young women, so that they will be less and less likely to get caught by a system which has never shown African Americans any love …or justice.
I cannot imagine being in prison for 30 years, period, much less in prison all that time when I knew I was innocent. I cannot begin to imagine how much brilliance and talent is wasting away in prisons all over this country.
I know that it isn’t right, and I know that if we know the situation but do nothing to share what we have with kids who need us, we have forfeited an opportunity that our people need in order to bring hope to kids who are lost and who need to see sermons, not hear them.
Someone wrote on my Facebook page that she couldn’t believe cases like that of Mr. Dupree are still a reality. They are, and will continue to be until we take up the mantle and say “enough.” We can challenge the system, as Craig Watkins and the Innocence Project are doing, and we can take our children and nurture them when they are young, so that they become less and less likely to be the bait for a prison system which has an appetite for African American men which has never been satisfied.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Justice, Finally
The Pastor’s Page
The last days of 2010 saw justice delivered to two young African American women who have been in prison for 16 years.
Jamie and Gladys Scott were accused and convicted of a robbery that occurred on Christmas Eve in 1993 in Forest, Mississippi. About $11 was taken and nobody was hurt, but the sisters’ conviction netted them both two consecutive life sentences. The girls were accused of luring two African American men into a situation which resulted into their wallets being taken.
Outrage about the convictions was swift, and activists began advocating for their release almost immediately, to no avail. At the time of their release, all appeals had been exhausted.
At the time of their arrest and conviction, Gladys was 19 and pregnant with her second child and Jamie was 22 with three children. Three teens boys also arrested in the case reportedly said at the outset that the Scott Sisters were not involved in the incident, but were said to be pressured to implicate the young women in a plea deal.
The teen boys received far lesser sentences and the Scott Sisters were sent to prison…for two consecutive life sentences.
On Wednesday, December 29, 2010, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who is said to be considering running as a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, suspended the sentences of the women. Jamie is seriously ill. Both her kidneys are failing – and Gladys’ release is said to be on the condition that she donate one of her kidneys to her sister.
This case has not received a lot of attention from mainstream media. There have been activists in Mississippi, however, who have been relentless in getting news about the plight of the women national attention. Recently New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote about the case, commentary was heard on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, and Ben Jealous, head of the National Association of Colored People, have taken the case on. The Innocence Project also took up the case.
Gov. Barbour’s interest in the case is most likely political. He recently praised the Citizen’s Council, a known white supremacist group, for helping schools in Mississippi integrate quietly.
What the Council did was make sure the schools integrate as slowly as possible, threatening and carrying out actions that intimidated people into not stepping over the color line, federal law notwithstanding.
The report about the release of the Scott Sisters said it would take 45 days for the paperwork for the release of the Scott Sisters to be completed. Once out, they will be allowed to travel to Florida to live with their mother, who has been caring for their children since their incarceration.
I hope that Jamie holds out that long, that she holds out long enough to get to Florida and get the help she needs. I also hope that those who love and demand justice never give up and give out, no matter how hard the journey.
Even as I write this, in the wee hours of December 30, there has been no mention of the case on CNN, the so-called “most trusted name in news.” I guess this doesn’t qualify, not like the blizzard, or like the missionary in Haiti who was released from prison after being accused of kidnapping a Haitian child.
Hooray for the Scott Sisters. Hooray for those who worked tirelessly for their release. And shame on Mississippi for handing out such an inhumane sentence for this crime. We still have a way to go in meting out justice for minorities and poor people.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
The last days of 2010 saw justice delivered to two young African American women who have been in prison for 16 years.
Jamie and Gladys Scott were accused and convicted of a robbery that occurred on Christmas Eve in 1993 in Forest, Mississippi. About $11 was taken and nobody was hurt, but the sisters’ conviction netted them both two consecutive life sentences. The girls were accused of luring two African American men into a situation which resulted into their wallets being taken.
Outrage about the convictions was swift, and activists began advocating for their release almost immediately, to no avail. At the time of their release, all appeals had been exhausted.
At the time of their arrest and conviction, Gladys was 19 and pregnant with her second child and Jamie was 22 with three children. Three teens boys also arrested in the case reportedly said at the outset that the Scott Sisters were not involved in the incident, but were said to be pressured to implicate the young women in a plea deal.
The teen boys received far lesser sentences and the Scott Sisters were sent to prison…for two consecutive life sentences.
On Wednesday, December 29, 2010, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who is said to be considering running as a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, suspended the sentences of the women. Jamie is seriously ill. Both her kidneys are failing – and Gladys’ release is said to be on the condition that she donate one of her kidneys to her sister.
This case has not received a lot of attention from mainstream media. There have been activists in Mississippi, however, who have been relentless in getting news about the plight of the women national attention. Recently New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote about the case, commentary was heard on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, and Ben Jealous, head of the National Association of Colored People, have taken the case on. The Innocence Project also took up the case.
Gov. Barbour’s interest in the case is most likely political. He recently praised the Citizen’s Council, a known white supremacist group, for helping schools in Mississippi integrate quietly.
What the Council did was make sure the schools integrate as slowly as possible, threatening and carrying out actions that intimidated people into not stepping over the color line, federal law notwithstanding.
The report about the release of the Scott Sisters said it would take 45 days for the paperwork for the release of the Scott Sisters to be completed. Once out, they will be allowed to travel to Florida to live with their mother, who has been caring for their children since their incarceration.
I hope that Jamie holds out that long, that she holds out long enough to get to Florida and get the help she needs. I also hope that those who love and demand justice never give up and give out, no matter how hard the journey.
Even as I write this, in the wee hours of December 30, there has been no mention of the case on CNN, the so-called “most trusted name in news.” I guess this doesn’t qualify, not like the blizzard, or like the missionary in Haiti who was released from prison after being accused of kidnapping a Haitian child.
Hooray for the Scott Sisters. Hooray for those who worked tirelessly for their release. And shame on Mississippi for handing out such an inhumane sentence for this crime. We still have a way to go in meting out justice for minorities and poor people.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
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