Doing Our Work

The Brief Statement of Faith written and adopted by the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1990 states "In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage...to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace."  (Book of Confession 11.4)  This statement resounds still today as our government is shut down over a border wall, as Congress pushes back on U.S. Representative Steven King's rhetoric, as the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday and black history month approaches in February.  There is much to contemplate.

It has become painfully obvious that the issue of race has not been resolved.  One accessible and safe place for white persons like me to start to engage is to listen to the voices long silenced as stated by the church's confession above.  I've paid more attention recently to movies which tell stories of those who have long been invisible to me, those out of my frame of reference.  Collectively these movies are the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of our day.

Here is a short list of movies I recommend:
(Classic) "The Jackie Robinson Story" How similar is this story to Barack and Michelle Obama's?

(Award Winning) "Lee Daniel's The Butler," "The Help," "Hidden Figures;" 

(Streaming on Netflix) "Thirteenth," a documentary about the thirteenth amendment of the U.S. Constitution and present criminal justice public policy which is detrimental to people of color;  "Mr. Church," a portrait of a single black man who works as a cook for a white family and becomes family.

(In Theaters Now) "If Beale Street Could Talk," based on James Baldwin novel set in 1970's Harlem, chronicles the effects of prejudice on a bright loving black couple;  "Green Book," the story of Donald Walbridge Shirley, a gifted black musician, who hires a white bodyguard to accompany him on his music tour in the south.

What other movies do you recommend?  These are but a few I've seen and recommend.  They humanize the other, who some want to debase, dehumanize, delegitimize.

I believe when we listen and recognize the humanity in others, we ourselves become more human.  We ourselves become liberated from the chains that bind us in our small cultural boxes.  I also believe we will more faithfully live into the way of Jesus, and enter into the reign he envisioned.  He  proclaimed the coming reign of God being ushered in, God's reign on earth as in heaven as he taught his disciples to pray, "Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."

May it be so.  May we be a small part of it, emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit.


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