Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Tomorrow we mark Martin Luther King Day in the United States. It is easy to forget just how unpopular a figure Dr King was in his time. Nowadays, people generally accept that what he fought for was the right thing. When I was in undergrad at Ole Miss, you could still hear the echoes of those fights though. Everywhere you looked there were confederate flags. Streets named after confederate generals. The band played Dixie at football games.

Of course, the general response to questions about all of this was that it was about heritage and not hate. I believe that – for most of those folks it was about the traditions of the school and not about the issues of the day or the issues of yesterday either. It was just the heritage.

Of course, the issues of the day, and of yesterday, were never far from view. This came home to me in my first semester there. It was the year of the OJ Simpson trial. The entire common room and the dining hall were packed as people of all races, clustered in their respective racial groups, watched the verdict. When the defendant was said to be innocent by the jury two distinct reactions happened at once.

A collective groan and shouts of dismay went up from the white students. And a huge round of cheering and celebration went up from the African American students. It may not have been universal, maybe there were some differences of individual opinion, but the reaction was starkly and emotionally divided.

We saw this past year that racial tensions are still never far from view. We watched marches, demonstrations, and violence divide people sharply. Some cheered the protests and others were dismayed. We saw Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, and Unborn Lives Matter signs and stickers and social media posts.

The Church hasn’t been simply a bystander in all of this. We have had our saints and our sins out in full view all through the history of racism. Yet, we stand today as we have always stood, with only the love of Jesus Christ to proclaim. We cannot afford to get caught up in the politicization of human dignity – we can only proclaim it with everything that we have and all that we are. And all that we are is the Body of Christ. We are his hands, feet, and voice for the world.

May those hands never stop reaching for justice, may those feet never stop walking toward equality, and may that voice never falter in its proclamation of God’s love for all people. May we love God and love our neighbor with our whole hearts dedicated to the work of reconciliation and healing.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert