It started some 300 years ago when the Trans-Atlantic slave trade began. Millions of people were stolen from their homes in Africa and sold to the highest bidder at auction in the Americas. In many lands race is no longer the predominant issue. People have decided to live in harmony with one another. Not so in the United States. Race is still a big factor in the decisions that are made in the halls of Congress and in the daily lives of the masses. Ferguson, Missouri, was an example of what can happen when a people have been angered and taken advantage of for many years. Finally, the situation becomes overwhelming and an eruption takes place that spews hot, liquid lava in the form of protests, civil disobedience, looting, shooting and burning for many days to come. Having grown up in the city of Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, I got a chance to see this fury unleashed upon my home town as a young teenager, in ways that changed the

T VISIT to Ferguson Continued

Given the fact that our voice has been diminished, and largely by our own doing, how shall we respond? It’s a question for the Church with a big C to keep exploring, but if you’re like me, you probably want to know: what can WE do? And that’s the question that is close to my heart. What can WE do right now? I heard over and over that the greatest threat to this moment of decision in our society is apathy. The greatest threat is throwing up our hands and saying, this is too big and too complicated; I don’t think we can do much to change things; I don’t know what to do. If we give in to apathy we will miss an opportunity to make a change. First, we should explore how to divest from any company supporting the Prison Industrial Complex in our country. We can send a message that we will not participate in an industry that profits at the expense of young men, women, and children of color, and our entire societal structure.

Second, let’s support young organizers by giving them money, by sharing lessons learned in the Civil Rights movement, by offering them respite, by standing in solidarity with them. Third, education. I heard over and over and over again in every forum that educational inequality is at the very core of every kind of inequitable system there is. Fourth, listen. Listen. Listen hard. Fifth, pray for each other, pray for the community in Ferguson, pray for our country. This is a pivotal moment for us. We need to keep praying for God’s Spirit to help us see a vision and hold onto it tightly, to not be dismayed or discouraged, but to be brave and good and courageous in proclaiming what we know to be true. Amy Butler is pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City, US, and a member of the BWA Commission on Human Rights Advocacy. This is an excerpt from the blog Talk with the Preacher.

APRIL/JUNE 2015 27

to Ferguson & Beyond by Ronald Bobo

Above: A protest march in Ferguson, Missouri, which included Ron Bobo (polo shirt, front)

he United States of America has a race problem.

landscape of the city for decades. Seeing it again, some 47 years later, was an eerie reminder of the brokenness of racial relations in this nation. If ever there was a need for the church to be prophetic and focused, it is now.

On the day following Michael Brown’s shooting, many clergy

and laity met at the Ferguson Police Headquarters in a prayer vigil and to meet with the chief of police. While we were conducting the prayer vigil, the first protest and act of civil disobedience took place, in that protesters started chanting and sat in the middle of the street, drowning out our voices. They shouted us down and had little regard for the church or our prayers. Our approach seemed a little too tame for them. Many others subsequently disallowed the place of God or the church in any of the protests, but the church was still there – in the marches, in the protests, in the meetings with government agencies, in the streets, in the churches, in prayer. It is important that the church still serve as an agent of peace (Continued on next page)

FACING UP