Chris McDonnell, UK
chris@mcdonnell83.freeserve.co.uk

Previous articles by Chris   Comments welcome here

January 18, 2017:

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child  

When Richie Havens, who died three years ago, sang at the Woodstock festival in 1969, the outstanding song of his set was ‘Freedom’ in which he mixed that single word with the old negro spiritual song ‘Sometimes I feel like a motherless child’. It was a song of heartbreak and despair that has is roots deep in the slavery of the American South. The words echo the loneliness that was a consequence of a policy that saw other humans as possessions, disregarding their rights and feelings.  

In our time it gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement and Integrated schools, to open diner counters and desegregated seating on public transport. Recently it brought the Obama family to the White House, a building constructed using slave labour, a fact that Michelle Obama, the First Lady, never let her children forget.  

To me, the abiding image of the last eight years of the Obama Presidency is not one of Obama himself, but of Jesse Jackson, a Baptist minister, born in South Carolina, who spent his life working with the NAACP, The National Association for Advancement of Coloured People. That night, when it was clear the Presidency had been won, Barack Obama and Joe Biden appeared before the immense crowd in Hutchinson Field in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. Of the many camera shots, that of Jackson with tears on his cheeks stood out, after years of struggle the dream of a man of colour in the Oval Office was a significant staging point for others across the United States. They were tears of amazement and joy  

His has not been a perfect Presidency, none are, but it has been one of honest endeavor where President Obama’s poise and dignity have reflected his nation’s aspirations.

It has been a Presidency without a whiff of scandal. Now that immense power is passing to another man, altogether different, brash, lacking a natural dignity, with no experience of the political high wire that is now his to walk.

 Seeing those pictures from Chicago in 2008 filled me, and I am sure, so many others with hope, joy and expectation. This weekend, with the inauguration on January 20th, I have no such feelings; just the opposite. Maybe there is a place again for the great American tradition of song that comes with the history of struggle.

 What might we learn from the present circumstances, where both at home and abroad there is so much uncertainty, risk and, yes, real danger. What should be our Christian response?

 I would suggest that it falls into three parts, care, courage and conviction.

 When a society ceases to care for the less fortunate, then it is our responsibility to step in and offer a hand. That is what Dorothy Day did with the Catholic Worker movement she founded in New York City in the ’30s. Her work has continued beyond her guiding presence and has spread away from the city where it started. It is the essence of the Good Samaritan parable. Selfishness can never been identified with the Gospel narrative

 Courage doesn’t come without heartache. Wherever injustice has become endemic in a society, it has often taken courageous action to oppose it. Often called a ‘Struggle for Freedom’, challenging accepted norms is accompanied by a great personal risk, especially when passive resistance is met with armed force.   Establishment of Workers’ Unions came at a price, the abolition of apartheid in South Africa demanded immense courage to the point where loss of life was common place. In so many parts of our planet, such struggles continue to this day and we go our own way.

 And finally, conviction, the belief that our actions are justified, that we act in good faith, that the cause for which we stand is both good and honest.

 The lives of the early followers of Jesus, contained all three elements, they have been our example over the passing years and in these times we have learnt from them.

 Honesty, our willingness to speak out when injustice is perpetrated, must be our defining mark as Christian people. Unfortunately, even within our Christian communities there have been times when injustice has occurred and the result has been violent and destructive. We all have much to say sorry for.

 Now as the seat of power changes, it is not only the citizens of the United States that have to pause and reconsider their actions, for all of us are in some way or another affected. Albert Einstien once commented that ‘there is no vaccine against stupidity’. Given the truth of that statement we need to be very cautious as we embark on our journey into 2017.       

 

END

-------------------