The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2015 - (Page 10)

racIal JusTIce With the Beating of Our Hearts: Bearing Witness to Others' Pain by Rev. Dr. Cheryl Dudley Did not our hearts burn within us? -Luke 24:32 is their home, and they want to be at home there." "You look like you've lost your innocence," I said. They both looked up, as if to say, I'm not sure. I continued, "I remember he Friday evening following Thanksgiving, George times when I lost the innocence I did not know existed, until it Williamson1 and I had dinner with BPFNA ~ Bautistas por was lost." They both acknowledged something, nodding almost la Paz members Nathan Watts and Gretchen Honnold who had inwardly without explicitly saying what it was. just returned from a stay in Ferguson, Missouri. The US has again lost its innocence, and will this time either Gretchen, who had been there several months, and Nathan, look away, as many have done in this series of publicized killings there for several days, modestly shared-with our prompting- by police or vigilantes, or choose to look straight into the festering their experience of active solidarity with the people of that now wound of race-related violence in the cities, towns and suburbs highly publicized community. across this country, and do something. Sadly, the next deaths are They both told their share-distinct stories-of what they likely just a breath or heartbeat away. respectively witnessed in or near Ferguson. At Gretchen's insistence, Nathan told a story that occurred "You tell this one." in Shaw, MO, located about 100 miles outside of Ferguson, the "No, you tell it," was their banter into eventually relating what day after the announcement that the police officer who fatally their eyes had seen, their ears had heard and minds had conceived while there. shot Michael Brown, whose large, youthful hands were held up in Their eyes flickered, indicating a wound gained there, flinched surrender, would not be indicted. On that particular eve, crowds but wide open through the shadows of the restaurant where we had gathered in the streets of Shaw in nonviolent protest. ate dinner that night. The police force surrounded those who had gathered in their They shared aloud with certain, yet sometimes halting, words usual menacing stance. The tension was palpable and adrenalin that painted a clear picture of what was happening in Missouri; filled the air. As Nathan and Gretchen told the story, I could see their stories took us there, too. in my mind the beads of sweat on the brows of those assembled, Nathan explained, "We were there as witnesses. Beyond and smell the sweet acridity of bodies ready for fight or flight. theory, rhetoric and intellect, we felt what it means to be in I could somehow hear the nervous "click" of weapons as solidarity in the suffering of others that also became our own. their bearers checked and readied them for potential use. I could We could go on home at will anytime, to our respective places also hear the tramping of feet and the sucking of teeth, and the far away, or elsewhere for that matter. But that part of Missouri barely audible whispers on all sides to their allies in the various factions of the crowd. I could somehow hear mothers and sisters crying-in their homes The stories on the next several pages are responses to recent events or on the streets, and prayers involving violence on the part of white police officers toward unarmed black men. On Nov. whispered, sighed or shouted to 24, the grand jury in St. Louis County, MO, found no criminality in the actions of Darren God and anyone else listening. Wilson, a white officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old AfricanYet on that kairotic eve, God American man in Ferguson (a suburb of St. Louis), on Aug. 9. was revealed. The account told Just before press time, a spate of incidents involving white police officers and unarmed of the words and actions of one black men were reported. A grand jury in New York City chose not to indict a police officer leader, the Rev. Osagyefu Sekou, who had performed a forbidden and fatal chokehold on Eric Garner. In Cleveland, OH, serving there through the Fellowship where federal investigators had already indicated that police officers used excessive force, a of Reconciliation, who in those white police officer shot and killed a 12-year-old black boy who was carrying a pellet gun. In moments saw the warning signs of a somewhat similar case in Eutawville, SC, a former police chief was charged with murder danger in an environment pregnant in the 2011 shooting of an unarmed black man. The memoir that follows these stories is from a BPFNA member who traveled to Selma to join the marches there in 1965. We were struck by the parallels. n T Editor's note: (see "Bearing Witness" on page 14) 10 Baptist Peacemaker JAN-MAR 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2015

No Longer Strangers: The BPFNA’s New Strategic Plan
A Reflection On Our Convictions & Motivation
Board Welcomes Kadia Edwards as Young Adult Representative
Baptists, Others Respond to Ebola Crisis
Gimme Shelter: My Vocation as a Peacemaker
Kidnapping of Students Leads to Outrage in Mexico
Parting Thoughts
With the Beating of Our Hearts: Bearing Witness to Other’s Pain
Dispatches from Ferguson: A Two-Part Account of a Week in St. Louis
The Gospel Is Not a Neutral Term: Excerpts from an Interview with Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Seko
Selma, 50 Years Later: A Memoir
Imaging, Journeying & Standing before One Creation, Part 1: Who Shaped My Image of Creation?
BPFNA Receives Grant for Justice Work on the US/Mexico Border
Central African Republic Rebel Groups Train for Peace
The Global Influence of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Resources & Opportunities
Keep It Real

The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2015