Burning Branches - Part 2

It is easier to believe that Baltimore was ‘mindless hooliganism’ rather than a complex response to the oppression we might all share responsibility for.

Of course, the riot was as Obama described created by some ‘criminals and thugs’, not to mention hooligans as intoxicated local sports fans of all races joined in with other opportunists. But there amongst these criminals, hooligans - whatever we choose to name them - are human beings who have been treated unjustly and are burning with rage. How do we respond to these people that we now name criminals? Do we simply lock them away so we can continue doing things as we have always done them?

These ‘hooligans' are our neighbours. As I have been reflecting throughout these weeks - we name people as we know them. Even if we consider these people ‘the least’ of our society, what does that mean? Jesus tells us ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' (Matt 25:40). The ‘least’ of these who joined in in the riots – whoever they were - the poorly educated, the homeless, the jobless, the poor, the addicts, the youth, the opportunists, the criminals - whatever we call them - why where they there at all?

At least some of these people acted out of rage: for justice for Freddie Gray and for themselves. You may have read that Freddie like others in his area was living on a ‘lead cheque’ this is compensation for lead poisoning that left him and others in his local community unable to lead functional lives. In Freddie’s case, court papers describe a difficult upbringing: a disabled mother addicted to heroin who, in a deposition, said she couldn’t read, and Freddie himself was four grade behind in his reading. This story is not unique. In Sandtown-Winchester where Freddie lived a third of houses in the neighbourhood are abandoned. Local unemployment is over 50% (5.9% is the national average). A quarter of families receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the median household income for this area is substantially lower than the national average of America, with each home surviving on just $24,000 (£15, 700) yearly.

The centre for Justice Policy reveals that Baltimore saw 145.1 kids out of every thousand citywide arrested between 2005 and 2009. In Sandtown-Winchester/Harlem Park, that number was 252. A local newspaper points out that means a quarter — one out of four youth — of all 10-to-17-year-olds in Gray's neighbourhood were arrested between 2005-2009. This is not much of a future to aspire to.  

So what is the answer to this group of people who got so fed up with living these lives they decided to set fire to them, and to loot and to steal and to run? How can we respond? Arrest more of them?

Gregory Boyle writes, 'Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgement at how they carry it'. We seek justice, but how do we find justice for everyone, and justice that meets compassion?

I don't carry the same burdens, and so the same rage that many of those 'hooligans' carry. My privilege means that not only will I not be unlikely to be falsely or rightly arrested, not only will I complete a good education, have a job and have enough privilege to help others, not only will I never know what its like to grow up on a street where houses are routinely set alight, not only will I have access to health and legal care that I need, not only will I avoid encountering experience racism in my day-to-day life, not only will I not need to riot to have my voice heard, but when I see these stories on my television or in a newspaper or on the internet, I will have the power to turn them off, to close them down and pretend they don’t affect me.

Of course will also have the power to realize that they do affect me, and that I affect them. I have the power to realize that whist my privilege brings choice, it also brings responsibility. I have lived, and may always live, alongside those who carry burdens that I cannot comprehend. I have the power to let Christ burn down the bad branches in me and allow me to abide in Christ, to find His love and compassion in the midst of violence, and name-calling and fear... dare I respond with compassion?

Burning Branches - Part 1

Listening to Revd. Jim Hamilton and the responses of the congregation of Church on the Square in Baltimore, what stuck with me is that rage is not logical. In the midst of so much chaos and high tensions, Jim reminded us to hold our judgment for a second on the events that have unfolded. That is to remember that rage is neither calculated nor present without a catalyst.

Rage, like love, is an emotion. It does not carefully deliberate plans and consequences. Like a fire, it needs to be kindled, to be set alight with fuel, space and time before it burns. Once rage explodes it tends to engulf everything in its wake. Rage burns down ugly derelict houses in a neighbourhood as well as newly renovated houses that a community has spent itself to build. Rage can burn out an old car, but it can just as equally set alight Broadway East community’s church housing project for the elderly, a local small business without adequate insurance and a pharmacy that a community depends on for access to medicines.

Rage does not calculate wrongs, it is a violent, intense response to external cues. In the case of Baltimore the cues built up, until they were out of control. Such cues include the black Medic-Aid patient who routinely waits longer for a hospital bed than the white Medic-Aid patient, the mother whose innocent son is routinely pulled over and arrested, a little league of Black and Hispanic children on their way to play baseball that residents assume they are a street gang. These ‘everyday’ stories I heard in Baltimore are experiences that can build up, like the account of Freddie Gray, and if not given voice, can explode in rage.

If these stories are all contributory, then how far do we all bear responsibility for the rage that some of the people of Baltimore felt and the way in which they showed this? How far are we who watch the accounts on the television accountable for the actions we condemn on it?

Sunday's reading of John 15 reminds us that we respond to evil and to good by abiding in Jesus – because without Him we can do nothing (John 15:4-5). Jesus says ‘Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.’ We are invited to allow Christ to routinely burn and destroy the evil around us and inside of us: prejudice, hatred, oppression, murder. In doing this Christ burns away the parts of us that bear no good fruit.

If we hold on to our bad branches, and live within the bad branches of others, our chaos and hatred remains, fermenting over time like fuel, prime for explosion. Where the injustice simply festers in us and in our communities we risk everything:  by holding on to the prejudice and evil inside of us, we risk even the good branches that remain being burnt or destroyed in the explosion which can ensue.

Babel

The tower of Babel in Genesis 11 reminds us that our diversity, in its humanness, can be confusing and painful, but it also reminds us where God can be found - as we try to understand and know each other more fully.

There are plenty of towers in New York City, a reminder perhaps that we can reach the skies when we work together (or apart). For me this fact as confusing as the diverse peoples who inhabit these towers – and indeed the fact of so many who don’t – because they can’t.

Sitting on floor 17 of one particular apartment, looking down, I don’t think that being in this particular tower brings me closer to God as some of the Babylonians might have hoped their tower did. In fact, if anything the further I am up this tower, the more there seems to be a barrier for me to connect with the people who seem so very far below me.

What connects us most fully to God is not trying to reach further and further to the sky - to create small gods of ourselves. Rather we find God when we really meet and encounter each other – at ground level, as equals. When we spend time together, when we look into the face of each other and listen.

Fr Steve Holton drew my attention to a passage in the Koran which resonates with this: ‘O mankind! We created you from male and female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other)’ (Sura Hujurat, verse 13). This really struck me – difference is created that we might know each other. Returning to the tower of Babel, what if God has created us to have different languages and dwell in different cultures and lifestyles, so that we might be different and so come together in order to know each other. What if by knowing each other – we are in fact brought into a deeper place to know God? Isn't this what the incarnation teaches us, as we spend time looking and living into the face of Christ?

We are changed by encountering difference – for better or worse. Within this we have the opportunity to know others and to know God far more deeply.

Baltimore Riots

I wanted to just show some of the ways in which the church is responding to the current situation in Baltimore.

The first is a pretty incredible statement here by Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton which gives some background to the situation in Baltimore, but also the widespread racism towards African Americans and the widespread oppression and anger surrounding this. What strikes me about Bishop Eugene's message is how he reminds us that these issues are not just Baltimore's issues, but the world's issues, and how we can respond.

It is a call for peace, but also a call to action, a call to trust in a God who knows suffering, but also a God who teaches us not to fear evil, but to rise against it in the power of love.

Right, is a clip of the clergy marching through West Baltimore as part of a protest against the widespread racism and poverty across the city.

Syracuse – New York State - Part 1

This week I (James), met the ‘sock man’ of Syracuse. I named him that - this is not a self-proclaimed name from a very humble man – in fact he gave me a pair (pictured left).

Nate Peña is the director of Pass Da Rock and this is what his website says about it:

'Pass ‘Da R.O.C.K. is a local non-profit organization whose vision is to model the love of Christ within the context of a positive and non-threatening environment. We strive to make a difference in the lives of under-resourced youth by providing an alternative to the streets and creating an environment where the participants can be blessed just for being themselves. This is accomplished by providing safe sporting activities. These events encourage our participants to be physically active while demonstrating good sportsmanship with their peers. These events also allow our adults leaders the opportunity to build strong relationships with the youth and be a positive influence in their lives. The main activity of the group, since starting in Syracuse in 2001, is an organized monthly event centered on open basketball competition for middle school and high school aged youth. This event also includes free food, drinks, and prizes for the participants. In addition to the monthly event, Pass ‘Da R.O.C.K. also organizes basketball tournaments, leagues, and group outings.'

There is so much that Nate and his team do, but for me it was summed up in the socks. Each week the team have a prize table that young people can choose something from – it is filled with things that the young people might need - and it’s always the socks that go first. The philosophy behind the socks is that they are considered a luxury fashion item – particularly the ones that Nate gives away. These cost around $20 and the young people would not be able to afford them, so Nate gives them away. In doing so he doesn’t just give away socks, he gives them status in a world where what you wear not only matters – but for some of these young people its all they have. I was inspired by the lavish nature of this act, it’s a token of generous love. Of course some of the congregation of his church ask Nate why they need to buy $20 socks when Walmart sells 5 for $5. But this act of giving away $20 socks values the young people, it shows them love. It reminded me of the woman that washes Jesus’ feet with the expensive oil (Mark 14: 1-10). This women does not use oil because Jesus’ feet need a clean – water would have done the job! The oil was used as a lavish act that blessed Jesus and proclaimed love and Jesus’ worthiness. Nate is blessing the young people because they are worthy to be blessed; they have the same value as him and as his own children, and his example is to treat them in that way.