Hello Everybody,   
      
   In answer to Franklin Graham, the Sojourners   
   took to the pen and wrote a scathing reply -   
      
   An Open Letter to Reverend Franklin Graham   
      
   Dear Rev. Graham,   
      
   We write to you in the spirit of Matthew 18: we aim to   
   reconcile with you. You have sinned against us, fellow members   
   of the body of Christ. While your comments on March 12 were just   
   a Facebook post, your post was shared by more than 83,000 people   
   and liked by nearly 200,000 as of Monday morning, March 14, 2015.   
   Your words hurt and influenced thousands. Therefore, we must   
   respond publicly so that those you hurt might know you have   
   received a reply and the hundreds of thousands you influenced   
   might know that following your lead on this issue will break   
   the body of Christ further.Frankly, Rev. Graham, your insistence   
   that “Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and everybody else” “Listen up,”   
   was crude, insensitive, and paternalistic. Your comments betrayed   
   the confidence that your brothers and sisters in Christ, especially   
   those of color, have afforded your father’s ministry for decades.   
   Your instructions oversimplified a complex and critical problem   
   facing the nation and minimized the testimonies and wisdom of   
   people of color and experts of every hue, including six police   
   commissioners that served on the president’s task force on   
   policing reform.In the nadir of your commentary, you tell everyone   
   to “OBEY” any instruction from authorities and suggest that the   
   recent shootings of unarmed citizens “might have been avoided”   
   if the victims had submitted to authority.And you bluntly insist,   
   “It’s as simple as that.”It is not that simple. As a leader in   
   the church, you are called to be an ambassador of reconciliation.   
   The fact that you identify a widely acknowledged social injustice   
   as “simple” reveals your lack of empathy and understanding of the   
   depth of sin that some in the body have suffered under the weight   
   of our broken justice system. It also reveals a cavalier disregard   
   for the enduring impacts and outcomes of the legal regimes that   
   enslaved and oppressed people of color, made in the image of God   
   — from Native American genocide and containment, to colonial and   
   antebellum slavery, through Jim Crow and peonage, to our current   
   system of mass incarceration and criminalization.   
      
   As your brothers and sisters in Christ, who are also called to   
   lead the body, we are disappointed and grieved by your abuse of   
   the Holy Scriptures. You lifted Hebrews 13:17 out of its biblical   
   context and misappropriated it in a way that encourages believers   
   to acquiesce to an injustice that God hates. That text refers to   
   church leadership, not the secular leadership of Caesar. Are you   
   also aware that your commentary resonates with the types of   
   misinterpretations and rhetoric echoed by many in the antebellum   
   church? Are you aware that the southern slavocracy validated the   
   systematic subjugation of human beings made in the image of God   
   by instructing these enslaved human beings to “obey their masters   
   because the Bible instructed them to do so?”Your blanket insistence   
   on obedience in every situation exposes an ignorance of church   
   history. God called Moses to resist and disobey unjust authority.   
   Joseph and Mary were led by the Spirit to seek asylum in Egypt,   
   disobeying the unjust decrees passed down by authority figures   
   in order to ensure the safety of Jesus. And Paul himself resisted   
   authority and ultimately wrote Romans 13 from jail.In modern times,   
   Christian brothers and sisters abided by Paul’s command to the   
   persecuted Roman church. They presented their bodies as living   
   sacrifices. They refused to conform to the oppressive patterns   
   of this world. Rather, they were transformed by the renewing of   
   their minds. (Romans 12:1-2) Throughout the Jim Crow South, in   
   El Salvador, and in the townships and cities of South Africa   
   Jesus followers disobeyed civil authority as an act of obedience   
   to God — the ultimate authority, the Lord, who loves and demands   
   justice (Psalm 146:5-9, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 61, Micah 4:1-5, all   
   the prophets, Luke 4:16-21, Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:31-46,   
   Galatians 3:27-28). Likewise, Christians who marched in Ferguson,   
   Mo., New York City, and Madison, Wis., follow in the holy footsteps   
   of their faithful predecessors.As one who understands human depravity,   
   your statement demonstrates a profound disregard for the impact of   
   sinful individuals when given power to craft systems and structures   
   that govern millions. The outcome is oppression and impoverishment   
   — in a word, injustice.   
      
   Finally, if you insist on blind obedience, then you must also insist   
   that officers of the justice system obey the U.S. Constitution, which   
   protects the right of all to equal protection under the law. Yet,   
   reports confirm unconscious racial biases in policing, booking,   
   sentencing, and in return produce racially disparate outcomes within   
   our broken justice system.Likewise, you must also call on officers to   
   honor their sworn duty to protect and serve without partiality. The   
   Federal Bureau of Investigations director, James B. Comey, acknowledges   
   that law enforcement has fallen short of this mandate : “First, all of   
   us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much   
   of our history is not pretty. At many points in American history, law   
   enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often   
   brutally unfair to disfavored groups.”Let us be clear: We love,   
   support, and pray for our police officers. We understand that many are   
   doing an excellent job under extremely trying circumstances. We also   
   understand that many officers are burdened by systems that routinely   
   mete out inequitable racialized outcomes.For the past nine months, many   
   of your fellow Christian clergy have been engaged in sorrowful lament,   
   prayerful protest, spirit-led conversations, and careful scriptural   
   study to discern a Godly response to these inequitable racialized   
   outcomes within America’s justice system. We have wrestled with God   
   like Jacob, begging God to bless us with peace in our streets and   
   justice in our courts.Rev. Graham, as our brother in Christ and as a   
   leader in the church, we forgive you and we pray that one day you will   
   recognize and understand the enduring legacy of the institution of   
   race in our nation.Now is the time for you to humbly listen to the   
   cries of lamentation rising nationwide. We do not expect you to be   
   an expert in racial issues, police brutality, or even the many factors   
   that go in to our complicated and unjust criminal system. We do,   
   however, expect you to follow the example of leaders and followers of   
   Jesus throughout the scriptures and modern history. We expect you to   
   seek wise counsel and guidance first from those who bear the weight of   
   the injustice and second from other experts in the field. Ultimately,   
   we invite you to join us in the ongoing work of the ministry of   
   reconciliation.   
      
   In Jesus,   
      
   Onleilove Alston Executive Director   
      
   https://sojo.net/articles/open-letter-to-franklin-graham   
      
   --Lee   
      
   --- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb   
    * Origin: news://eljaco.se (2:203/2)