Bearing Witness & Holding Hope

On Tuesday I returned from a 5-day Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Montgomery, Alabama. My fellow pilgrims and I were led by the amazing Rev June Cooper and the wonderful Rev Dr. Nancy Taylor.

I imagine I will be processing this experience for many days and weeks to come, but I wanted to share some of what I learned here, hoping my reflections will be a challenge and encouragement.

The 13 expectant pilgrims arrived in Montgomery on Thursday afternoon and left the following Tuesday morning. Those 4+ days and nights were packed! Spending time and attention bearing witness to the evils of slavery, lynching, segregation, mass incarceration and so many other accompanying injustices is an important and incredibly hard thing.

This is us on Night 2 with the fabulous Wanda Battle who sang songs and told stories of the Selma to Montgomery march and other movements for justice

We met with amazing leaders and activists who told us the stories of the Montgomery bus boycott, sang songs of the movement, enlightened us on the threads that run from then to now and inspired us with their vision and hope for different future.

It’s not a trip you can easily explain, and I have found that even descriptions of much of what we saw do not begin to capture what we felt as we stood before stone, metal, digital or painted images. So I come here not to describe or explain but maybe as another exercise in bearing witness as best I can.

The persistence, strategy, solidarity and bravery of the activists who conceived of, carried out and joined the Mongomery bus boycott and the 1965 voting rights campaign with the Selma to Mongomery march are something we should all not just know and admire but learn from as we consider how to affect change in our own communities. I bear witness to those men and women who offered their time, their bodies and their persistence to build a more just world.

The eras of slavery, lynching, segregation and mass incarceration are filled with the worst things humans do to one another. Listening to researchers, historians, storytellers and those with lived experience is vital to not only gaining some level of comprehension of the incomprehensible but to begin to see the systems and lies that have enabled these great evils.

In the face of the brutal realties of it all as Christians we are not just forbidden from giving in to despair we are given a spirit of hope that can sustain us when our learning and unlearning makes hopelessness seem like a realistic option. Our faith in a good, loving and just God sustains us but it does not erase the overwhelming difficulty of really seeing and trying to understand the horrible injustices that are embedded in the history of the US.

We are also held by a great cloud of witnesses in the distant and recent past - Christians who boldly, sacrificially and bravely stood for what was right and found ways to bend that moral arc. I was deeply encouraged to see so many strangers engaging with the various sites and organizations around Montgomery telling the stories of oppression and activism and by my fellow pilgrims whose wisdom, enthusiasm, curiosity and hope were deeply important and meaningful for me.

As I often do in the midst of hard experiences and confusing times I have been turning to the Psalms.

Like Psalm 73:28 to remind me where to situate myself:

But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

Or Psalm 37:7 to bring back to practices of holding space to hear the Lord and know his presence

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

But also maybe a little Psalm 10, especially verse 16 - Lord, please

Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out.

I would recommend something like our pilgrimage experience to everyone who is able. But more than the specific trip I hope we all continue to seek out ways to uncover and bear witness to truth and the lived experience of those who have been and are being oppressed and when we know better to do better - working to build a world where everyone can thrive.