JUNE 20, 2020 – POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN
/
COVID-19 has forced our nation into an unprecedented emergency. The current emergency, however, results from a deeper and much longer-term crisis — that of poverty and inequality, and of a society that has long ignored the needs of 140 million people who are poor or one emergency away from being poor.
In 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others called for a “revolution of values” in America and sought to build a broad movement that could unite poor and dispossessed communities across the country. Today, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up this work. People across the nation have joined under the banner of the Campaign to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, climate change and ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.
They are coming together to demand that the 140 million poor and low-income people in our nation — from every race, creed, gender, sexuality and place — are no longer ignored, dismissed or pushed to the margins of our political and social agendas. This is not a matter of the political right v. the political left – this is about what is morally right and morally wrong.
Union Avenue is no stranger to the above interlocking threats to our nation and its people. Situated on the Delmar Divide, we are keenly aware of and frequently discuss them in everything from individual conversations to small group discussions to community forums. Our faith especially informs us that God is on the side of the least of these, from the cry of the prophet Isaiah to the words of Jesus himself:
“If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom by like the noonday. The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruin shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets to live in.” (Isaiah 58)
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke, 4:18-19)
The matters being confronted by the Poor People’s Campaign are matters of faith for us, and they should matter to us indeed.
I had planned on traveling to Washington, D.C. to participate in the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Justice Gathering, but with the outbreak of COVID-19 the event has gone digital! Across the internet and the airwaves, this historic and generational event will drive the vision and agenda of our communities into the heart of the national narrative.
I encourage you to learn about the Poor People’s Campaign (www.poorpeoplescampaign.org) and register for the June 20 digital event and join me in putting our faith to action for the least of these and for all of us together.
For the life of the world to come,
Rev. Michael