Beyond Afghanistan – A Time to Break Silence

Posted on January 17, 2010
Filed under Community, Culture, Reconciliation | by Don 1 Comment

The above title is based on some words of Martin Luther King, Jr. spoken at the Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967 – exactly one year before he was killed. It was at a meeting of CLERGY AND LAITY CONCERNED ABOUT VIETNAM, and he began:

“I come to this magnificent house of worship because my conscience leaves me no other choice…. I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of Clergy and Laity Concerned… (and) the recent statement of your executive committee reflects the sentiments of my own heart… ‘A time comes when silence is betrayal.’ That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”

HAS THAT TIME COME AGAIN IN RELATION TO AFGHANISTAN?

We will be pursuing that question at a FAITH & LIFE FORUM on Thursday, February 25th, in Leesburg, Virginia, where the featured presenter will be THE REV. GRAYLAN HAGLER, the Senior Minister at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington DC. He is a long time advocate for peace and social justice and in one of the rallies against the war in Iraq he was credited with giving “The Greatest Speech of the 21st Century,” featured in the documentary “Finding our Voices.”

He has carried his opposition to war in Iraq to the war in Afghanistan, and at a recent event sponsored by the “Bail Out The People Movement” he said:

“Let’s build a world filled with justice…. We need to push and shove to make people do what is right…. If we can reward the banks, then we can surely reward the workers in this country.”

He also voiced strong objections to President Barack Obama’s recent decision to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. He went on to say that everyone is entitled to the “dignity of a job with a future” and that “we need a gigantic jobs program once again in this country that puts everyone to work.”

What is significant about these words is that they parallel some of the thoughts and concerns of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April of 1968 when he was coming to the aid of sanitation workers in Memphis. King had linked the extravagant spending for war with an extravagant neglect of domestic programs, something he had already begun to address in the speech at the Riverside Church when he said…

“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy and laity committees for the next generation… unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy…”

..and here we are, several generations past his prophetic insight and clergy and laity are uniting once again, and the Rev. Graylan Hagler is at the forefront of this questioning of American life and policy. And some other words of King in that 1967 speech at the Riverside Church are relevant…

“I am convinced that…we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

It is out of contexts such as this that Graylan Hagler will relate to concerns around Beyond Afghanistan, A Time to Break Silence… and especially the question: What might Martin Luther King Jr. be saying to America today?

The Rev. Hagler came to Washington, DC in 1992, and has been a major voice in issues of justice and peace ever since. He is on the Steering and Administrative Committee of UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE, a national coalition working to oppose aspects of U.S. foreign policy that the group believes contribute to war and aggression, and it is especially out of this context that he has raised questions about the continuing war in Afghanistan.

But he has also been active in many issues relating to his own community and the District of Columbia. He fought the proliferation of liquor stores in the Black community and has insisted on community participation in development issues. In 1993 he opposed the Exxon Corporation’s plans to build a ‘super gas station’ in the neighborhood where he lives and where his Church is located. In 2003, he broke ground on that same Exxon site after acquiring the property. Instead of a ‘super station,’ 69 units of subsidized apartments for the elderly opened in February 2005. He has also worked to preserve the only publicly funded hospital in the District of Columbia, organized a successful effort to oppose the death penalty from being instituted by the U.S. Congress on the District, and continues the fight against school vouchers, which he sees as a plan to divert funds from public education to private schools.

Rev. Hagler is also the Development Director of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), the largest neighborhood stabilization organization in the United States, which helps working class people become homeowners, and is chaplain to Local 25, Washington, D.C. of the Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees/UNITE. He believes in the dignity and worth of workers and continually strives to support that principle.

He is clearly a prophetic voice in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr., and in the observance of Black History Month in February, it is certainly fitting that he will be speaking at the Faith and Life Forum on February 25. The forum will be held at the Senior Activity Center, 215 Depot Ct, SE, Leesburg, Va. [703-737-8039]. The forum is an expression of the Outreach and Advocacy Committee of St. James United Church of Christ. For more information visit our website at: www.stjamesucc-love.org, or call The Rev. Don Prange, 540-539-0908 or David Weintraub, 540-822-4814.

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One Response to “Beyond Afghanistan – A Time to Break Silence”

  1. Pastor Ray Branstiter on March 13th, 2010 10:27 pm

    Hi Don,
    Not sure if you remember me, I spent my “J” Term with you in WV a little over 12 years ago. I will be back in your area in late April and would love to buy you a cup of coffee.

    Ray Branstiter
    http://www.recoveryworship.net
    http://www.lostandfoundministry.org

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