Clergy Write Letter from Birmingham

Several church leaders, including representatives of the Christian Reformed Church, compiled a letter late last week in Birmingham, Alabama, dedicated to the work of slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose life and legacy are being celebrated today across the United States.

Specifically, the church leaders wrote their letter in response to King’s famous 1963 "Letter from the Birmingham Jail."

Written by members of the ecumenical group Christian Church Together (CCT), which held its annual meeting last week in Birmingham, the letter underscores what faith in Christ means for the writers: "In the spirit of this loving Jesus, and in the spirit of those who committed their very lives to that love, we renew our struggle to end racism in all forms."

The letter arose from an experience many of the attendees had when they took a break from their meeting to visit the Civil Rights Institute and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

The church was where four girls were killed on Sunday,September 15, 1963 by a bomb laden with dynamite and placed under the steps of the church by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Those who visited the institute and the church were deeply moved by the experience.

Rev. Jerry Dykstra, executive director of the CRC, was among those who made the visit.

Rev. Esteban Lugo, director of the CRC's Office of Race Relations, Kris Van Engen, congregational mobilizer for the CRC’s Office of Social Justice and the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, and two students from Calvin Theological Seminary also attended the meeting.

"We were all involved – and especially Esteban – in writing the letter,” said Dykstra. "We believed it is important to acknowledge the work of Dr. King. His approach to bringing the races together was through non-violence. Much of the progress we have made over the last 50 years in race relations is due to his good work."

Dykstra added that there is still much work to do to establish equality among the races. The CRC synod has, in fact, issued statements to this effect and asked church leaders to work on improving harmony between the races.

The CCT church leaders, who were in Birmingham Jan. 11-14, 2011, to examine the issue of domestic poverty through the lens of racism, noted that apparently no one has ever issued a clergy response to Dr. King's famous letter, says a press release issued by Christian Churches Together.

King's letter was an answer to a message from a group of clergy in Birmingham in 1963. In their "Call for Unity," the clergy appealed for restraint and "common sense," and a withdrawal of support for the civil rights demonstrations.

King chastised them in his letter, writing: "I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and it leadership . . . I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom . . ."

In their one-page letter, CCT members remember with gratitude the sacrifices of the leaders of the civil rights movement, who demonstrated the power of Christian, nonviolent action. They also express repentance that "some of us have not progressed far enough beyond the initial message from the Birmingham clergy."

"Too often our follow-through has been far less than our spoken commitments. Too often we have chosen to be comfortable rather than prophetic. Too often we have chosen not to see the evidence of a racism that is less overt but still permeates our national life in corrosive ways."

Some of their motivation to write the letter was inspired by two windows at the Sixteenth Baptist Church – one where the face of Jesus had been blown out from the bombing in 1963 that killed four the girls, and the another that depicts a Christ figure who with one hand rejects the injustice of the world and with the other extends forgiveness.

Remembering, repenting and renewing were the themes of the letter.

The leaders wrote that they would take time on Monday, January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to reread the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"—along with the message from the Birmingham clergy that prompted King's letter—and to reflect on its meaning for today.

Formed in 2007, CCT is the broadest Christian fellowship in the country, with members from the Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Historic Black, and Evangelical/Pentecostal families.

In addition to 36 national communions, its membership includes six national organizations--the American Bible Society, Bread for the World, Evangelicals for Social Action, Habitat for Humanity, Sojourners, and World Vision. For the full letter and a list of the member communions, go to www.christianchurchestogether.org.

"Though chastened by the unfinished nature of the work before us, we are inspired by the witness we saw reflected in both the history and the present-day ministry of the organizations we have visited in Birmingham," say the writers of the letter.