This blog is longer than usual, but I don’t see how to divide it…

In writing about Ruth chapters 3 and 4, I mentioned that Pastor Robert Gelinas of Colorado Community Church talked about the seminal book Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman, who is described on the book’s Amazon website:

Howard Thurman (1899–1981) was a man of penetrating foresight and astonishing charisma. Hailed by Life magazine as one of the great preachers of the twentieth century, he was a spiritual advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr.,… The first black dean at a white university, he was the cofounder of the first interracially pastored, intercultural church in the United States. His vision of the world was one of a democratic camaraderie born of faith.

I’ll say upfront that I’ve read a lot of books, Christian and secular, about racial injustice and race relations. This one moves me more than any of the others. I’m going to share a few thoughts from chapter one, which closes with an overview of the rest of the book. I recommend you read the book for yourself – it’s not long, just 100 pages. Here are some highlights.

Study this one. It’s horrifying:

It has long been a matter of serious moment that for decades we have studied the various peoples of the world and those who live as our neighbors as objects of missionary endeavor and enterprise without being at all willing to treat them either as brothers or as human beings. I say this without rancor… – page 2

“Seeing people…as objects of missionary endeavor…without being at all willing to treat them either as brothers or as human beings.” Ouch.

The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them? – page 2

This story is long and contains observations from a Hindu in what was then Ceylon. It sets the stage for Dr. Thurman’s theology of how one should live:

In the fall of 1935 I was serving as chairman of a delegation sent on a pilgrimage of friendship from the students of America to the students of India, Burma, and Ceylon. It was at a meeting in Ceylon that the whole crucial issue was pointed up to me in a way that I can never forget.

At the close of a talk before the Law College, University of Colombo, on civil disabilities under states’ rights in the United States, I was invited by the principal to have coffee…He said to me, “What are you doing over here? …This is what I mean.

“More than three hundred years ago your forefathers were taken from the western coast of Africa as slaves. The people who dealt in the slave traffic were Christians. One of your famous Christian hymn writers, Sir John Newton, made his money from the sale of slaves to the New World. He is the man who wrote ‘How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds’ and ‘Amazing Grace’…

“The men who bought the slaves were Christians. Christian ministers, quoting the Christian apostle Paul, gave the sanction of religion to the system of slavery. Some seventy years or more ago you were freed by a man who was not a professing Christian, but was rather the spearhead of certain political, social, and economic forces, the significance of which he himself did not understand.

“During all the period since then you have lived in a Christian nation in which you are segregated, lynched, and burned. Even in the church, I understand, there is segregation...

“I am a Hindu. I do not understand. Here you are in my country, standing deep within the Christian faith and tradition. I do not wish to seem rude to you. But, sir, I think you are a traitor to all the darker peoples of the earth. I am wondering what you, an intelligent man, can say in defense of your position.”

Our subsequent conversation lasted for more than five hours. The clue to my own discussion with this probing, honest, sympathetic Hindu is found in my interpretation of the meaning of the religion of Jesus. It is a privilege, after so long a time, to set down what seems to me to be an essentially creative and prognostic interpretation of Jesus …against the background of his own age and people, and to inquire into the content of his teaching with reference to the disinherited and the underprivileged.” – pages 2 – 4

Some things have changed for the better since the 1930s, but it’s instructive to remember how life was when Dr. Thurman extracted Jesus’ rules for living, knowing that Jesus lived in similar circumstances.

Dr. Thurman makes three simple observations:

We begin with the simple historical fact that Jesus was a Jew.  – page 4

The second important fact for our consideration is that Jesus was a poor Jew.  – page 6

The third fact is that Jesus was a member of a minority group in the midst of a larger dominant and controlling group. – page 7

Given that, how does Jesus counsel the disinherited to live? (And it works for both sides.)

There is one overmastering problem that the socially and politically disinherited always face: Under what terms is survival possible? – page 10

This is the position of the disinherited in every age. What must be the attitude toward the rulers, the controllers of political, social, and economic life? This is the question of the Negro in American life. Until he has faced and settled that question, he cannot inform his environment with reference to his own life, whatever may be his preparation or his pretensions. – page 12

The solution which Jesus found for himself and for Israel, as they faced the hostility of the Greco-Roman world, becomes the word and the work of redemption for all the cast-down people in every generation and in every age. – page 18

Dr. Thurman contrasts the Apostle Paul with Jesus. Paul was a Roman citizen with a certain amount of privileges. Jesus had no such privileges.

[By contrast] Living in a climate of deep insecurity, Jesus, faced with so narrow a margin of civil guarantees, had to find some other basis upon which to establish a sense of well-being. He knew that the goals of religion as he understood them could never be worked out within the then-established order.

Deep from within that order he projected a dream, the logic of which would give to all the needful security. There would be room for all, and no man would be a threat to his brother. “The kingdom of God is within.” “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.”

The basic principles of his way of life cut straight through to the despair of his fellows and found it groundless. By inference he says,

• “You must abandon your fear of each other and fear only God.
• You must not indulge in any deception and dishonesty, even to save your lives. Your words must be Yea—Nay; anything else is evil.
• Hatred is destructive to hated and hater alike.
• Love your enemy, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.” – pages 23, 24 – it’s the end of chapter 1 and an overview of the rest of the book, bulleted for clarity.

There is a chapter for each of those four points:

• Fear
• Deception
• Hatred
• Love

Powerful stuff. He lets no one off the hook. After telling the train story that I mentioned Saturday, he tells of watching two little black girls wishing harm on a little white girl. Hatred is wrong, no matter who does it. And, from the first snippet, he writes “without rancor.”

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2.1 – 4, ESV)

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. (James 5.7 – 12, ESV)