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It is amazing how similar the battle for national rights parallels the battle for church rights. This week I received an email from civil rights activist and Georgia house representative, John Lewis. He was a friend of Martin Luther King and was brutally beaten by police in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 while marching for civil rights. In his email, he said: “While we have made progress toward a vision of a more fair, just and open country, the majority of Americans are afraid this country is headed in the wrong direction…. Some leaders reject decades of progress and want to return to the dark past, when the power of law was used to deny the freedoms protected by the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and its Amendments.”

Does that sound familiar for those of us who are working steadily for the reform of our Church? Could we not utter these very same words? “While we have made progress toward a vision of a more fair, just and open [church] , the majority of  [people] are afraid this [church] is still headed in the wrong direction….Some [church] leaders reject decades of progress and want to return to the dark past, when the power of law was used to deny [the message of Jesus that is recorded in the Gospels.”

 Lewis went on to say: “It took massive, well-organized, non-violent dissent and criticism of this great nation and its laws to move toward a greater sense of equality in America….Often, the only way we could demonstrate that a law on the books violated a higher law was by challenging that law. By putting our bodies on the line and showing the world the unholy price we had to pay for dignity and respect.”