Substance and Expression

Personal Reflections during Graduate School at Andover Newton Theological School
May 16, 2007

A Personal Reflection on The Relationship Between Spirituality and Social Justice

Spirituality and Social Justice are like vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce – they belong together.  Without spirituality, social justice lacks substance.  And, spirituality without social justice is bottled up essence without expression.

Prayer can deliver practical results and we should come to expect more of our prayers, to trust that they will be fulfilled.  Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel made strong demands on prayer.  They depended on it in their personal lives and called upon their communities, both small and large, to engage with it.

It is unfortunate that faith has been discounted in public life.  What a tragedy to deny and overlook its contribution, for it is a resource always at hand.  The oversight by the television journalist at King’s memorial service is just one example of how spirituality is trivialized and misunderstood.  The reporter neglected to acknowledge Dr. King’s own ministry –“And so today there was a memorial service for the slain civil rights lead, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  It was a religious service, and it is fitting that it should be, for after all, Dr. King was the son of a minister.”(1)

Humanity appears to be a slow learner when it comes to applying spirituality to the human situation.  Perhaps one reason it is so perplexing is the idea of relying on something intangible, non-material, for what appears to be a material situation.  But, there is a body of evidence on the side of the acknowledging the coincidence between the human and the divine at work in the world.

Heschel and King seemed convinced of the power of a practical spirituality and they operated from that standpoint.  They acknowledged a synapse between the two, material and spiritual, planes of existence.  King spoke about it in terms of “meeting physical force with soul force”(2)  and Heschel talked of a “leap of action.”  In his essay, “Religion and Race,” Heschel eloquently addresses the synapse between faith and action, “It is the audacity of faith that redeems us.  To have faith is to be ahead of one’s normal thoughts, to transcend confused motivations, to lift oneself by one’s bootstraps.  Mere knowledge or belief is too feeble to be a cure of man’s hostility to man, of man’s tendency to fratricide.  The only remedy is personal sacrifice: to abandon, to reject what seems dear and even plausible for the sake of the greater truth; to do more that one is ready to understand for the sake of God.  Required is a breakthrough, a leap of action.  It is the deed that will purify the heart.  Is it the deed that will sanctify the mind.  The deed is the test, the trial, and the risk.”(3)

For Heschel and King, social action was a proving ground for their faith.  Addressing the injustices of how humans treated one another, whether it was speaking out against the Vietnam War or leading the Civil Rights Movement, gave focus to their personal beliefs and made them vital agents of a God-based morality.  As prophets they argued on behalf of a divine source that humanity should not be indifferent about its immoral behavior.  Killing other human beings and demeaning one another is not acceptable and should not tolerated by anyone.  When criticized for speaking out and departing from society’s confinement of the clergy to the sanctuary they cited prophetic text from the Hebrew Bible about God’s involvement in “the affairs of the marketplace.”(4)   They made a difference in raising the collective consciousness of the times.  Humanity owes a huge debt of gratitude to these two men who interfered with the status quo and dared to wake us humanity from the heavy sleep of indifference.

In reflecting on the readings and discussions of the semester, I wonder what message lies in the examples of Heschel and King for those of faith today?  How can we call on our spirituality on behalf of social justice?  And, what blessings on our spirituality might we envision from engaging in social justice?

The first thing that strikes me as critical is the need to come at this subject of social justice from a place of total authenticity and divine leading.  Both Heschel and King engaged in the public square not from any grand notion of what they would get from it or the recognition they would receive from it, but because their moral, internal voice required it of them.  And when they spoke it came from an authentic, deep place of spiritual knowing.  Because of this grounding and clarity, their messages penetrated and spread to other honest hearts.

Second, they seemed to have some awareness of the obstacles they would encounter as they engaged in they prophetic roles.  They expected backlash and acted as wisely and prudently as they could in forecasting the resistance their messages would bring forward.

Third, they kept their vision of “a just and better day” always before them.  They cited it often in their public addresses and kept it fresh in their own thinking.  They acknowledged discouragement, but they never publicly abandoned their hope.  “The greatest heresy is despair, despair of men’s power for goodness, men’s power for love,”(5)  Heschel said.

Fourth, King and Heschel had a sense about the potential and danger of organized religion.  They each used the authority of their roles within their religious traditions to credential themselves, but they also reserved an aspect of “outsider” status in order to speak against the flaws and limitations of their institutions.  Both men gained access to the public stage by using the privilege of their ministerial position.  And, they kept the stage by acknowledging to their audience who was not of their faith the shortcomings of their faith, and well as putting the flawed “faithful” in the audience on notice.  An example of this is when Heschel addresses white humanity, including the Jews’ shortcomings in coming to the aid of Afro-Americans.  He writes, “It is time for the white man to repent.  We have failed to use the avenues open to us to educate the hearts and minds of men, to identify ourselves with those who are underprivileged.  But repentance is more than contrition and remorse for sins, for harms done.  Repentance means a new insight, a new spirit.  It also means a course of action.”(6)   Another example is when King speaks to the foibles of the church institution in Stride Toward Freedom when he cites a list of things the church should do to live up to its ideals.(7)

Lastly, the fifth insight I gained from King and Heschel is how vital their spiritual grounding was to their effectiveness.  Without it, I’m convinced they would have not been nearly as so effective.  Their early and on-going spiritual education, the spiritual mentors in their lives, individual spiritual practices, and close community of spiritually minded friends gave them the resources and the re-fueling stations they required.

Individuals of faith must pick up the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel.  We must draw on our spiritual substance and not shrink from using it and publicly acknowledging its value in addressing humanity’s challenges today.  We must not be afraid to speak from a place of inner conviction and hope about humanity’s future – trusting that our convictions will find meaningful expression and contribute to the healing of injustice everywhere.

Footnotes:
1.  Frederick L. Downing, “Martin Luther King, Jr. as Public Theologian” in Theology Today, p. 16.
2.  Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” in A Testament of Hope, p. 218.
3.  Abraham Heschel, “Religion and Race” in The Insecurity of Freedom, p. 97.
4.  Ibid, p. 93.
5.  Ibid, p. 98.
6.  Ibid, p. 97.
7.  King, excerpt in Stride Toward Freedom in A Testament of Hope, pages 477-481.