Dear Caldwell,
I wanted to follow up on a few items:
Information on Marie Mancinelli and Terry Nilles on the Loss of Their Parents
For Marie’s late father, Al, who died Sunday night: Visitation will be Wednesday night 6-8 p.m. at the Clay Barnett Funeral Home in Shelby. The memorial service will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at Shelby Presbyterian Church in downtown Shelby.
For Terri’s late mother, who also died overnight on Sunday: Visitation will be Friday 1-2 p.m. at Austin and Barnes Funeral Home, Boone, with the memorial service to follow there at 2 p.m.
In other pastoral news, please pray for Ivan Marcotte, who will have surgery to repair a ruptured knee tendon tomorrow.
Confession from Sunday
We had some rich liturgy on Sunday, whose use goes beyond just the worship hour. In that spirit, below is the prayer of confession Abong prepared. We are reminded that we are a “confessional people,” which is to say that our faith compels us to name our shortcomings, not as judgement but as aspiration to live more faithfully, knowing always that we worship a God of grace and forgiveness. As with this confession, we can offer it not just for ourselves, but for our city, our state and our nation.
Oh God, You have called us to be drum majors for justice, peace and righteousness, yet the work of peace and justice overwhelms us at times and we grow weary. We cry, “Peace, peace” but there is no peace within us or around us. We find ourselves on the path of hatred and oppression, violence and war. We allow the voices of brothers and sisters who do not look like us, love like us, or worship like us to be silenced. We have told them to wait for freedom, justice and equality. We have kept silence ourselves in the face of their struggle for full human life. For it is not solely hateful words and actions, but also appalling silence that follows the path of oppression. Forgive us for the things we have said and the things we have left undone. Give us the strength to speak up for justice. Give us the strength to love the intercultural community of God. Lead us to a new beginning where love, faithfulness, peace and righteousness will meet together. Amen
A Final Word on MLK
Finally, below is something I offered yesterday on Facebook. I normally do not make long statements in that forum, but felt strongly about this one. Some of you may have seen it there. Feel free to react, discuss or disagree on the Caldwell Conversations Facebook page.
“Before the sun sets on this day we set aside to remember all the aspects of MLK (both the comfortable and the discomforting), a word about vigilance.
Trump’s not-so-subtle use of dog whistle politics needs to be called out. When he slurs Rep. John Lewis by including in his Tweet a characterization of Lewis’ district as “crime infested,” Trump is following in a long line of people who have used “crime” as code for “Black and Dangerous.”
Nixon started it with calling drugs “public enemy number one” and closely associated the idea with inner cities (read:Black folk).
Reagan extended it, as did George HW Bush, in his use of Willie Horton followed by Bush 2 and, most recently, our own POTUS elect, who declared himself the “law and order” president. That’s code for saying, “I will keep you safe from those people.” (He’s not talking about white supremecists.)
Truthfully, Bill Clinton did his part by conflating all of this with his crime bill and the related talk of “superpredators.”
The documentary “13th” traces all of this compellingly.
Does America have crime issues? Yes. But take time to look at the data trends.
Meanwhile let’s be vigilant and honest in these days when this president – and anyone else – uses code to divide rather than unite.”
Yours in Christ,
John