Day 1- Selma
Today we finally stopped the never-ending drive and made it to our first stop- the Park Service Interpretive Center outside Selma, AL to learn more about the protest walk from Selma to Montgomery that helped make the Voting Rights Act a reality. The movie there was a jarring and ugly reminder of what hate looks like in action. To watch African-Americans bring refused the right to vote, to watch them intimidated and arrested while trying to register to vote en masse, to watch white police officers beat peaceful protestors who tried to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and even chase them back to the steps of the church where they gathered was shameful for those of us who have white skin. And the words of Ephesians 4:30 came to mind, "do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption."
After the sobering reality of what happened on that bridge and on the march to Montgomery, we traveled to Selma to see the church where the protestors gathered and walk across the bridge ourselves. But what surprised the students the most was the condition of downtown Selma. The houses were falling apart and the public housing was barely kept up. The town didn't reflect the pride of what happened there and it seemed that economic conditions for the mainly African-American residents of Selma hadn't changed much in 50 years. These deep, meaningful things that had happened seemed only remembered in signs and weren't lived out in changed possibilities for the residents that live in Selma now.
We gathered for moments of quiet in the woods on the other side of the bridge to take in the reality of where we'd been before driving to Montgomery for the night. The members of Messiah Lutheran in Montgomery are hosting us and church members took us to their homes so we could shower. I traveled to the pastor's house and he shared about his own view of racial inequalities and the state of race relations in Montgomery. And the conversation echoed some of the realities we faced in Selma. The Civil Rights Era was such a powerful time, a God-soaked time in our nation. So much happened to move changes in law forward, but that passion isn't bubbling up anymore. There are still entrenched patterns of racism that are deep within the culture, but not the same energy to change what is.
On this trip, we work to be an intentional Christian community. So we gather each evening for conversation, reflection and prayer and it was a deeply holy time tonight. To struggle with things that are not how God wants them to be and to be together with our brothers and sisters in Christ as we do so is holy ground. We look forward to where God is leading next.
And we know that part of where God is leading is to Birmingham, where we will spend tomorrow. We will worship at 16th St. Baptist Church, where 4 girls were killed while in Sunday School because of a blind hatred of those who fought for civil rights. And we will visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute before gathering with a retired Lutheran pastor for dinner. Pastor Graetz was a pastor during the Montgomery bus boycotts and had his home bombed 3 times for supporting the protest. Pray for us, that we may be open to what God may do tomorrow.