April 2018 Monthly Letter

Dear Reconciler Family,

This letter was sent to me by Pastor Neil Earle, one of the top writers in our fellowship. He sent this civil rights document to me and I would like to share it with you. I found it fascinating!

“A Healer from History” – Bernard LaFayette Speaks in Memphis

By Neil Earle

The Reverend Doctor Bernard LaFayette was beaten and arrested 27 times as a civil rights worker in the 1960s. Yet his commitment to non-violence has remained steadfast as he explained at a Dorothy Holmes Lecture, sponsored by Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, TN on February 28, 2018.

“We have to know the history so the future will not be a mystery,” he told the attentive audience of about 100 people. “We have to give guidance to those coming behind us. Above all, we must see the moment holistically. Don’t just look at one element or factor, look at the whole constellation of contributing factors.”

Dr. LaFayette is still practicing what he preached as an early co-founder of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (NCSC), while attending college in Nashville, TN. He narrowly escaped death more than once as a Freedom Rider on buses travelling through the south in the early 1960s, trying to publicize desegregation. He held the audience’s attention, talking about the death of his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the only one whose birthday is celebrated in over 100 countries, except Jesus Christ.”

LaFayette still has room key #206 to the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, the site of Dr. King’s murder in 1968. He was in Memphis to help and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) plan the projected Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C. later that year. “Dr. King was a man of his word,” Lafayette noted humorously. “He said he would meet me in Washington, and lo and behold, there is his statue 30 feet tall standing there today.”

Dr. Lafayette’s calm demeanor and gentle style of argumentation marks him even today as a rare activist, “a healer from history,” as a pastor in attendance commented. He stands out as a voice of reason. “We could not have accomplished all we did without the participation of white people,” he added.” Enemies hated them and mistreated them more than they hated us! Having white allies showed it was not a white vs. black struggle, but a struggle of justice against injustice.

Tactics matter. Lafayette outlined specific tactics he used in the case that made him the perfect advance man for the movement in Selma, Alabama, the subject of his biography In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma.

This document reminds me again of the need for RECONCILIATION and why Christ has given us the task of living it and teaching others.

2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us: Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation! Verse 18 states: All this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the Ministry of Reconciliation!

Blessings to all,