Speech to the Minister’s concerning fighting poverty

December 8, 2014 Speech to the Minister’s Conference concerning fighting poverty For the past 4 years I have aggressively been involved in a campaign organizing and advocating for the least, lost and left out. We live in a region that has a deep root of a racist system that no longer uses racial slurs, public beatings, and “no niggers allowed” signs that reflects the imperialistic view of the dominant culture. No, the 2014 racist culture is one that now hides within the walls of systematic structures, code languages, robes in courtrooms, managers in interviews and a gentrified program. For 3 years I held meetings in the basement of Pastor Martin’s church – Morning Star Baptist free of charge. We would have in attendance about 60 men and women who would come to find out what they needed to do to get a job. My speech to these disenfranchised citizens became the same each month – FIGHT –FIGHT –FIGHT! Our movement became so strong that Emmy Award winning documentary author Fran Murphy included our movement in her documentary concerning the 50th Anniversary of the “I Have A Dream Speech.” We also were included on a C-SPAN documentary entitled, “A Living Wage.” Through our efforts systems were changed, laws were modified and people got jobs. Through our efforts Lawsuits have been settled and racist companies had to change the way they did business. So far through our efforts over $3 million have been paid to men and women for discriminatory practices, and we expect to see much more. Our passion for this work is deep rooted within what I call, “The Blueprint of Urban Ministry.” This can be found in the Gospel according to Luke 4:18 - 19. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” The social issues that we are concerned about as preachers and leaders all fall under one umbrella – POVERTY. If we alleviate poverty, we would have: • better schools • better health • a better environment • low crime (people always want to talk about brothers killing brothers. They fail to understand that the problem of violence in our community is rooted within the racist plantation of poverty. Can someone tell me how many murders happen in Woodmore last year? NONE, because when poverty leaves a culture, society gets better.) So it has been our mission to advocate against poverty, fighting to change systems on a large scale, while changing people on a small one on one scale. We change systems by willing our power or perceived power. We have, through the grace of God, been able to have the riches of the world to sometimes fund our efforts to organize the people, which wills us power. We also have learned that craziness always gets a response… Finally we recognize that there are always tensions from within our community between the prophetic voice and the priestly voice. The priestly voice wants the prophetic voice to stop being so aggressive. The priestly voice wants to ask while the prophetic voice demands. The priestly voice wants positions while the prophetic voice wants change. We recognize that both are needed at the same time and welcome the support from the inside out of those that have a different methodology for change. In closing, I sit amongst the weak and the worst. I sit amongst the pain and the problems. I sit amongst the rejected and the high-risk and I hear the Lord asking – CAN THESE BONES LIVE?