Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou's blog

As you may know, I am the new Associate Minister for Mission, Social Justice, and Community Action at Middle Collegiate Church.  I am pleased to announce that Danny Glover is supporting our mission by participating in a benefit for our mission.  Our work includes a long-standing meal and community hour for those living with HIV, feeding the homeless in Tompkins Square Park, working with LGBTI homeless youth, a long-term commitment to the just rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, and expanding justice works in the Middle East and Africa.  Please purchase your tickets to support our mission today.

Until justice reigns,
Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou

Emmett, Down in My Heart featuring Danny Glover, Kathleen Chalfant, Kenny Leon and the Middle Church Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir

October 6th, 8pm
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
New York, New York

Below you will find an IM conversation between Shauen Pearce and myself. Shauen is the Co-Director of the Youth and Militarism Program of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and was one of the first African Americans to go on a, FOR delegation to Iran. I am the second African American to lead a delegation [Ed.: Pat Clark was co-leader of FOR's first delegation in December 2005]. Given the politics of race in the U.S. - which seems to be different from my experiences around the world - I asked Shauen about the nature of experience of being Black in Iran and what I should expect when arrive in Tehran. I thought our exchange would provide good insight on what is means to viewed as an African American on foreign soil.

 

Sekou: sup. . . would like to hear your experiences as black person in Iran?

Shauen: yo!

Well, the most memorable is when people came up to me and yelled, "AFRICA" and I said yes, by way of N. America.

"I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive." --Albert Camus

"What"?!!!

"What are you going to Iran for?"

That is the response I get from friend, foe, and loved ones alike. The conversations take a more inquisitive turn when I say that I am leading a civilian diplomacy mission to Iran on the behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. "What do you hope to accomplish?" they ask.

In the tradition of the courageous Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Christians have authored one of most challenging declarations against economic wars. They dare say: "As baptized Christians we therefore solemnly declare: Whoever prays for soldiers but, at the same time, supports military doctrines for the advancement of economic objectives, commits blasphemy. Those who use national economic objectives to justify military actions no longer adhere to the Gospel and separate themselves from the community of the faithful."

As of late I have a had a terrible bout with writer's block. I have listened to enough gospel and Jazz that I started getting Jesus and Thelonius Monk mixed up It is at times like this that I question my calling. Maybe I am in the wrong work. I mean preachers are getting into all kinds of political trouble these days. Two of my colleague that I count as friends: Rev. Wright and Father Phlager have received public lashing for being critical of American politics and politicians.

Yet an unrelenting war wages on the precious people of Iraq. While only a few religious groups, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, the Catholic Workers, have placed at the center of their faith witness ending the war. For the most part, churches have been weak at best and cowardly on the war question. So on one hand if you are pastor who has anything critical to say about politics you are demonized, and on the other if you remain silent in the face of deafening violence, you are a coward.

Below is one attempt to push congregations from cowardice to conscience. I am not sure what is brave or cowardly but when I am asked the question by my five children what did you do to end the war in Iraq? I will say: I organized, marched, preached, went to jail, and wrote... (I hope.)

The current debate about the impact on Rev. Wright's words on the nomination of Senator Obama has missed a critical set of concerns. Rev. Wright has posited in the marketplace of ideas that the dominant theology being preached in the black church is a liberation theology. While I appreciate and affirm this claim as my own theological orientation - which I believe holds true message of the gospel of Jesus - in reality, it is not true.

Secondly, the reification of the black liberation theological project as posited by Rev. Wright proves that the project is stalled. While Womanist critiques have offered some critical insight to the project, it remains, by James Cone's own admission, unimaginative in its development over the last generation. Hence, two questions emerge:

When I was 8 years old, my grandfather, Elder James Thomas, whispered in my ears the words whispered in his ear by his father. "You are of a royal priesthood. You are the heir of a rich tradition, born in the heat of slave, breed in the backwoods, go and preach the word given to your fathers and make your people free!" I have whispered these words in the ears of my five children with the hope that they will continue the prophetic preaching tradition.

While I am a third-generation ordained Pentecostal clergyperson, my work has been both ecumenical and interfaith with progressive orientation. I hold credentials in the National Baptist Convention (licensed minister) the Church of God in Christ (Ordained Elder), and in-care with a local United Church of Christ, where I serve as Senior Community Minister. I was privileged to serve as the founding National Coordinator of Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq. I spend so much time in one Mosque that the "brothers" there call me the Imam's Pastor. That Imam, my dear friend and brother, El Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, once commented publicly, "I do not know if a Rev. Sekou is a preacher posing an Imam or an Imam posing a preacher."

Dear God:

Like all children, I held my mother's hand as sign of assurance against a fall; a touch of loving; a way of being; the last time I saw her I was flying in from a rally of protest with a brief layover in her city. With the fervor of a prodigal son or better yet a prince returned, she made a fuss about me. (I am the baby you know.) We embraced; she sat me down and gave me that stern look and as always told me to be careful and not to make the president too mad. "Yes, ma'am", I obliged. We made chit chat about my siblings-some blue, all black.

As the value of a "Summer Holiday Oil Tax Break" is being debated between the presidential candidates, Oil companies are benefiting from the raise oil prices and wind fall profits. This windfall profits and high oil prices flow directly from an unwise, immoral, and illegal war on the precious people of Iraq.

Consumers for Peace has launched a campaign to hold at least one of these companies accountable and call upon them break with the conventional wisdom of capitalism and share in the wisdom of peace and justice.

The need for real dialog, candid debate, and mutual respect among various faith traditions is central to bridging the widening gap between religions at home and aboard. The claim that peace sits at the center of the Abrahamic faiths begins by "walking together" in the quest for justice. For five years, a group of faithful folks have walked together in Philadelphia, PA. On May 18th, they will continue to make the road of hope, peace and justice by walking to a Christian Church, Unitarian gathering place, a mosque, and synagogue. Please join them. For more information go to: www.interfaithpeacewalk.org