Confronting the KKK: Provoking Hate vs. Promoting Peace

Originally published in the Commercial Appeal, Holy Saturday, March 30, 2013

By The Rev. Dr. Doug Bailey

Photo by Mike Maple, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)On a Saturday morning in January, 1998 the Ku Klux Klan came to Downtown Memphis. They were bound for the Shelby County Courthouse.  Across the street from the church where I served as Rector. This extremist white supremacy group, exercising  Constitutional rights, came to rally in the city of Dr. King's assassination. They came to protest a national holiday which commemorated Dr. King, the black preacher, prophet and charismatic leader of America's  nonviolent civil rights  movement.

Photo by Lance Murphey, The Dailey News (Memphis)The Klan also came to provoke, to bring hate and to divide. A large crowd  assembled in opposition to the KKK. Areas around the Courthouse were barricaded. Police were in riot gear. Helicopters buzzed overhead. Calvary  Church’s  Youth Group made a large banner. We hung it over the Adams Avenue entrance to the Church, facing the Courthouse. The banner consisted of one very large word and prayer: PEACE! Several of us clergy in downtown churches invited clergy across the city to join us in a peaceful, nonviolent, counter-demonstration to the Klan rally. Eight clergy were present.

Like a scene from another century, the Klan marched up Adams Avenue to drumbeat. Their white robes were emblazoned with their symbolic burning red crosses. Their white hoods concealed their identities. The parade halted at the Courthouse steps. With microphones, they shouted  taunting, racist words.  The counter -demonstration group  booed and hissed. Our small contingent of clergy, on the front lines behind the roped barricades, locked arms as best we could. One of the Klan’s “exalted dragons" read a perverted version of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream" speech  (You can imagine it!).

The Klan came organized. Counter-demonstrators were disorganized. The Klan was there to breed violence. Counter-demonstrators began to show some violence. The Klan’s language became more ugly and vitriolic. Counter-demonstrators grew more out of control. The Klan accomplished their mission.  Anger overwhelmed reason. Counter-demonstrators broke through the roped barricades. The yoked arms of eight clergy provided little resistance.

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IDR, Inc: Dismantling Racism

This article was originally posted in our May E-news. Click here to read the full version.

In January 2002, I accepted a faculty position in the Divinity School at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. For almost a decade I taught and led courses (including immersion) in Urban/ Social Justice Ministry. Much of what I taught I first learned from my ministry in Memphis. In those courses we provided a strong biblical foundation for leading spiritual, servant and social justice ministry in city congregations. We created designs for urban evangelism. And, we designed some important tools for dismantling racism and community organizing.

One of our first black Divinity School graduates, inspired by urban ministry courses, wrote his Senior Thesis on: “No Beloved Community Without Dismantling Racism". It was the foundation for a crucial nonprofit in our city.With support and partnership from certain clergy, and with seed funding from a community foundation, he initiated the Institute for Dismantling Racism, Inc. IDR developed a partnership with the national Crossroads Anti -Racism Training Program (Chicago).

Today we have nearly 1,000 graduates of IDR training in our region. Graduates include: Winston-Salem Police officers, health, clergy and congregants from churches, divinity school students, nonprofit leaders, public and private school teachers, local government, business and community foundation leaders, among others!

IDR provides life-changing education, training and resources for dismantling institutional, systemic and culturized racism. Transformational differences are happening in people's lives, and in the organizations where they work and serve. Yet, most of our nation’s institutions remain fundamentally unchanged regarding racism. They still function internally with structures created ages ago. Those structures continue to limit equal access for all of the people of America.

Without dismantling racism, none of us will truly become “free at last". Dismantling systemic racism remains THE urgent work of our generation.

One wonders: When will come the day and the experience of our nation’s resurrection from racism?                   

Gordon Cosby's Downward Easter Life

Posted April 2013

“The deepest truth of Easter is that Jesus wants to relive his life through us".

Those words emerged in my morning prayers some years ago. They arrived in bold print. They gave me chills, as if with fevered sickness. My only sickness, however, was the blunt reality of just how very far I live from the truth of those words.

I have met a man who lived that deep truth of Easter. He “allowed Jesus to relive his life through him". Like legions of others, my life has been forever changed by this ordinary and very extraordinary man: Gordon Cosby! 

Gordon lived more like Jesus than any person I have ever known. He died, as he lived, with Jesus as the perpetual potter for his clay. He died, as he lived (for most of his life), with his beloved Mary at his side. He died, as he lived, with quiet, quintessential joy and authentic  humility. He died, as he lived, only after an abundant and accomplished life.

He died in the early hours of Wednesday before Holy Week, 95 years young, still searching for the “essence" of following Jesus. Gordon's Resurrection Memorial  Service was celebrated at Foundry United Methodist Church, DC, on Saturday, April 6, 2013. His life and ministry has become a legend in our time.

The founding Pastor of The Church of the Saviour, Washington, DC., Gordon served his congregation and their prophetic  ministries for over half a century. His remarkable and nationally renowned congregation and their ministries transformed major sectors of Washington, DC. His radical vision for ministry, by inspiration and ripple effect, transformed other churches in cities across our nation, from San Antonio to San Francisco, from Minneapolis to Memphis.

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2013 City of God Conference News

posted April 2013

Most of you are aware, through our website and network, that our 2013 “City of God" urban ministry conference has been suspended until June 2014.

The primary reason is the late sale of our residential partner, Washington Theological Union. The new buyer would not negotiate the provisions of our contract with WTU (and all of their other contracts) through June 30, 2013.

We are very grateful  for the interest and support from urban clergy and lay leaders in city churches across the country. We are already at work in preparation for the 2014 conference. Many thanks! 

Grant Enables Training for Urban Church Coalitions

posted April 2013

CFUM, Inc. has received a superb grant, a portion of which is intended for providing training resources for urban churches (preferably, a cluster of ecumenical urban congregations) in the year ahead. 

We are seeking churches who are committed to the transforming work within city congregations in order to do Christ's transforming ministry in your cities. This grant enables CFUM, Inc. to offer consulting/mission strategy training with congregations  at significantly reduced rates. We hope for a commitment for a minimum of two training/workshop sessions, presumably, Friday-Saturday events.

CFUM, Inc., and the Grantor, perceive that such mission strategy workshops will inspire and build quality urban ministry on a more sustaining basis. Interested church leaders, please contact me at baileydm@wfu.edu, or at CFUM, Inc. Thanks! 

Lent: Travelling Underground & Wild

Posted March 2013

Traveling companions with me this Lent are two dangerous books, dangerous because they are so brutally honest: THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH: Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus, by Robin Meyers, and WILD: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed.

I am devouring these writer’s blunt, bell-ringing words. In a strange and parallel manner, both books speak rare volumes to our deeply troubled contemporary Church.

Can we not confess together that today's Church is a mess? 

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Flashmob Flourish

posted February 2013

Each of us hunger for authentic  renewal moments. So, receive this nourishing YouTube moment  from CFUM. It is a wonder-full  flashmob in a Barcelona public square. In this square stands a living statue; an artist with a contra bass. A young girl places an offering in the hat perched on the pavement. She receives more than her wildest expectations. As does everyone in Sabadell Square on that Spring evening. This Flashmob is a form of “ministry in the marketplace" at its best. Be cheered! Then, remain with us in this E-news for some thoughts about an “Ashmob" for Ash Wednesday.