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A Lost Letter Found
By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
Some of you may have heard about an old, black lady in
Montgomery, Alabama who found a shoebox of yellowed letters
in her attic. Thinking that they were from her brother who
fought and died in Vietnam, the senior citizen set out the
box of letters for a quick read.
To her surprise, in the box, was a one-page draft of a
letter that purportedly was from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
It was written while he was in a jail in Kennesaw,
Mississippi on trumped up charges of driving without a
license.
The charges were dismissed when his license was
“found” in a second wallet that the police took when they
searched him at the jail. But, for two days, Dr. King sat
in the jail and composed a letter to the Southern American
Baptist Convention, which was composed of black Baptist
clergy members.
According to the letter, it was written because Dr.
King learned that several pastors of both large and small
churches were hesitant in contributing any funds to the bank
accounts that were being set up across the South for bail
money for the freedom riders and for marchers who were
getting organized to march on Washington.
When Dr. King heard of their reluctance to contribute
and help out but yet they were quick to sponsor extravagant
church parties and celebratory events, he hastily penned the
following paragraphs in hopes of convincing them to not be
intimidated by the white pastors and the police departments
who were threatening them with unannounced visits from the
fire marshal if they had church gatherings during which
attendance numbers exceeded state limits.
Here is that letter:
To My Brethren In The Lord:
Under the dire circumstances of my present
imprisonment, allow me to greet you one and all and hope
that you are in good health and are maintaining the unity of
the Body of Christ as Paul the Apostle so exhorts us to do.
As you may know, I am here in Kennesaw. I am in jail
awaiting bail on the charge that I was driving without a
license. I can assure you that such a charge is not true and
I await my chance to be vindicated in a court of law. My
license is valid and I know that when Coretta and I were
stopped, my license was on my person but suddenly it
mysteriously but temporarily disappeared.
I can assure you that the license will be found and
my wife and I will
be on our way back to Atlanta.
However, I am troubled in my spirit because of
information that Ralph Abernathy, my trusted and true aide,
has disclosed to me and that is your organization is
hesitant to contribute to the financial needs of the freedom
marchers and protesters in Mississippi.
I received that information with much sorrow since as
you know, the black church has always been the beacon and
the castle for many generations of our people in order for
them to get a sounding of their station in life; and to
receive nurture and guidance from the collective wisdom of
the black clergy and its members.
To hear that the Church of God is feinting and falling
away from an engagement in the struggle to see that all of
God’s children have a chance at a full life and are free
from the tyranny of segregation is news that is most
disconcerting to me.
We as black clergy do not have the privilege or right
to withhold our blessings and goods from those in want and
in need and especially those who are risking life and limb
to be free from the stifling bondage of discrimination; and
from the bite of the oppressor who corrupts the image of our
brothers and sisters who are trying to model the concepts of
Christ.
If our clergy members, who profess a calling to serve,
are not engaged in displaying the social acts of their faith
in action, then where are we as a collective body of
believers who pray and believe on Sundays but on Mondays and
Tuesday, give lip service to the principles and ideals that
we spoke so eloquently about in the pulpit and in the hymns
of the church?
If the clergy cannot remake the image of God in the
reflections of the people that populate their Sunday
services, then why do we preach or teach a gospel that only
remains alive inside of buildings with stained glass
windows?
To proclaim to an oppressed people that you love them
as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it but yet
when social circumstances dictate that such a wholesome love
must propagates arms and legs so as to give visible
demonstration to that preaching text and nothing is visibly
produced, we have failed.
We have failed to demonstrate the phileo love of which
we have been schooled in and we have failed to demonstrate
the agape love of which we were first loved by God.
To allow our love of the purse to dictate our policy is
akin to allowing a rich well fed man to dictate what will be
the diet of his poorer cousin.
That should not be so.
I need not tell you that the collective wealth of the
black churches in America is great and is growing and needs
to find tangible expression in accomplishing those tasks
that make freedom not a distant hope but a present reality.
Is it too much for my fellow clergy to come together
and throw off the stifling harness of denominationalism and
with much largesse, joyfully contribute to our brothers and
sisters in need?
By what standard can we with a clear conscience pass
the offering plate each Sunday and bank those collections
but turn a deaf ear to the very people who made such church
wealth possible?
How do we justify our place in the black community when
we are inured to the sufferings and deprivations of people,
who for the lack of a few dollars, cannot pay a utility bill
nor put sufficient food on their tables?
By what god do we profess an allegiance to if we are
cocooned in our trappings of wealth and smug satisfaction
but when we are asked to contribute to the needs of the
saints, we draw up our long preaching robes and move away
from the fingers that are reaching out and pressing us for
relief?
Have we no moral conscience when we are asking others to
give to us but when the time comes and we are asked to give
to others, that we withhold that which we could impart
without undue hurt or discomfort?
I pray for a time when we pastors collectively join
together to share the church’s collective wealth, that we
remember that we came from dust and to dust we return; and
we will forge alliances with each other and open our
church’s bank accounts and fund our own struggle and wealth
building strategies.
Peace and Grace to you all.
Martin
(Note: this letter starkly reminds me of the pleas that have
been made locally to the black church to come together and
“tithe” 10 percent of their weekly income to a common fund
for the economic development of the black community but
regrettably so far, those appeals have fallen on deaf ears
largely attributable in my opinion to the fears that many
black pastors have of sharing “their” collected Sunday
monies for community development…so, so very sad and
retrogressive).
Contact Lafe Tolliver at Tolliver@Juno.com
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