These are very dynamic days we are living in, aren’t they? There is so much going on in our country and our community. I read in the newspaper this week that right across from our church, as you look out the front steps onto Essex Street leading to City Hall, a large Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement mural will be painted on the street sometime in June.
Lynn English seniors Carlos Prudencio and Damianny Garrido proposed the project many months ago and the City Council finally approved the large art project on Tuesday night.
The Item mentioned that the mural will sit near the crossroads of three institutions that affect the lives of Black Americans for better or worse – Government, Justice and Law and Order.
I actually think the mural will sit near four institutions, not three. The fourth is Worship (which happens to be represented by our church, Washington Street Baptist WSBC). Immediately, I thought after reading the paper, “Lord, what is it going to mean for WSBC to be right at the foot of this huge BLM mural here in Lynn?”
I recently read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. To be specific, what I read is the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.” I knew that Douglass wrote this when he lived in Lynn, so I’ve been excited to read it.
It is a short book, just about 112 pages in paperback. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it. I actually found it to be a page-turner.
Douglass tells us of his life up to the point of his escape from Maryland and arrival in New Bedford. He depicts his various masters and their degrees of cruelty to him and others.
Douglass was a man of deep Christian faith, and it comes through strongly in his book. But he also has a lot to say about the church and its failings. He talks about the hypocrisy of slave owners who were devout Christians, praying and reading their Bible, and going regularly to church — but then acting cruelly to their slaves.
Many Christian slave owners actually found sanction and support from their religion for their practices. But Douglass makes sure to distinguish what he calls slaveholding religion from the Christianity of Christ, which he loves.
Thankfully, times are different than in Douglass’s day, but unfortunately racism is still an evil force to reckon with in our country. Government, courts, police, school systems, businesses, and other community institutions are having to discuss and confront structures of racism. The church must also.
While I know the Black church has been and continues to be a powerful and positive institution in the lives of people, the overall church in America, even to this day, unfortunately has mirrored division rather than the unity Christ intended for us. The claim that 11 a.m. on Sunday is the most segregated hour is probably still true in America.
But that’s where, as Christians, we can be a light here at WSBC of God’s desire for justice and unity as we seek to be His church together.
Let us pray that God will lead us as a multi-ethnic/interracial corporate body and as individuals to speak, act, pray, and serve so that we glorify Him. We are going to be at the foot of the mural!
“Jesus, lead us as a church in this time and this moment you have placed us in. We are excited, Lord.”
Rev. Peter Balentine is pastor of Washington Street Baptist Church, 256 Washington St., Lynn.
