Black Farmer Documentary Update

Thanks, friends, for asking about the status of the black farmer documentary. This year has been both a learning experience and a labor of love. Doing research, making contacts, managing the budget, interviewing folks, and watching Shoun Hill and his skills in filming have all been beyond belief.

I have learned that some things, many things, in fact, are beyond  my ability to control. People's schedules, the weather, plane flights, and many other things have been learning experiences.

Our intent is to tell the untold stories of African American farmers who fought against the USDA. Specifically, we are focusing upon those farmers whose stories are untold because they settled their cases administratively, or out of court, prior to the certification of the Pigford Class Action Suit in 1999. This is truly the story of the "Davids versus Goliath." We all know that story.

Shoun and I have now completed one year of the two-year effort. We have interviewed former legal counsel, the attorney who was at the very heartbeat of the movement, three living sons of deceased parents who died prematurely in this fight, and a couple who continue to own their land, as does the family of brothers.

Shoun and I have come face to face with pain and suffering. Another body of research which is yet to be published asserts that the greatest damage is found  in the body, mind, and spirit of the farmer, secondly in his spouse, and thirdly in the lives of the farmer's children. We found this to be so. We listened to and observed both struggle and resilience. We heard stories that they have not shared for quite some time, and other stories that they continue to live out and tell others. We saw both the curiosity of being interviewed as well as the dread and the pain of re-telling the old stories. There has been much laughter and there have been tears shed. The interviews remind me of what I wrote and said back in 1995, "I was not prepared for what I saw, heard, and felt." Stories matter, and the teller of stories matter, and  my commitment remains the same today as then. My commitment, and  Shoun's  commitment is to tell stories in places and spaces that they cannot go or do not want to go. We want to be faithful witnesses and tellers of those impactful stories of farming while black.

More could be said, but this  is intended to be a short summary.

For 2019, our travel and filming schedule will be much more economically costly and complicated. We will  be in several states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and the greater DC area.  We will interview farmers and families, experts in the area of discrimination at the hands of an unwieldy bureaucracy, the USDA and its complicated system that stretches from DC to the local level. We will interview former employees of the USDA and hopefully of the DOJ. These are people who lived through those pivotal days.

Some farmers have passed on into the arms of their maker. Some may actually pass while we are waiting to see them. Some of those who remain with us are increasingly elderly.

We have read a huge number of pages of reports, academic articles, and newspaper articles. They are informative, but there is nothing as moving as hearing stories being told.

Please continue to follow this blog for future updates.

If you'd like to know more about my collaborator, Shoun Hill, please check out his web page or his video.

If you want to know more about what this is all about, please read this article, or this one, or see this man's photography. 

The Parable of the Soils of Justice

And again, the speaker stood up on the podium and behind the microphone, and his words burst forth in a voice unlike any had heard. He spoke with a furrowed brow and with resonance and emotion in his voice and the words rolled off his tongue as if he had said them before.

“Listen carefully to these words. The justice worker went out to spread the word of righteousness across the land, how people should be treating other people regardless of skin color, addressing the depth of the breadth of institutional racism, unfair lending laws, the costs of segregation, inequalities in the health care industry and health disparities, unfair practices at the county level for home and operating loans for black or Indian or women or Hispanic farmers, and a myriad of other ills that have befallen the countryside and the city. 

Some of justice worker’s words fell on hearts that were unprepared or unwilling
to hear and inner voices of ‘not me,’ ‘not my people,’ or the subtler, ‘if he’s right I’m wrong and I’ll have to sacrifice all that I’ve built,’ and the words of the world of whiteness stifled out the words and sentiments of justice. Some of words of the justice worker fell on ears that seemed to want to hear and hearts that seemed open and in those moments of the conference hall there were signs of agreement, but once the person stood back out into the sun of her life and felt the harsh glare of family and friends and society and church saying, ‘not so, too much effort, too much, too much,’ and ‘besides, we’re all good people,’ and ‘I have friends of color, so she’s not talking about me’ and she went on her way untouched and unmoved.

Some of the justice worker’s words fell upon hearts that took it in, at least on the surface, but unbeknownst to all, beliefs and attitudes and practices and family and friends choked the words and sentiments away. Years and years and years off white supremacy, decades and decades of wealth based upon skin color, centuries and centuries of living within systems that profit one set of people and kick to the curb other people groups simply could not be altered, so ideas of change were quickly, very, very quickly starved out, even before the people and their hearts reached home.

However, the justice worker’s words fell upon other hearts who took it in, pondered the truthfulness of things gone very, very wrong for some people and gone very, very right for other people. He realized that slavery and ownership of human beings had permeated the soil and the hearts and soils of all around, and had so for centuries. He said to himself, ‘these things shall not be so in my world and in my family, and I will do all that I can to address them and make for change. I will create space within my own heart and life and church and neighborhood so that all people are treated fairly and justly regardless of skin color because all are God’s children, every color dark or light. I will listen to stories of marginalization and I will encourage others to do the same. I will work to create equality and opportunities and communities that promote change. And I will teach my children to treat people well and they will teach their children. We will march, we will write, we will protest, and we will write songs and sing them in the public square. We will walk the halls of state congressional buildings and we will do the same for national congressional buildings and we will knock on the door of change-makers and rule-breakers for changes in the laws and policies of our country. And one day, we will notice that justice does rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” And it was so.

I Want to Be Amazed

Dear Lord:

I want to be amazed

I want to be shocked

I want to be stunned

Right from the start.

I want to stand wordless

I want to stand in awe

I want to feel overwhelmed

With what I just saw.

I want to be amazed

At acts of love

I want to be amazed

At justice found

I want to be amazed

At kindness from above

I want to be amazed

At simple things profound.

I want to be amazed

At kindness across the isle

I want to be amazed

At fidelity to your story

I want to be amazed

When the powerful hug a child

I want to be amazed

When we stand before your glory.

I want to be amazed

When stories of racism make us weep

I want to be amazed

When political views and love emerge

I want to be amazed

When the strong lift the weak

I want to be amazed

When repentance is in an upsurge.

I want to be amazed

When all of us are really equal

I want to be amazed

When LGBTQ people are fully embraced

I want to be amazed

When long after we’re gone, our stories demand a sequel

I want to be amazed

When with compassion our lives are traced.

I want to be amazed

When vitriol resides less and less in the public sphere

I want to be amazed

When monuments glorifying wrongs are no longer here. 

I want to be amazed
When we care for asylum seekers
I want to be amazed
When we see in their children brighter futures. 

I want to be amazed
When my granddaughters are honored for their gifts
I want to be amazed
When church does not leave women adrift. 

I want to be amazed

When people of color feel no fear

I want to be amazed

When the homeless are no more

I want to be amazed

When Jesus returns

I want to be amazed

When justice fills our core

I want to be amazed

Long before Jesus returns

I want to be amazed

When compassion within us burns

I want to be amazed

I want to be amazed

Yes, I want to stand amazed

I want to sit amazed

I want to walk amazed

I want to bow amazed

I want to weep amazed

I want to be amazed

A Parts-Led or Self-Led Political Walk

Lots of things I ponder. I remember Charity Kenyoza from Malawi teasing me about my “pondering,”but he called it more like “pawndering.” We laughed. He was correct about his new friend.

I am pondering the current political scene, who’s who in DC, especially in and around the White House and its current resident. I am pondering you dear reader, and I am pondering me.

It was Dr. Richard Schwartz who developed a meta-framework for our internal system, or our “parts,” and how they are organized in all of their lovely complexity. We are hopefully more often than not led by our “core self,” the self that loves, perceives, is balanced, compassionate, and in touch with the bigger picture of things, the aspect of our true selves that leads almost effortlessly at times. Then, we have our “manager parts,” those parts that attempt to control, avoiding pain and suffering, that would rather tamp things down rather than bringing them out in full force.  Then we have our “exiles,” those parts of us that feel shame, hurt, abandonment, rejection, and deep woundedness. Then, we have our “fire-fighter” parts, those that are good at creating distractions when the focus is too much on pain. Those parts can be impulsive, erratic, intense, and can set one distraction after another when the “manager parts” are losing control.

A therapist has to do a skillful job of negotiating those parts and their internal complexity. Oftentimes, we have to negotiate with the “manager” parts in order to get to the pain of the “exile” parts and we have to put up with relational shenanigans upon putting focus upon the “fire-fighter” parts.

You and I both know, and perhaps you and I are some of those that we actually know, who support and defend the president*. I do not doubt that good people support him and his policies for good reasons. While I may think they are misguided, you or they may think that they are well-founded.

The president* is a parts-led president. Look at his tweets. They are often emotionally unhinged, erratic, angry, spiteful, full of rage, full of denial, and self-promoting and all. We could spend all day on a deconstruction of his character, his parts, and his policies. Most curious is his ability to allow his own “fire-fighter” parts to create diversions when things are getting too hot, or too close to home. But that is another story. For more information on this theme, check out Woodward’s book, “Fear.” It describes a parts-led White House, staff, and president*.

I am most curious about how good Americans support this man and his causes. He is mean-spirited and insults all manner of people. Women, minorities, politicians, and others do not escape his wrath. His hell-bent for power tactics on the world stage are bankrupting our farmers as well as the auto industry and others.

Still, 30% of our country support him. Note that this is not a majority of us, but only a minority that is vocal and defensive in posturing toward him. Many of this group I know. They are friends. They are family. They are good people. They are devout, god-fearing people. However, I am dismayed at what I observe to be the distinctions between their well-lived lives and their not-so-well-lived life of the president and his policies they support. 

Are we self-led or parts-led in our defense of him? Are we well balanced in our assessment or are we blind to his flaws? How is our theology dancing along with our political sensibilities?

When we assert that he is God’s anointed, self-led or parts led?

When we assert that he is making American great again, self-led or parts led?

When we assert that he is an astute business man, self-led or parts led?

When we assert that the economy is going great, self-led or parts led?

When we assert that he is bringing back greater respect for America on the world stage, self-led or parts led?

When we assert that he is going the right thing by engaging us in an economic battle around tariffs and China, self-led or parts-led?

When we observe the number of areas of his administration that are being investigated, self-led or parts-led?

When we observe his family members in the WH as well as his businesses benefitting as he is in the WH, self-led or parts-led?

When we observe the goings on the border (or is it "boarder"), displaced families and children, death of young children, and disenfranchisement of those asylum-seekers, self-led or parts-led? 

When we ignore his racist, sexist, homophobic, insults of all manner of citizens of the US and the world, self-led or parts-led?

When we certain that he is getting America back to being a Christian nation, saying “Merry Christmas,” and functioning at did King Cyrus as God’s anointed, self-led or parts-led?

When we are dismayed at his leadership, policies, treatment of people, his followers, and our own internal and external responses to them, self-led or parts-led? That is a topic for another post.

Just asking for a friend.

Upon Receiving an Invitation

Here are the thoughts that I shared this morning during our church's communion service. I hope they will be useful to you who follow this  page. waymon

For the last quarter in our intergenerational class back there in the corner we have discussed encounters that Jesus had with a number of people in the gospel narratives.

On this, the third Sunday of Advent, and during this season, encounters with Jesus take on a renewed focus. We shudder to think of what would have happened had He not chosen to enter the world as a baby that night in Bethlehem. There the encounters began, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men. Perhaps nameless others. Today the encounters continue.  And the songs that we sing and the emotions that are stirred signify His encounter with us and ours with Him.  From "Silent Night" to "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" to "There’s a New Kid in Town" lying in a manger down the road. We are touched.

In moments of conversation with Him, amazing things happened. Most of those encounters came in moments of desperation, though not all. While Phillip, Nathaniel, and Nicodemus did not sound desperate, they do speak to the longings that we feel when questions are unasked or even unanswered. Perhaps we also find what we’ve been looking for but did not know or understand. The scenario in Matthew 19 when children were brought to Him and the disciples rebuked them speaks to us as Jesus protected them, spoke words of grace over them, and touched them. Maybe we see ourselves in the disciples or in the children.

Perhaps Mary was more desperate at the wedding and so she directed the servants to do what her son said to do. The man who was paralyzed in Mark 2 who both could walk and have his sins forgiven, and that amazed the crowd.

The demon-possessed man in Mark 5 wanted to follow Jesus, but instead he stayed home and told others about what had happened to him, much to the amazement of others.The sick woman in Mark 5 was healed when she touched the hem of His garment and she heard Jesus say, “Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

The Samaritan woman in John 4, a social outcast with multiple partners, heard words of affirmation from the Messiah and many came to believe because of her.

We could mention Zacchaeus, the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter, the royal official and his son, the woman caught in the act of adultery, Mary and Martha as they grieved the death of their brother, Peter’s reconciliation with Jesus, and those on the road to Emmaus whose eyes were opened. 

The stories are many.

The text invites us into those stories and in doing so, we see Him for who He is and we see ourselves for who and what we are. Their encounters encourage our encounters with Him. Jesus chose them. We are chosen by Him. Maybe we have dramatic stories of being chosen. Maybe we have quieter stories of being chosen.

We are chosen. Jesus chooses us. God chooses us.

We gather around this table as Jesus’ chosen ones. As we have been chosen, so we accept the invitation.

Thankfully, we do not choose who comes to the table. God does that. We may be surprised at who comes to the table, who accepts His invitation. Or, some may be surprised at our presence. You know, it works both ways. In such a large sanctuary, we do not know everyone. Everyone does not know us. 

Such it is with the Kingdom. We are all chosen. Everyone belongs.

In the inviting there is grace offered, in accepting a place at the table, there is grace received, as we sit alongside members of the family. Grace offered. Grace received. And we share in the supper of the Lord.

When we hear the words of this text: Luke 22: 14-22, we see that the supper was held during the larger setting of a chosen people, the Passover Feast. For us, we hear of how Jesus chose His apostles and in so doing chooses us. As He directs them, so He directs us to eat and drink with all of the meaning behind the bread and wine.

“Father, as we eat this bread which is His body which was given for us, we accept His invitation to come and eat. And we say thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

“Father, as we drink this cup which is the cup of the new covenant in His blood we accept His invitation to come and drink. And we say thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

December 16, 2018

Park Avenue Church of Christ

Denison, Texas

Freedom to Speak to Breathe to Dream

Voice stifled

Voiceless

Soul-less

Trapped no words 

Wretchedness unspeakable.

Freedom comes

Words come

Those lying entombed

Utterances uttered

Even without words they came forth.

Dreams deferred, postponed, shelved

Silence no sound

Dreams undreamed now dreamed.

Shackles released

Corroded with time

Contracts

Obligations

But now

Set free

Words with wings

Uncaged

Breathe

Celebrate

Breathe

Celebrate

Breathe

Speak

Dream

Let Justice Ring: I Hear He is Coming

Let Justice Ring: I Hear He is Coming: I hear He is coming The preacher told us so He read from a big book That was written long ago. There was a prophet A man who li...

Let Justice Ring: It Seemed to be a Huge Deal

Let Justice Ring: It Seemed to be a Huge Deal: Washington, DC was beautiful that afternoon, September 23, 1997, so beautiful, in fact, that after landing and settling in to the hotel down...

We Are Quite the Mess

I am pondering our present circumstances under the notion of "we are quite the mess." I am curious as to whether or not you would agree or disagree with that assessment.

But an assessment of what?

Globally, we are challenged by the warming phenomenon, and some of us agree with it and some of us do not. Violence is occurring both here and abroad. We see daily the conflicts in Europe, Africa, and other places, and most distinctly here in the US. We have succeeded over the last two years or so in separating ourselves from the world. The USA that once stood with is now standing outside of the circle of relationships between countries. We have a person in the WH who berates our friends and embraces our enemies. That is enough to give pause right there.

Within our own country, we have an economy that looks to be built upon the flimsy foundation of tax cuts to corporations and now the stock market is in a serious crash influenced as well by the tariff war between the US and China, or rather between the president* and China. Our national debt has risen to unbelievable levels at the same time.

Instability reigns in Washington. I have lost count as to the number of indictments, convictions, and court cases surrounding the president*. Never in the history of the US has this sort of thing occurred. Friday's court filings reveal a toxicity that we have not seen since Watergate, and Watergate was simple compared to the current status of things.

Our country just paid homage to a good and decent though imperfect former president. Many of us watched the memorial services, found ourselves moved by the readings and eulogies and songs, and became enthralled as the train bore his casket open to viewers on both sides through the countryside from Spring to College Station. We argued at why the president* and first lady did not read the Apostles' Creed along with others at the memorial service in DC. Some of my restorationist background people said, well, of course not, and some of my other friends said that it was a moment of truth as they did not read what they did not believe. Still others of my friends accuse people  like me of looking for things to complain about.

Still, there is more. We are in season of advent. The Christ-child is coming. The manger will soon have an inhabitant, the shepherds will soon see the star of Bethlehem, and the wise men will make their way to the small town. Christmas trees are up and decorations abound, and our children and grandchildren look with much curiosity and adventure.

We have a collision of worlds, the one in which we live and the one for which we dream. We live in the world as it is and we dream for a better world for our children, grand children, and great-great-grandchildren.

We teeter on the brink of despair and then we arise on the edge of hopefulness. We live in both spaces and places with one foot in the now and one foot in the what shall be.

My prayer is simple, Lord, please save us from ourselves, and please protect the world into which the Christ child is soon to be born. Prepare our hearts so that we might receive this beautiful child. Please give us the wisdom and the courage to build a future of hopefulness for our beloveds.

Church, Gender, and Justice

I have found myself amused, curious, and at times troubled by my friends' responses to this article.

That article is found here an article entitled "Church of Christ Practice Harms Girls Long Term, Suggests 2018 Study."

Several things occur to me: there are gender differences, there are generation differences, and there are theological differences. Then, there are others. For instance, how some of us who are older and male who resonate with concerns for the younger women of our denomination. Count me there.
Another thing that hits me about this conversation is the notion of sin, shalom, and justice. I think we are unjust when our practices situated within the absence of shalom create even more dissonance for us shalom-seekers. If we create more pain, suffering, and dissonance in any of our people, we are guilty of injustices. I want my life to count toward re-creating shalom, and not for marginalizing anyone for whom Jesus died.
Back in the day, I taught a painful course on the integration of psychology and theology. No need to dredge up all of that last semester course. We attempted to look at the assumptions made by theology, science, psychology, and marital/family therapy. Lively discussions we did have. One thing that I recall quite vividly is that all disciplines use metaphor to make sense out of things. Also that levels of data are to be engaged with similar levels of data in the other disciplines. That is too complicated for now. Suffice it to say that that text and theology are not the same thing as the elements of whatever are not the same thing as science.
Good theology and good psychology (at theory and practice levels) should naturally interface well. Poor psychology and good theology will conflict. Good psychology and poor theology will conflict. Poor theology and poor theology may either match or conflict. I think it is left to those of us who care about these things to give equal credence to all angles of the issues. After all, theology is a human-made discipline as is psychology or marital/familytheory/therapy. So, I will continue to critique my theological assumptions as well as my assumptions about science and psychology as science (or not), and I will read the book upon this short article is based. And I will not assign blame to my friends who wind up in different places from me. But, at the end of the day, I want a healthier world for my grandchildren, all of them inclusive of their genders and roles in the church and the world.