Inside the Core This Week: The Whole World is Watching  

I normally don't write "Inside the Core" over the summer, when classes are not meeting, but I felt it was important to write about the situation happening over the murder of George Floyd. As of now, there have been protests over this death in all fifty states and at least sixteen countries. As protestors used to say in the late sixties, "The whole world is watching." Though George Floyd's death is only the latest in a (too long) series of similar tragedies, it has had an enormous impact. A number of people connected with the Core have been involved in protests, including me. I went to a march in Newark on Saturday, May 30, organized by People's Organization Progress. The march was peaceful, despite the large numbers (at least 5000 people), and everyone was required by the organizers to wear masks, which were distributed at the march to anyone who came without one. I attended with my daughter, sister, and niece. Chants ranged from "No justice, no peace" to "I can't breathe." There will be many other marches in the area, and I know faculty are planning to attend some of them.

Cardinal Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, recently made a statement, specifically directed to the death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests, that expresses how we must work to eradicate the sin of racism. He says, "Our tolerance of racism and collected deafness to the cry of those so grievously offended and the conscious and unconscionable promotion of divisions in this nation has encouraged the heinous evil of racism to promulgate." He goes on to explore how the current cultural context can exacerbate the deeply existing inequities and polarization. This kind of reflection and critical thinking is inherent in "engaging the world," explicit in our Core III classes and implicit in many of the questions of meaning and value explored in both Core I and Core II: "Violent rhetoric, selfishness, and even the crude appropriation of religious symbols conspire to produce a malevolent miasma in which the sin of racism may flourish unchecked. Our society will make no progress in addressing the evil of racism without the will to leave behind the purveyors of polarization." How we go about achieving the goals of peace and justice called for in the protests is addressed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted by Cardinal Tobin: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

I want to close with a passage from the prophetic book of Isaiah, which I sent to the Core I and II faculty. The Bible is not a prop to symbolize earthly power, but a sacred revelation of love and light, mentioned by King, that can conquer evil. It is certainly a power, but very different from earthly dominance, and ultimately much stronger. I wish and pray for everyone reading this peace and health.

Isaiah 58:1-12

1. "Cry loudly, do not hold back;
   Raise your voice like a trumpet,
   And declare to My people their transgressionAnd to the house of Jacob their sins.
2. Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways,
   As a nation that has done righteousness
   And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
   They ask Me for just decisions,
   They delight in the nearness of God.
3. ‘Why have we fasted and You do not see?
   Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?'
   Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,
   And drive hard all your workers.
4. "Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist.
   You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
5. "Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?
   Is it for bowing one's head like a reed
   And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
   Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?
6. "Is this not the fast which I choose,
   To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
   To undo the bands of the yoke,
   And to let the oppressed go free
   And break every yoke?
7. "Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
   And bring the homeless poor into the house;
   When you see the naked, to cover him;
   And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8. "Then your light will break out like the dawn,
   And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
   And your righteousness will go before you;
   The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9. "Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.'
   If you remove the yoke from your midst,
   The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
10. And if you give yourself to the hungry
    And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
    Then your light will rise in darkness
    And your gloom will become like midday.
11. "And the LORD will continually guide you,
    And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
    And give strength to your bones;
    And you will be like a watered garden,
    And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
12. "Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins;
    You will raise up the age-old foundations;
    And you will be called the repairer of the breach,
    The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.

Categories: Faith and Service, Nation and World