Bishop Wright: 0:00
You know, the campaigns are over. The people have decided. Will we still have concerns? Yes, do we still have strong feelings? Absolutely, but the work must continue. As I say in the meditation, dr King wanted us to be more offended by poverty and disparity of opportunity and whole segments of the society not being able to enjoy the American ideal, and promise More upset about that than political personality.
Melissa: 0:40
Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. I’m Melissa Rau and this is a conversation inspired by For Faith, a weekly devotion sent out every Friday. You can find a link to this week’s devotion and a link to subscribe in the episode’s description. Hello, bishop, goodness gracious, it’s a big, big weekend. There’s a lot of things coming up, and you based your devotion off of 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 31. And there’s also inspiration from Dr King’s remaining awake through a great revolution dated 1959. And, of course, we’re also going to be celebrating not only the inauguration of our president, who is going to be president again, donald Trump, and it’s also going to be coinciding with the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King’s birthday.
Bishop Wright: 1:33
Yeah.
Melissa: 1:34
Yeah. So this one’s a big one, Bishop. A lot here to unpack. So before we go into the weeds, I’m just curious if you want to give us kind of a big broad stroke about what you’re really thinking about, what’s on your heart.
Bishop Wright: 1:47
Yeah, well, I mean, it’s a big intersection that we’re standing at right. We’re standing at the dawn of the inauguration of the 47th president. It’s fair to say that President Trump has been a controversial figure. President Trump has been a controversial figure. He has won the adoration of many in our nation. He has also won the ire of many in our nation. His election was overwhelming. I think that’s fair to say. It was clear.
Bishop Wright: 2:31
The American people were clear about who they wanted to be their president going forward, and his inauguration takes place on the same day as this nation celebrates the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King’s 96th birthday. So I entitled the meditation 47 and 96. He’s the 47th president. Donald Trump will be and Dr King obviously will be 96 years, and so I think it’s worthy of just stopping a minute and at this intersection and thinking about the way we go forward. Those of us who admire, even adore, president Trump, and those of us who detest him. I think that there are some real lessons from Dr King’s writing and Dr King’s example for how to stand at an intersection with presidents and with politics and be a Christian.
Melissa: 3:29
Yeah, well gosh. So you have a big, bold statement here, right in the middle of your devotion, and you say extreme preoccupation with the flaws of another has a corrosive effect on the human and the national soul.
Bishop Wright: 3:45
Yeah.
Melissa: 3:46
That’s a big, bold statement right there, and you go on to say other things, but we’re living in times where a lot of people are preoccupied with criticizing people any person, not just people in the media.
Bishop Wright: 3:59
That’s right.
Melissa: 4:00
Got any thoughts about that.
Bishop Wright: 4:01
Yeah, I’m worried about preoccupation is what I’m worried about. I’m worried about preoccupation and I use words like it can lead to spiritual and physical immobilization, even paralysis, and it can eventually lead, I think, to despair. Look, I think it’s in the extreme we’re talking about. Obviously, all of us care about the direction of the nation. Obviously, all of us are concerned about leadership, especially as we stand at an important intersection in this nation in regards of, in terms of economy, in terms of our politics, our divided state, in terms of the poor, seem to be getting poorer. The gap, the wealth disparity, seems to be widening. So all of us care an awful lot.
Bishop Wright: 4:48
What concerns me are those people who, on the one side of the coin, idolize a politician, and I worry about that. I worry about the negative side effects of that. As I’ve written, it seems to me that an extreme idolization of anybody can lead to what I call blindness and paralysis. A blindness in that you’re so in love or you so adore someone, in this case a politician, that you refuse to see the gaps, you refuse to even hear legitimate concerns or questions. That’s the blindness part. And then the laryngitis part is that those who may want to raise a constructive criticism but not be partisan. Their voices get squelched such that they end up sort of in what I would call an inaudible whisper, and so that’s not good for the nation, that’s not good for the soul of anybody. And then those people who are hypercritical and they want better for the nation. But they find themselves becoming bitter. In this 24-hour news cycle where it seems like there’s breaking news every three minutes, what worries me is the soul of folks on either side of the equation. And as a Christian and I think this is why I quoted Dr King Dr King found a way to work with all kinds of presidents. Nowhere in his addresses, nowhere in his writings do you see him either idolizing or castigating. He worked with the Kennedys, he worked with LBJ. I mean, he worked with all kinds of folks.
Bishop Wright: 6:24
You know, and as I say at the very end of this meditation, so I think we should be on guard, for, you know, extreme preoccupation in either direction. You know, remember who we are right. We’re the baptized, we’re the followers of Jesus, first and foremost. And so, you know, occupants of any political office are transitory Right, and so Jesus is yesterday, today and forever. And so, while I have my own thoughts about politics. What I’m arguing against is really an excessive and extreme preoccupation to the neglect of the work that Jesus set for us to do, you know, and the neglect of neighborliness. You know, the campaigns are over, the people have decided. Will we still have concerns? Yes, do we still have strong feelings? Absolutely, but the work must continue.
Bishop Wright: 7:20
As I say in the meditation, dr King wanted us to be more offended by poverty and disparity of opportunity and whole segments of the society not being able to enjoy the American ideal, and promise More upset about that than political personalities. And I just think that media is making a killing off of this constant state of outrage that we find ourselves in. And I do think it is fair criticism to say that some media has been weaponized. Is fair criticism to say that some media has been weaponized. And so, while I have no control over any of that, I do have an encouraging word for people on both sides of the political spectrum, and that is if we are baptized, then Jesus is first. The decision has been made by the American people. Let’s get to work.
Melissa: 8:40
Yeah, and you said you mentioned that Dr King was really, really in touch with being responsive to poverty, responsive disparities in education and lack of affordable housing. And it’s like thinking as I read that I was like, yeah, so is Jesus, and I wonder if the trap is. Sometimes I think the trap we fall into is abdication, and that we abdicate the humanities work that I think we’re called into as followers of Jesus and we abdicate that and we ask the government to do that for us. And so I really love your quote here. You say Dr King had a more excellent way and you go on to say that that way seeks partnership, especially among non-traditional partners, while finding solutions for pernicious problems, and all as an act of worship, that’s right.
Bishop Wright: 9:34
That’s kind of big and awesome big and awesome, you know, and this is what it is. I mean, I think that there is this expectation for the followers of Jesus who have happened to be, you know, americans and lived in America. The best examples are men and women who found a way to make coalition and to get work done with people that they might not necessarily agree with on every matter. And they did it because, number one, they love the Lord, their God, with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and neighbor as self. And, number two, that they understood that, look, we are an American family. It’s big, it’s complicated, it’s messy yes, of course, all of that, and maybe twice on Sunday. But here we are.
Bishop Wright: 10:23
Jimmy Carter, in something I quoted not long ago, said that you know, there’s really no future and I’m paraphrasing there’s really no future for hating the country Right. And so if we are upset, if things have not turned out our way, then will we just allow bitterness to have its corrosive effect, or can we redeem the time right, make hay over this next four years, those who have a problem with the president, president-elect at this point, can we make hay during his term, can we find ways to work together on those problems that are neither red nor blue, right? I mean, you know our grandchildren’s education, our children’s education, poverty, this generation, if the scholars are to be believed, will be less educated than their parents and make less than their parents and, as a general matter, have more melees and despair and depression than their parents, right? So there are more serious issues afoot than if we like a politician or if we don’t like a politician. Look, it’s interesting to me to watch how Dr King worked with Lyndon Baines, johnson, and while there’s all kinds of things that have come out based on the Freedom of Information Act and people had conversations and off-color remarks primarily LBJ off-color remarks about things, and those guys were not drinking buddies it is easy to argue that more constructive work got done while Dr King was with us and LBJ was the president, and I think it’s fair to say. If you would ask LBJ at the beginning of his term if he was going to appoint the first African-American Supreme Court justice and get the legislation done 64 and 65, I think he would have said no way, and so I think that you know.
Bishop Wright: 12:31
Look, I take a cue and I’ve told the story, I think, before, but I remember very vividly not long ago ago, during President Trump’s very first term, the very beginning, ambassador Young was with us and he was going to sort of lead some high schoolers in a reflection on Dr King’s life and some young clergy were around and they were just sort of castigating and dumping on. You know, president Trump and you know Andy Young listened like any good grandfather would and I think he reached a sort of his boiling point and boy, he just let these clergy folks have it and what he said stayed with me and I think it’s what I’m trying to get at with this meditation. He said when did you ever see Dr King launch into personal attacks on elected officials? When did you ever see it launch into personal attacks on elected officials? When did you ever see it? And then Andy went the next step and said you don’t have a share in Dr King’s ministry if that’s your approach. Whoa.
Bishop Wright: 13:32
So you know, and I just I remember, like everybody sort of you know, was sufficiently chastised and thank God the kids filed in and then he turned his affections and attentions to the kids and just did a wonderful presentation. But I think that I’m saying that for the baptized, more is expected of us. I mean, what is the strategy the next four years we’re going to rant and rave? Or is the next four years for those of us who are Christian and who are very happy about President Trump’s election? Are we just going to sort of be blind? You know, blind and gleeful and not see the cracks and not see the problems right? I think you know why I quoted. You know scripture here about. A more excellent way is is that Dr King, both with his life and his lips, showed us the middle way. So I don’t actually have to castigate anybody personally to get up every day and work on a policy.
Melissa: 14:31
Right, well, and the best policies are formed with partners. Right, yeah, what does that look like, bishop? Where does the rubber meet the road? How might we go about that work, finding non-traditional partners to do the things that we feel called into?
Bishop Wright: 14:48
Well, I think what you have to find and I’m so grateful to have sort of stumbled I wish I was as brilliant as Dr. King and had sort of these wonderful overarching strategies, but I have sort of stumbled along the way into the relationships with wise mentors. So I think one of the first strategies we can do is find some people who are wiser than us, right? I mean, I think Dr King was mentored by Howard Thurman and a whole host of people, to say nothing of his own father, who grew Ebenezer to an amazing prominence before Dr King, while Dr King was just a young fella. So I think we have to talk to people, and I think the other thing we have to do is actually talk about what’s important here. What is important, you know, ambassador Young again here’s another mentor of mine grew up in New Orleans, louisiana, and his dad taught him to find ways to build bridges with all kinds of people. That was just what was ingrained in him, and so you know, I was talking to Dr Franklin, a former president of Morehouse College and now the Laney Moral Leadership Chair at Candler Theology School, theological School, and he was saying that if we want to be moral leaders number one, you have to sort of immerse yourself in the story of those moral leaders who went before you, so we don’t have to strike on our own right Now.
Bishop Wright: 16:11
Do we all need a chance to vent and do we all have really passionate ideas about politics and the direction of the nation? Of course we do about politics and the direction of the nation, of course we do. But what I’m worried about is that really that sort of, you know, being in a constant state of vent, and I worry about how that diminishes our energies. Look, all of us are finite creatures and we have finite energies and if we spend so much time being hyper watchful and hyper critical of people, we won’t get the work done. The work is not to be critical, hypercritical.
Bishop Wright: 16:46
The work is to move the needle, such that we can move the needle. We do this by looking at examples, we do this by finding mentors who can help us, and we do this by picking the thing that we think really a lot about that touches our heart. So for some of us it is poverty, for some of us it is domestic violence. For some of us it is that we have an obscene mortality rate, child mortality rate, here in a great nation, in an industrialized nation, I mean. So there is a piece of work for all of us to do, and so, in some ways, the invitation that we get from Dr King’s example is find the thing you care about and immerse yourself in this, spend your energies on that. It’s not the same thing as putting your head in the sand like an ostrich.
Melissa: 17:37
It’s about making progress, Right exactly.
Bishop Wright: 17:40
It’s about making progress. It’s about making progress, and what is magnetic across partisan lines and what is magnetic across difference is purpose. People who have a big heart and who care, I find are absolutely magnetic partners and people I hope would say they found a partner in me, somebody who doesn’t agree with them about every jot and tittle, but we can agree on this thing and we can make our way down the road. And so I think this is what Dr King does, and he finds, you know, he finds partners in the Jewish community and he finds partners who are Republican and he finds partners who are Democrat. He finds lots of different kinds of partners. In fact, that was what was so dangerous about Dr King and I do believe one of the reasons why he was killed and that is he was finding he was building consensus. He was building consensus across vast segments of the population and I think this was the absolute danger of him. And so, in a funny way, here he is. He’s showing us how not to fall asleep, either with sort of undue adoration or undue castigation of anybody. He’s showing us how to stay awake in this season of great social change by finding our purpose. Finding our purpose and then, of course. What I like to say at the end of all this is look, there is no Republican or Democrat. Heaven right. This life is a dress rehearsal for an eternity where we will finally see face-to-face that you have always been my sibling, I’ve always been my sibling, I’ve always been your sibling, and that where we will be embarrassed of our smallness. So why not rehearse now, right and find ways and look.
Bishop Wright: 19:30
This essay, this meditation, is on some big, sweeping, national sort of scale, but this thing can happen and it is happening at neighborhood levels, people being neighborly one to the other. It’s happening in congregations. I was at an event at the Carter Center and we were there talking about representatives from the faith community. You know, jews, muslims, baha’is, methodists, episcopalians, I mean there we were all of God’s children and after we got done talking, I overheard and this made my day. I overheard a Palestinian woman and a Jewish woman talking about resuming their baking group together, apparently. Their solution, right, their progress on enmity and hatred, was to get together as women who have children and want a better tomorrow and bake together and get to know one another and dismantle a couple of saints at a time.
Melissa: 20:44
Love that Holy cow. That’s great Bishop. Thank you so much, listeners, I hope you hear the message to take heart. Don’t just stick your head in the sand. Don’t give up, don’t put anybody on a pedestal. Get to work, find your purpose and do the things. Yes, bish.
Bishop Wright: 20:59
That’s what I’m trying myself. I’m doing it myself.
Melissa: 21:02
Come on, let’s do it, bishop. Thank you and thank you, listeners, for listening to For People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright. Please subscribe, leave a review and we’ll be back with you next week.
