A Christian in the Voting Booth, Part 4: Black Lives Matter

 

Service of Worship

Eastern Parkway United Methodist Church

November 1, 2020

Rev. Natalie Bowerman, Pastor

 

Let us pray:

God of the Democrat, God of the Republican, God if the Independent, God of the Third Parties; God of the ballot box, God of the poll watcher, God of the counting machines; God of the protester, God of the disempowered, God of the disenfranchised; God of the first time voters, the hopeful voters, the anxious voters, the frustrated voters—we turn our eyes to you, Show us the way. Amen.

 

Matthew 5: 1-12

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them.

The Beatitudes

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A Message

A Christian in the Voting Booth, Part 4: Black Lives Matter

Friends, as we conclude this sermon series, as we approach Election Day, and as we observe All Saints Day, I wanted to lift up the name of a saint whose earthly work we all benefit from: Susan Brownell Anthony. Born on February 15, 1820 to a devout Quaker family, Anthony lived her life committed to causes of justice, but didn’t start out very focused on women’s rights. She became involved with the cause of the abolition of slavery as a young woman, and didn’t begin to actively fight against sexism until, as a teacher, she discovered that her male colleagues were paid four times her annual salary. As her social awareness matured, Anthony became more involved with temperance, abolition, women’s suffrage, and the availability of less restrictive clothing for women. The latter brought her into the same social circle as Amelia Bloomer, who, in 1851, introduced Anthony to her lifelong best friend and partner in crime, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Stanton and Anthony made a powerful pair, and complemented one another’s strengths. Stanton was married with a large family and couldn’t easily travel, while Anthony was single and thrived as an active public speaker, with the help of Stanton’s remarkable organizational skills. Still, both women were constantly harassed, threatened, and bullied for their beliefs, and encouraged even by men who claimed to be feminists to “listen and learn” while the men spoke. Luckily for us, Anthony was hardly the “listen and learn” type. The opposition Anthony faced only served to radicalize her more, and she began fighting for a woman’s right to own property, use birth control, and file for divorce. In 1866, Anthony and Stanton founded the American Equal Rights Association.

However, Anthony’s work and legacy took a very sharp turn after the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, which secured men of color the right to vote but not women. Anthony and Stanton were enraged that women were left out of the vote, and had a huge falling out with their abolitionist friends, especially Frederick Douglass. Stanton and Anthony then both proceeded to make a number of statements that, especially by today’s sensibilities, can only be interpreted as racist. It’s an important lesson for us today: even our greatest heroes from history were human and flawed. May we learn from the harm Anthony and Stanton did that feminism that fails to be intersectional is really just white supremacy in heels. Anthony herself learned this lesson eventually and reconciled with Frederick Douglass before his death in 1895.

Following this crossroads, Anthony dug in even harder for the cause of women’s rights, and began co-publishing a magazine called Revolution. She then co-founded the National Women Suffrage Association and spent most of her year traveling to deliver speeches and lobby state governments to change voting laws. Famously, in 1872, Anthony voted illegally. She was arrested, tried by an all male jury, faced a judge who had pre-decided her guilt, and fined $100 that she refused to pay.

In 1902 Anthony said “If I could only live another century! I do so want to see the fruition of the work for women in the past century.” Anthony died four years later, in 1906.

On August 26, 1920, the 19^th Amendment finally passed, giving women the right to vote. However, the struggle for equal voting rights was far from over then, especially for our BIPOC friends. Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, last minute changes to registration laws, intimidation, and then outright threats of lynching all served to keep voters of color away from the polls.

But then more saintly women stepped up and fought back. In St. Louis, Missouri, Fannie Williams, a Black woman and a teacher, organized a Suffrage School at her local YWCA, where Black women counseled one another on how to pass literacy tests, navigate tricky registration requirements, and raise poll tax money. Thanks to Williams’ work, nearly every woman in the St. Louis metropolitan area voted in the Presidential election of 1920.

In Florida, a Black teacher by the name of Mary McLeod Bethune travelled the state in 1920 to encourage women of color to register to vote. On the eve of the Presidential election, the KKK showed up at Bethune’s school in an attempt to scare her and her neighbors away from the polls. It didn’t work. Florida women turned out the next day in huge numbers to vote, and many attributed their bravery to Bethune.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was an enormous step in the direction of equality, but tragically many of its protections were gutted by a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. Unequal access to the vote remains a grave injustice to this day. Even in 2020, voter ID laws, closing of polling sites, purges of voter rolls, restrictions on mail in voting, and sudden changes in registration rules all work to create a lopsided system that favors the ballots of white men. We have a long way to go.

As we approach Election Day this year, and move into justice-seeking future to which Jesus has called us, I say to you, this and every year, VOTE. If your vote didn’t matter, corrupt people would not work so hard to take it away from you. Stand on the shoulders of the brave people who lived and died before us just so that we could reach the ballot box and cast our choices. Use your voice. And, more than anything, remember who you’re voting for. I’m voting for George Floyd. And Breonna Taylor. And Ahmaud Arbery. And Trayvon Martin. And Philando Castille. And Eric Garner. And Michael Brown. And countless other lives snuffed out by racist violence. I vote for 280,000 people who will never vote again because their lives were taken by COVID. I vote for over 500 immigrant children detained at the border whose parents cannot be found. I vote for immigrant women sterilized against their will. I vote for marriage equality. I vote so my daughter will grow up with the same rights as my sons. I vote for a better future, and I use my voice on behalf of those whose voices have been silenced. Jesus was not neutral in the face of oppression; he taught his disciples to speak up for the hungry, the meek, the mourning, the peace makers, and the persecuted. It’s time to speak up.

Amen.

And now, I invite you to receive the benediction:

Our God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, will guard our going out and coming in from this time on and forever more. And as all of God’s people we say together: Amen.