Howard Thurman
“Why is it that Christianity seems impotent to deal radically, and therefore effectively, with the issues of discrimination and injustice on the basis of race, religion and national origin? Is this impotence due to a betrayal of the genius of the religion, or is it due to a basic weakness in the religion itself?”1
Howard Thurman doesn’t try to answer his opening questions in Jesus and the Disinherited. Instead he argues that Jesus offers something to people Christianity has victimized. Jesus offers hope and promises fulfillment to people with their backs against the wall.
Questions
Is Christianity impotent to deal radically with injustice? How so, or how not? Is there something essential in Christianity that enables us to heal injustice, if we accept its call?
Mystic
Interfaith Community
Spiritual Advisor to the Civil Rights Movement
My Prayer of Response
LORD, help me reconcile my heart and mind amidst the conflict in Your Church. And when I say Church, I mean Your World. Thank you for not letting me turn away when religion fails me. Or when it seems impotent against the problems between us, Your squabbling children. Thank you for calling me back, nagging me over and over again. Thank you for helping me discover that I, too, am Your Church. My words are part of Your voice. My human presence is a visible sign of Your mysterious presence. Your love is my superpower. Keep reminding me that I am all of this, not because I have done anything, but because You are everything. Help me recognize injustice and to be part of the forces against it. Help me to find compassion and humility as I move forward, and to search for the humanity in people who stand for everything I stand against. Help me carve out a faith that is more courageous, more discerning, and more just. A faith that, each day, does a little bit less to betray You.
Thurman’s story has only ever been his to tell, perhaps along with his wife, Sue Bailey Thurman. The material on this website is my response to Thurman as someone who shares in his humanity, but not in his particular life experiences.
1 Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), p xix.