On the 250th birthday of the United States of America, New York Times columnist and podcaster Ezra Klein visited Montgomery, Alabama to experience Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Sites. This is the same trip that some of our J&RR leaders took last November as reported here. After visiting the sites, Klein sat down for an interview with EJI founder Bryan Stevenson to talk about what moved him as he visited the sites and what they mean.
In thinking about the 250th birthday, Stevenson said, "So I see this as a moment for reflection, to acknowledge things that are extraordinary and wonderful – but also to acknowledge things that are difficult and painful that continue to harm and haunt us."
At one point in the interview (59:30), Klein asks about the complexities of Christianity in the stories told by the museums. He asks, "Christianity is so present in the museum. It is so present on all sides of the conflict – of the civil rights movement but also of the people fighting the civil rights movement… Even just from the perspective of story, how do you understand how the same book, the same words, can take such different forms?"
Stevenson answers:
"Christianity, when you have a lot of power, when you have a lot of status, can be corruptive. The Gospels speak to this. They basically say wealth and power and privilege are something that will make you a bad Christian. It will keep you away from the kingdom of God.
"And unfortunately, in a nation as wealthy and powerful and privileged as our nation, there's just not as much emphasis on that.
"And so I want everybody to come to our spaces, but I want particularly Christians to come. And I just want them to ask themselves: Were those Christians who tried to justify and defend slavery on the right side not just of history but on the right side of theology, of Christianity, of faith?
"Similarly, when Christians were saying: No — Black people over here. White people over here — the biggest proponent of segregation, the loudest opponent of the Montgomery bus boycott, was the pastor of the Baptist church here in Montgomery.
"Were they good Christians? Were they good believers? Or were they misled? Did something get between them and true Christianity? And if you ask that question and you have to say yes, it just prompts these new questions for you, for how you function, how you believe.
"If we believe we are called to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly, do you think those things should be easy? Or do you think those things are going to be hard?
"I can tell you, they're going to be hard. So you have to prepare yourself to do something hard. The good news is that we have been empowered to do the hard thing because of our faith."
Visiting the Legacy Sites is a powerful experience as evidenced by this interview and the testimonies from our BelPres trip. You can get a glimpse of this by watching the interview (or reading the transcript).