Chaos in places of worship

Engl 165-04 Fall '22, Engl 165-16 Fall '22

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For me what stood out was all the tragedy at the beginning from the church bombing to Virgil Lamar Ware being shot to Johnny Robinson being killed by the police officer. So much went down and it’s crazy to think about how much pushback a movement for equal rights was getting. I think the one event that shocked me the most was the church bombing. 

The reason it stood out so much was because of how extreme it was. It’s horrifying to think of all the people who got killed for just being black but the fact a church got bombed to me is extremely shocking. I think it really goes to show how much people hated the idea of desegregation because most of the people who were fighting against it were “Christians” but they bombed a church. A place of worship where children attended Sunday school. It’s so sad to think about how the 4 deaths were children, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson were 14 years old. Not to mention Denise Mcnair was only 11 years old when she was killed.

It also makes me think of more current events. For example when the Pittsburgh synagogue was shot up or the Sutherland Springs church shooting. The one that I think correlates the most to the 16th street baptist church bombing was the Charleston church shooting when Dylann Roof shot up the church. His motivation was white supremacy and to cause racial division. Which was also similar to the motives for the 16th street baptist church bombing. It’s wild to think that stuff like that still happens. It’s even crazier to me that people would go to places of worship to commit such heinous acts. It does show people’s true colors, if someone claims to be Christian but is willing to bomb or shoot us a church in the name of hate, that just shows their hate means more to them than their religious beliefs.  

 
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Blind Eye to the Ten Commandments

Engl 165-04 Fall '22

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In march book two, the theater was the next place they planned to do stand ins after weeks of doing it in the diner. These attempts to buy a movie ticket for the Ten Commandment movie were continuously denied because they would not sell tickets to black customers. Day after day they would attempt but would get the same result. In addition to being denied they faced discrimnation and hate speech by the white people standing in line behind them. The white people acted as if they were an inconvenience to them. They would get spit on, stuff thrown at them, and heard derogatory terms used towards them. 

The ten commandments hold sacred value for those who believe them. They are seen  to be the “rules” given to us by God. It goes over the do’s and don’ts to live by as a practicing religious individual. You can make the assumption that anyone of the time going to see the Ten Commandments movie in theater had a religious background that supported this belief. Yet do their actions portray God’s word? Absolutely not! The people standing in line were living a life of hypocrisy. By discriminating and disrepecting black people they go against commandments 3,5,6,8. For those who don’t know, those listed would be thou shall not take the lord’s name in vain, honor your father and mother, shall not murder, and shall not steal. Using hateful words of any sort is seen to be used against God because of the belief of being created in his image, along with honor your father and mother is to be interpreted as all people of creation. Despite the protesters not being killed, any violence is a sin. You make question why I bring up the last one but the people discriminating are taking away rights of black people and robbing them of their dignity they rightfully should have. The white people in line were going to view a movie that portrayed the rules their God wanted them to abide by but disregarded the rules once a black person wanted to watch the movie with them.

 

 

The Hypocrisy of Southerners

Engl 165-16 Fall '22, March Blog Prompt

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In March, the Freedom Riders were trying to see the Ten Commandments movie in a theater that doesn’t allow black people in their theater. Anytime someone asks to purchase a ticket they are not allowed to and you see people talk about them while just standing in line. This goes against what the ten commandments actually ask of a person. The ninth commandment states “thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor” yet everyone in line to see the movie judges the black people just because they are black. It is hard to miss the irony of how the white people react and gossip about the protesters when they are supposed to be seeing a movie where one rule they are supposed to follow is to not judge the people around you or make assumptions and gossip. The movie follows Moses freeing his people from slavery and their oppression which is very similar to what the Freedom Riders are having to deal with. Yet white people are the ones who watch this movie and then leave and still treat black people horribly. 

Even though everyone who participated in the stand-ins were peaceful, police would show up and scream in their faces. This is similar to how cops dealt with protestors in the BLM movement. When they peacefully protested the police would still aggravate people and try to force them to leave. So much about what is being protested in March is the same as today’s BLM movement. In March they are protesting for abolishment of segregation in the south. The BLM protests are about the mistreatment of black people by the police and both involved peaceful protests that the police would always get in the way of. The people in both instances practice peaceful protests which is a constitutional right as stated by the First Amendment. 

 
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Why Should I Care What the Gospel Says?

March Blog Prompt

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I have never been able to connect to Christianity despite coming from a very religious background. At a young age I was being suffocated by the same religious beliefs my parents had been raised by. I attend a private Christian school in my home country. As I grew older, I felt more and more disconnected from my religion. As I began to discover who I was as a person, my beliefs shifted. Suddenly, my parents’ prayers fell on deaf ears, my bible sat on my desk gathering dust, and my feelings got the better of me at the dinner table. I don’t consider myself as a religious person anymore, I don’t think I ever was. So, when I saw John Lewis preaching to the baby chickens as a child, I couldn’t help but sigh. I went into the book with a very negative view of Christianity, but to my surprise I didn’t find myself rolling my eyes.

“He applied the principles of the church to what was happening NOW, today. It was called the social gospel and I felt like he was preaching directly to me.”

This is what John Lewis mentioned when he first heard Dr. Martin Luther King on the radio. The social gospel is a more modernized version of the biblical gospel. One that’s more focused on the liberation of others. More often than not it was used to silence minorities, used to protect injustices, and even encourage the mistreatment of others. Even if that wasn’t its intended purpose, that’s how a lot of people used it. One of the ideas that struck me the most was of social evolution. It stuck with me the most because of the idea of moving forward in society. Being seen as everyone’s equal, no matter the color of your skin, is something we still struggle with to this day. It’s why I think this gospel is one I could get behind, despite my past.

 
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