Letter from a Birmingham Jail

54 years ago today, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. In it, he gives one of the best defenses for the use of non-violent protest that I’ve ever read.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter was written in response to white clergymen who were opposed to King’s activities, who called Dr. King’s actions “unwise and untimely”. This letter stands as a defense of his work and ideas. Dr. King begins by explaining his situation: “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here”. He compares himself to the apostles of the early church, who went where oppression was the worst and they were most needed.

Dr. King calls out his accusers for standing idly by while oppression against blacks continues in the south. He lays out four basic steps of any nonviolent campaign:

1. Collection of the facts to determine if injustices exist
2. Negotiation
3. Self-purification
4. Direct action

He says that he has followed all of these steps in Birmingham. Dr. King points out examples of the horrific racial injustice that is present in Birmingham and claims that while negotiation is the better path than direct action, some communities (such as Birmingham) refuse to negotiate. It is only through non-violent direct action (sit ins, marches, etc.) that the situation will become a crisis such that it “inevitably open[s] the door to negotiation”.

When talking about the need for action, and talking about the timeliness of his leading in the south, King states that ” Lamentably, it is a historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily”. Freedom must be demanded by the oppressed. Dr. King quotes St. Augustine, saying that “an unjust law is no law at all”, with which he (as well as I) agree. He points out that everything Adolf Hitler did was “legal”, although nobody would argue that it was right.

Dr. King says that he is disappointed in the white moderate for not stepping up to the plate and doing their part in ending segregation. A common criticism of those who supported King’s goals but not his methods was that he was acting too quickly, and that he should wait for a more opportune season for his actions.

King’s response to those who claimed he was causing too much of an uproar is incredible so I’m just going to include it here:

“In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?”

In regards to “causing an uproar”, King puts himself in the middle of two ends of an extreme.

On one end of the spectrum he describes “Negros who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of ‘somebodiness’ that they have adjusted to segregation… have become insensitive to the problems of the masses”.

The second force he describes is “one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence… who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible ‘devil'”, citing Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement by name.

His way of nonviolence is in-between the “do nothingism” of the complacent and the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.

All in all, Dr. King is disappointed in the church as a whole. He feels that as a minister of the Gospel who loves the church, he thought he would be supported by the white church but he was wrong. Dr. King claims that he has found himself outside of southern churches asking himself: “What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?”. He wonders how they can claim to be followers of the gospel and yet stand by idly when their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted in the streets, and locked up in prison.

King harkens back to a time when the early church was not afraid to suffer together, that they rejoiced at being able to suffer for what it was they believed. Dr. King asks “Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world?”, and this is a rather chilling statement to read even 54 years after it was written. I sometime find myself asking the same thing of the church today. Have we not learned over the better part of half of a century that challenging the status quo is an alright thing to do as the church?

Sadly, the only churches that are known for this kind of thing are the crazy and theologically inaccurate radical churches that make the news, like Westboro Baptist and the like. Has the moderate church at large not realized that it can make a difference, and that they don’t have to stand on the side of the highway beating a Bible and shouting at cars to do so? There is so much suffering going on in the world, even in our own country. Dr. King fully realized the power that the Church of believers had, and he changed the world. Imagine if every church in America looked at the surrounding community of people (not believing Christians, just people, period) and asked: “What suffering is going on here? Who are the oppressed? How can we minister to them?”, not to create members, but to love the least of this world as much as Christ does. And what of the oppressors? Too often the church is quick to judge those who oppress the needy as “bad guys” without realizing that hurt people hurt people. Often times those who are persecuting the weak are doing so because they too are broken inside, that they also are spiritually hungry. What if every church outreach committee in this country was actually a service-oriented group that focused on helping people outside of the Church rather than trying to convince them to come to us. Jesus and the apostles traveled all around. Jesus didn’t sit in Jerusalem and say “bring all of your sick and burdened  to me, travel from where you are to find me and I will heal you when you get here”. No! He went out into the world and helped people who were in need. I wish the Church would do so with such passion as the apostles. A huge church might have incredible programs for its members and donate to some local charity and call it ‘good enough’, that the 5% of their annual budget that goes to a local soup kitchen is all that God expects of them. Look, I’m not trying to say that it’s through good works that God loves us, or that by doing the right thing we get into heaven. The free gift of God’s grace sets us free from sin so that we are able to go out and help those who are in the most need. The man for whom Dr. King was named, the German monk Martin Luther, was a reformer as well. Luther made clear the fact that God’s grace is extended to all of His children regardless of their skin color or what language they speak. As a member of the Church, I must confess that I have not always lived up to this. There are definitely days when I’ve put my needs before the needs of others. And that’s okay. What’s not okay is thinking that there is some quota , that once we’ve done enough good in the world as a collective body of believers that we can take it easy and that we’ve done enough. There will always be pain and suffering in this world. There will always be people who do not know Christ. This letter shows the apathy of the Church to do anything at all in a time when injustice was absolutely out of control. Luther was facing injustice 500 years ago, and spoke out against it even if the very act of speaking out put his life on the line, much like Dr. King in Birmingham. Injustice is still out of control today, it just manifests itself in different ways.

The letter ends with Dr. King reminding us of his situation, ” what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?”, and wishing his fellow ministers well, regardless of their color. He hopes to one day meet his fellow white southern clergymen, “not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother”. Even when his fellow clergymen have turned their backs to the suffering of an entire race of people, Dr. King shows no animosity towards them, and reaches out to them with nothing but unconditional love. This letter stands as one of the strongest pillars of social justice theology that has ever been written. I strongly encourage you to read it if you haven’t done so already.

A mural of MLK in downtown Austin, on the side of the goodwill on 1st street. It has been there for years, although I never knew it existed until I happened upon it this afternoon. 

“We may have come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

Worship Diversity

 

What is diversity in worship? What does that mean?

There are two main causes of diversity in worship practice among Christians. The first is that worship practiced is influenced by the “folk” cultures of different areas; that is, the non-church related culture of a geographic location. Different places on this Earth have different ways of worshiping, different styles of music and even different structural layouts for their services. This diversity can be drastic, for example, churches in different countries have completely different cultural settings and may seem like they aren’t even the same religion. Aside from geographic differences among worshiping believers, ‘historical’ diversity can vary from church to church within the same area. Even churches that are right next door to each other can have vastly different styles of worship depending on their denomination and therefore, their church history. Christian worship practice has changed greatly over time, and what elements are kept from one generation to the next and what elements are changed vary from church to church, leading to even more diversity among worship. Christianity is arguably the most diverse religion in terms of worship practice that exists today, and that to me is one of our biggest strengths. In James F. White’s book, Introduction to Christian Worship, we should strive for the “acceptance of diversity as one of God’s gifts to humanity and willingness to incorporate such variety in the forms of worship”(38). This diversity should be celebrated and embraced, but before that can be done we need to have a proper understanding of where this diversity comes from, and how it will impact our specific congregation.

 

Should we use this diversity? Why?

Just because diversity among worship practices exists doesn’t mean that it’s always embraced. Many people have an emotional connection to the way in which they worship, it is something they have possibly known their entire life and the idea of worship in another way might seem, well, wrong. It is not the fault of these people to feel this way, people generally prefer things of their own culture outside of worship too. The appreciation for other cultures, however, should not be forgotten about or belittled by our preferences. Just like serving a variety of cultural foods (Mexican, Chinese, Italian, we have so many cultural “genres” of food in this country) makes eating a much more exciting (if anything, simply less boring); a variety of worship styles being offered could make the entire worship experience more interesting for the congregation. It also can help people understand the meaning behind the worship, if that is something that a particular congregation may be struggling with. In his book, All the Clever Words on Pages, Paul Matthew Harrison references “ornamented pages from medieval prayer books, people astounded at their beauty without concern for whether or not the contents are true. It’s as if we are finding peace and stability in our belief structures rather than in actually encountering God.” (Paul Matthew Harrison, All the clever words, Foreword). An examination of other practices as being equally valuable to God could even change our understanding of how God listens to His people.

Another benefit of diversity in worship is that it may connect better with more diverse types of people. A unified style in worship across a large church body may assume that there is a unified type of people worshiping. While this may be true in a sense that everyone worshiping confesses the same creeds, believes in the same triune God, and are all brothers and sisters in Christ, this doesn’t mean that they are all uniform in every other aspects of their life. They may have different gifts, different backgrounds, different struggles as people, this should be reflected with diversity in their worship practice. Robert E. Webber points out in his book, Worship Old and New, “Each congregation must create its own unique style of worship, a style that is not only comfortable for the worshipers, but also expresses the character and personality of the worshiping community” (151). This expression of character may also help a diverse church body grow closer together, due to a better understanding – and hopefully respect – of each other’s culture. It may even be that through exploring the diversity of the worshiping community, a church may be able to develop a richer sense of identity.

Another important aspect of embracing the many different ways in which Christians praise God can be effectively impacting the lives of the congregation by making the style seem more relevant to their lives. For instance, take a look at Isaiah 1:18 which uses the phrase “white as snow” to describe being washed from sin. This phrase makes perfect sense to a church in Canada, but it doesn’t make sense in Africa where many of these countries have never encountered snow before. Missionaries translating Bibles for native tribes in Northern Africa have used “white as cotton” (a crop the locals are familiar with) in its place. Similarly, the language used in our liturgy, our prayers, and our music may not be effectively reaching a particular place on earth, or a particular branch of culture in society. Before changes can be made to the structure of worship, however, a proper understanding of culture is absolutely necessary. Remember, the goal of creating a more diverse worship is not to “please the audience” or simply to relate to culture. Relating to culture is great, but pointing to Jesus is the goal, and should be where exploring diversity in worship begins.

 

How should we then use it?

I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Jacob Youmans about the need for diversity in the way we as Christians worship. He told me about a trip he made to a mission church in China a few years ago. During his trip, he got the chance to tour a school associated with the church in China, and witnessed a performance by students attending a music class.

“They were playing these beautiful hand-made Chinese instruments, the names of which I can’t hope to pronounce. When they were done, I asked ‘Wow! Do you use these instruments in Church’? To which the teacher of the class responded ‘Oh no, we use these instruments for Chinese music, not for Christian music.’ They worshiped with an organ.”

This makes me sad for some reason, that there was this disconnect between the idea of God and Chinese culture. Now, this is not to say that organs or hymns are bad, or that somehow this church in China is worshiping the ‘wrong’ way. The sad part is that whoever came and planted this mission did not reconcile the Western ideas of Christianity with the Eastern Culture of China. “We need someone there to write songs for them, in their original language. Not German hymns that were translated to English and then again to Chinese”, he continued.

We must be careful. The creation of Christian art is to not only reach out to the culture but to be set apart from it at the same time. We have to be intentional in our worship, or else everything falls apart. The main goal of writing a worship song, a responsive prayer, or even designing a stained glass window that reflects the cultural narratives of a time and place should be to praise God, not to fit in with culture.  Paul Harrison points out: “Critics began to lament that Christianity was once a leader in the creative arts but was now reduced to creating propaganda and copying popular culture in order to be a billboard for Jesus” (9). If done well, the congregation should take away from a service something along the lines of: “Wow, what a wonderful way to sing praises to our Lord”, not “Wow, they sure are trying to make this service ‘modern'”. I use this example as ‘modern’, however, when exploring cultural diversity you could replace that word with any style different from that which the congregation is used to. “Latin”, “African American”, “Millennial” or even “Traditional” The task of incorporating new and unfamiliar cultures should not be taken lightly or made to be trivial. It must be very intentional, and with the end goal of praising our God and drawing others nearer to him. If the end goal is to sound a certain way, look a certain way, or appeal to a specific demographic of people as if they will begin to flock to your church because of some style you have that others don’t, it simply won’t work. At best you will appear shallow and at worst you will appear offensive to those who actually belong to a certain subset you are trying to connect with.  I think T. David Gordon in his book Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns puts it best: “When the church approaches an individual as a consumer to be pleased, rather than as a recalcitrant sinner to be rescued, the church is no longer doing what it is called to do” (168).

Diversity, both in and outside the church, is sadly not always viewed in a positive light. As a result, many will criticize the way in which others worship. Saying that other traditions are “too shallow”, or “too old” or maybe even just “too different”. Many think that a certain church must change or not change its worship style either just for the sake of tradition or just in spite of it. T. David Gordon chimes in on this issue, “the Scriptures do not view tradition negatively; they assume that cultures, families, and individuals will “hand over” or “deliver” ideas, values, and customs to one another, and the question is merely whether a specific tradition is a good thing or a bad thing” (121). He later references 1 Corinthians 11:2: “I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you”. And while some traditions are good and beneficial for the well-being of the congregation, in the same letter Paul rebukes the same church in Corinth for its abuse of the tradition of the Lord’s Supper.  I personally think that whatever a church’s worshiping style is, if they are adamant about the style and unwilling to change even a little for the sake of representing the diversity of the Christian church both globally and historically, they might want to re-evaluate their reasoning behind their worship choices. The apostle Paul mentions in both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 that we are to sing “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs”, not “psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs”. I think this distinction makes it clear that various forms of worship are not only acceptable to God, but necessary to us as believers.

Many fear that introducing something new will make the congregation uncomfortable, or drive away new members by exposing them to something that may not line up with the cultural narrative they are used to.  A criticism Gordon has of some who are reluctant to introduce new styles into their worship services, is that an attempt to be welcoming and inviting has come to mean “that we not challenge anyone, anywhere, anytime, to leave his or her comfort zone” (156). I think the problem lies not in new or diverse worship styles, but in the idea of new and diverse worship styles. Many churches know only know about other forms of worship because of what they have seen on television or in movies. This fear of the unfamiliar can only be really overcome by experiencing what these new styles have to offer first-hand. In an interview with David Angerman, music director at Bethany Lutheran Church, he made a very moving point: “Learning about diversity within Christianity can only do so much, experiencing diversity in Christianity can do so much more”

Worshiping in a diverse way; changing things up every once in a while out of respect for the vastly different churches in this world, and even in this country, is a way to show the congregation the ubiquity of God. That he hears all prayers, loves people of all nations, and does not dwell among a single culture or style. James F. White explains that when exploring different and unique styles in worship is carried out, “the result is that Christian worship becomes more complex and more diverse as it tries to reflect a worldwide community” (38). This “worldwide community” has been called from the very beginning to support each other in unity, Jesus died for both Jew and gentile, black and white, Catholic and Protestant. We are a rich, diverse and beautifully group of believers, and I will reiterate that I think this is one of our biggest strengths as a Church. I hope and pray that as the church matures further, grows, and reaches new groups of people, that these people and their culture be celebrated by the entire community of believers, and that we may richly represent them in our prayers and songs.

 

 

Works Cited

Harrison, P. M. (2016). All the clever words on pages: A portrait of my friendship with Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou (2nd ed.). Galena, IL: Clever Words.

White, J. F. (2000). Introduction to Christian worship. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.

Gordon, T. D. (2010). Why Johnny can’t sing hymns: How pop culture rewrote the hymnal. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub.

Dr. Youmans, Jacob. (October 17, 2016). Personal Interview

Angerman, David. (October 16, 2016). Personal Interview.

Webber, R. E. (1982). Worship, old and new. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House.

 

 

 

 

Communication

Austin Angerman
9/21/2016
COM 1300
Ch. 4 Essay

When it comes to listening to other people, I am certainly better in some areas than others. My greatest strength is informational listening – getting information from short conversations and selectively picking out the details that matter most. My weakness, however, is in relational listening. I usually do not know what to say to comfort a friend or family member in need, and this I feel is in part because I do not listen well enough to respond accordingly.

Starting my freshman year of high school at 14 years old, I worked in the food service industry for 5 years, 3 of those at Little Caesar’s Pizza and two of those at Starbucks. The most important thing in any food service job is getting someone’s order correct, which requires paying attention to detail and above all else, listening carefully. My favorite part of working Starbucks was the drive-thru line. I was proud at how well I was at multi-tasking; taking an order on a headset while counting change for an order at the window with one hand and with the other hand getting napkins and straws. I would have full-on conversations with my coworkers about how a particular drink needed to be made, while simultaneously listening to what someone else was ordering. I know how to pick out words that matter and ask questions only when a specific piece of information wasn’t given (size, for example). I honestly kinda miss it. There was something fun about trying to set the record drive times, it was almost like a game to me.

In conversations that last longer than an average of 25 seconds and cover material more emotionally or intellectually in depth than cups of coffee, however, I am lacking. Several times in my life I have ‘been there’ for a friend or family member who was going through loss, depression, and generally just tough times in life. Sometimes just ‘being there’ and listening is all that matters, however the quality of the listening you do can have a big impact on the person communicating. Things like paying attention to paralanguage (tone of voice, speech patterns) and not ‘mind-reading’ (assuming I know what the other person is thinking. I don’t.) so much could make a big difference for me, as well as actually caring for the state of the person talking instead of just jotting down their emotions on a mental sketchpad like extra flavors in a latte. When it comes to acts of service I don’t have a problem; more than once I have gotten out of bed at midnight to pick up a friend who was stranded without a ride or had too much to drink. If only paying better attention to their words in the car ride that followed came more easily to me. At the end of the day what I really need is to try and be more mindful. Mindful of my thoughts, my actions, and my reactions to other people, which unfortunately isn’t something that can simply be gained from a communications textbook. Things like spending more time with people who matter, not only that but spending quality time with people who matter, not just small talk and going through the daily over-rehearsed scripts of “how are you? Good, I am good too”. Things like getting more into the scriptures both deeper and more often, and realizing that the people I do not care about or do not know matter just as much as the people that I love.

a musical thing I made with a good friend a while ago

Josh and I wrote a little EP as a soundtrack for a friend’s short film. The writing and recording process was neat because it took us about a week to write and record each song so it wasn’t very polished. There are no words to these songs. My favorite song on here is Eleven Fifty Eight, which we recorded so late at night in my garage while running out of ideas. It is an attempt to put the feeling of running out of ideas late at night into music, and I think we did quite well. Shout out to the cicadas singing in the background which always remind me of Florida when I listen to it.

 

Check the album out here, and check the short film out here

Where did I come from? Where did I go?

Hey there. I’m currently in New Orleans for the 2016 National Youth Gathering. I’m here with Grace Lutheran Church, a church I’ve been working for since January helping manage the music and youth programs. As I type this, I’m sitting on a bus filled with sweaty Lutherans who were chosen to participate in a “Servant Event”, basically, certain church congregations at the gathering were picked to do work in the city of New Orleans. We were assigned to help spread mulch around trees at Joe Brown park. There were about 40 people there total, (including our group of 28) and we started at 8:30 this morning. We just got done, it’s 10:30am now. It was hot as heck and there were about 300 trees, but it was good work. We’re all excited to get back to the hotel we’re staying at to shower and get cleaned up and eat lunch.
This is my 3rd NYG, I went to the previous two; one in San Antonio, the one before that was in New Orleans as well. It’s also the most bittersweet NYG for me yet. I’ve been working with the middle and high school youth here at Grace Lutheran in Pensacola for almost 7 months now, and have gotten to know them all very well. I’m going to miss them all very very much.

As far as school goes, I am the definition of a “special case”. This fall I will be a double-transfer student for my junior year of college, returning to a school to hope and double major in two years. In 1 month I will be moving to Austin, TX to hopefully get a degree in Christian Education so that I can be a “real” DCE at a church somewhere. I suppose “certified” or maybe “more qualified” might have been better words to use. For those who don’t know, DCE stands for “Director of Christian Education”. I’ll be at Concordia University Texas. I want to also get a degree in music while I am there, most likely music performance. This is actually my return to CTX, I attended there my first semester of college straight out of high school, but moved home for the remainder of that year and my sophomore year of college. I’ve been at the University of West Florida, mostly taking classes in the music department. UWF had an amazing music program, and I have been blessed to have such incredible professors such as Dr. Steenblik who teaches ear training and directs the choir which I sang in, and Dr. Spaniola who teaches music theory. Dr. Coleman taught music technologies where I learned to use Finale, a neat computer program most universities expect you to know how to use if you are anywhere in the music program. Dr. Reed is the head of the music education program and has been a huge help in guiding me along my somewhat strange and crazy college path. To be honest, if you would have told me 4 years ago what my life would look like today I would have told you that you were crazy. Now, you could tell me literally anything could happen in the next 4 and I would believe you. Let’s wait and see.

More Things Coming Soon

Hello there, thank you so much for checking out my blog. Look around but there isn’t much to see just yet. Check back tomorrow. For now, here’s a photo of my backpack from the 2016 LCMS National youth gathering in New Orleans.

Also, Lutheran Vaporwave needs to be a thing. Lutheran Vaporwave

Hey There

You’ve found what will eventually be my blog. Right now it’s not much more than a placeholder. But hey it’s me, Austin Angerman. Musician, adventurer extraordinaire, occasional writer of things, and former journalist. Check back in whenever you want, or not it’s whatever. I hope this turns into something cool, I am excited for it. Anyways, thanks for reading all of this. And in case I don’t see you, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, and Good Night.