Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Holy Week has always reminded me of the best and the worst that resides within me. To walk this road is to walk through the agony of realizing all the ways we could be better to each other and all the ways we could use our talents to cause good. But like the disciples, the closer we get to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday the more we are overcome by our fears.

I lived in fear for a long time. Fear of voicing a call to preach. Fear of finding a place to pastor. Fear of being myself. It’s a terrible place to live full of restless existence and dark nights of the soul.

My biggest fear as a pastor has been to make any kind of political statement. To be sure, my sermons and teachings include calls to help those who are helpless and comfort those who are grieving, but never a statement about the state of our democracy or a statement about political candidates or their views. The discussion and debates are too divisive and too dehumanizing that I haven’t even wanted to wade into the water.

This year I’ve commiteed to speaking to power and privilge in a more conscientious way because the more I have researched and the more I have come to understand, the more I am certain that we are not living in a democracy. We are not a country established and run by the people and for the people. We have become a country dictated by unchecked power and unchallenged privilege. We are not living in a democracy. We are living in a meritocracy.

In this country, children are starving and dying at schools and at churches. This is not a country for the people of the people. This is a country controlled and abused by those in power and those in privilege who are sacrificing themsleves and indeed our children to the god of greed.

And so I must speak up and speak out about systemic abuses of power and privilege.

“I’m disappointed in Sen. Graham’s sponsorship of the CRA, especially as he knows how many people in South Carolina are caught in the payday lending debt-trap. The negative impacts of payday lending have multiple consequences: local businesses have been forced to close, individuals are struggling with depression from financial stress and families have broken up as a result of these unjust products. We desperately need stricter regulations and voices from South Carolina standing up for our families.” Rev. Merianna Harrelson, Pastor New Hope
Christian Fellowship.

South Carolinian Leaders Oppose Repeal of Payday Rule

It’s time for us to be a country for the people and of the people again.