I’m not convinced that what I heard or read today were two separate things: finished The Cross & The Switchblade by David Wilkerson and Trayvon Martin case on NPR with Talk of the Nation by young Black media speakers. One is about a country preacher rocked by an article in Life Magazine 60 years ago on young teenage kids caught in violence and on trial. The other is about an unarmed teenager who met up with a neighborhood “cop” and it ended with a shooting. Both main characters of either story have passed away.
Both stories have shook our nation due to two words: integration & injustice – but they don’t play out the same way. One led to that preacher, David Wilkerson to become an international giant and starting Teen Challenge reaching out to the troubled youth in different cities, starting with New York. He went after the hardest and wildest kids caught in prostitution, drugs, and gang life.
The other was a young teenager who was being disciplined and sent to his dad’s for a while, and met up with seemed to be a overeager watchman, that didn’t have the police department backing and the teenager died with candy and ice tea.
Does race matter in both cases? Yes…and no. Did Wilkerson search out for minority kids? No, he found many kids, who happened to be Black and Hispanic, in trouble and got cleaned up. Zimmerman, half White & Hispanic is poised to be wondering who Trayvon was, and whatever he says, Trayvon who was Black, can only now speak through DNA and a 911 tape.
Honestly, I don’t want to hear “cuckoo birds” speaking on injustice and lost the focus of the major movement they joined 40 years ago, trying to rile up my city. And neither did people welcome Wilkerson either. And someone can get to the bottom of the Trayvon Martin case, I don’t care if he’s white. Just bring justice and the truth!
So now what? Let’s invite the man Justice…Jesus into the national conversation. Not talking heads, but what the grassroots Southern church people did…they prayed, they fasted, and yes they marched. But what if someone with the compassion of Wilkerson from our region took on this mantle to pray and attack injustice on the grassroots level, not in front of the cameras or with a crowd.
Things are getting worse, and I’d prefer to hear what Jesus think we should do next…before we take another on a move…ment.
nicolegoesurban 