Civil rights pioneer urges beating missiles into ‘morsels of bread’ May 1, 2004 By Linda Bloom*  | A UMNS photo by Rasul Welch. The Rev. Joseph Lowery greets Bishop Leontine T.C. Kelly during the General Board of Church and Society Banquet. |
PITTSBURGH (UMNS) — The Rev. Joseph Lowery often hears people wonder these days when the world is going to be “normal” again.But,
as he told participants at an April 30 dinner sponsored by the United
Methodist Board of Church and Society, what the world is experiencing
today is normal — a “new” normal. “The
challenge to the church is not to like it, but to love it,” the
82-year-old civil rights activist said. “It’s not comfort we’re called
to experience, but courage.” Lowery,
a United Methodist pastor, knows a lot about living in a turbulent
world. Called the dean of the civil rights movement by the NAACP and one
of the country’s 15 greatest black preachers by Ebony Magazine, he has
been involved in civil rights work since the early 1950s. Lowery and the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference in 1957. Because
of recent problems with vertigo, Lowery remained seated as he quoted
Micah 4:3 about beating swords into plowshares and spoke of the
importance of rivers in African-American culture, about how being “down
by the riverside” can provide both freedom and escape. “The church is called today, I think, to take the nation down by the riverside,” he said. His
voice grew stronger and more insistent as he pointed to the inequities
between rich and poor, categorizing minimum wage and lack of health care
coverage as “weapons of mass destruction.” He suggested beating
missiles into “morsels of bread” and tanks into tractors.  | A UMNS photo by Rasul Welch. The Rev. Joseph Lowery gives the keynote speech for the General Board of Church and Society Banquet. |
Lowery
considers same-sex marriage to be more of a state than church issue but
believes “people of faith can differ on this issue and respect each
other.”“I’m
not an absolutist, but I know this much — I’m going to be on the side
of inclusiveness, not exclusiveness,” he said. After years of struggle
as an African-American, he explained that he could not refuse “to grant
to anyone the rights that I enjoy.” Lowery
also expressed his distress over the war and continuing problems in
Iraq. “Don’t we have something better to offer the world than swords and
missiles and smart bombs on stupid missions?” he asked. “The God I serve loves the motherless child in Baghdad as much as he loves the motherless child in Boston,” he declared. *Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer. News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7. After May 10: (615) 742-5470.
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