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“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”
(2 Corinthians 3:17).
Some years ago while working as a reporter, I was assigned to cover the Selma, Alabama Bridge Crossing Jubilee. This annual event commemorates the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March led by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. As I drove across the bridge, my heart raced with anxiety. I began to recall the dreadful details of “Bloody Sunday” — an image of unparalleled racially-based police brutality in this country. As I approached the middle of the bridge I noticed sweat from my palms rolling down the steering wheel. Consumed with emotion, I could literally hear the screams of hundreds of people who, days before the arrival of Dr. King and some 25,000 others, were trampled over and viciously assaulted by the hand of hatred.
For the first time in my life I was confronted with the reality of the full cost of my own freedom. Guns, batons, water hoses, dogs — and for what? Freedom! However, this freedom was not just for them. Unlike the culture of the day, they were willing to pay the price for people they didn’t know, for freedoms they didn’t live long enough to see come to fruition. For Dr. King and so many of his followers, this tortuous road as he called it while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, was one that had to be traveled.
Now, almost 40 years following his assassination, this modern day Moses still hails as one of the greatest catalysts for bringing about racial and social equality in America. King’s uncommon vigilance for non-violence in the struggle for freedom yet stumps me today. Even now as I write, I realize that phrase is worth reflecting upon. “How does one struggle, even to the point of facing death, and not fight back?”
Other leaders of King’s day didn’t necessarily share his sentiments. Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X stated, "The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself."
However, from 1955 – 1968 countless blacks and whites were assaulted, harassed, jailed, and murdered all in the name of a non-violent approach to freedom. Dr. King’s message was clear and consistent - “Justice will prevail.” And on many levels it has.
As an African American woman, I have the freedom of eating at any restaurant I can afford, browsing through any store I please, living in a diverse community, being educated by any institution of higher learning, and voting for all levels of city, county, state, and national government. I celebrate these countless freedoms with my friends who range in a myriad of colors from the darkest of browns to the palest of whites.
You know, it’s always jarring for me to hear Christians use the phrase, “Salvation is free!” without expounding on the cost of the cross. Freedom isn’t free. It wasn’t free at Calvary; it wasn’t free during the Civil Rights Movement; it wasn’t free for countless veterans who lost their lives during war; and even today, military personnel are standing on guard for our homeland security. Freedom isn’t free. In fact, there is a great cost for our day to day existence on many levels — we just don’t see the bill!
Prayer: God of us all, we thank you for those who have given their lives for our freedom. In our struggle to be free, help us to offer freedom and grace to our sisters and brothers. In the name of Jesus, who gave everything so that we may live, Amen.
Benita Edwards
Minister of Music
True Light Baptist Church
Denver, CO
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