Note from Fr. Kevin: In my recent sermon on “Community,” I said that “justice requires a community” and mentioned one such community: the historic church, where many people stood up for justice. Helping us meet some of these people is Senior Warden Ted Olsen, who once served as an editor of Christian History magazine.
By Ted Olsen:
Memorable pioneers for racial justice include Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and John Woolman. Or meet Jarena Lee, the first African-American woman to preach the gospel publicly.
Further back, meet Gregory of Nyssa, St. Patrick, Bartolomé de las Casas (big asterisk, of course, but still), and the abolitionists George Bourne (not well known, but as an editor and writer I’m a fan) and Thomas Clarkson. I also love Quaker radical Benjamin Lay (though I expect he’d be as critical of me as he was of everyone else!).
William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect have received a lot of attention in recent years for their work against the slave trade and other injustices. I'm a big fan, too. But I am eager to remember that their efforts were imperfect and troubled. I don't find that discouraging but rather encouraging — even our heroes had trouble and faltered when it came to pursuing righteousness and justice. Nevertheless, they persisted.
But I'm most eager to emphasize the work of Black Christians who pursued justice. Some of those names: David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, Nick Chiles (he was a new one for me), Henry McNeal Turner, and African Methodist Episcopal Church founders Absalom Jones and Richard Allen. Finally, I’ve been coming back time and again to the sermons of Francis J. Grimke, the Presbyterian preacher who helped to found the NAACP.
Church of the Savior
Senior Warden