Faith in Humanity
Interfaith Action
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In Martin's 1967 sermon, A Knock at Midnight, he articulated a clear purpose for organized religion in society. He framed it as "the church", as in "separation of church and state", but we must make no mistake -- it was a warning for every faith, irrespective of ideology, and every ideology, irrespective of faith.
“The church must be reminded," he began, "That it is not the master nor servant of the state, but the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will.
"But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travelers at midnight."
Faith in Humanity is a consciousness-raising effort built on the premise that we can't build a better society using the same tactics that made us a worse one. The initiative helps faith groups of all religions and traditions recognize their shared calling to advance humanity. We use everything from written materials to music, from trainings to gatherings, to help them immunize themselves against belief variants rooted in self-supremacy, theocracy, or the quelling of conscience. And they, by taking up the work, not only make society stronger; they write themselves into our future story, and not just the story of our past.
“The church must be reminded," he began, "That it is not the master nor servant of the state, but the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will.
"But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travelers at midnight."
Faith in Humanity is a consciousness-raising effort built on the premise that we can't build a better society using the same tactics that made us a worse one. The initiative helps faith groups of all religions and traditions recognize their shared calling to advance humanity. We use everything from written materials to music, from trainings to gatherings, to help them immunize themselves against belief variants rooted in self-supremacy, theocracy, or the quelling of conscience. And they, by taking up the work, not only make society stronger; they write themselves into our future story, and not just the story of our past.
Faith in Humanity on Letters from a Birmingham Boy:
For God? (Or, Showdown on the Edmund Pettus Bridge)
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The Gospel According to Gaga (Or, “Take a Load off Fanny”)
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"Why? (The King of Love is Dead)" Remembering Martin on the Anniversary of His Death.
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Forthcoming book:
Conscience of the State
How the faith traditions that fueled everything from the Underground Railroad to the Civil Rights movement were both sidelined and silenced. And how they get their "fight" back.
Projects
"Not the People for the Sabbath" (expand)
In the Gospel of Mark, the earliest of the four Gospels, Jesus, an observant Jew, offers a startling response to why his disciples, also observant Jews, are picking grain to eat, and therefore, breaking the Sabbath code. "The Sabbath was made for man [the people]," he said, "And not man [the people] for the Sabbath. In it is a principle that's easily lost in religion, that social institutions, including faith systems, exist to serve the people. Not the other way around. "Not the People for the Sabbath" is an exploratory project focused on helping communities of faith reimagine what systems that truly serve the people, rather than ones they're expected to serve, would look like. And how to shift from the latter to the former.
media accountability project (MAP) (expand)
Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels described the power of media this way: “He who controls the medium controls the message. He who controls the message controls the masses.” Numerous studies have borne this principle out not just in Nazi Germany but in the United States, here and now. A cross-section of studies show links between where we get our news and everything from the rise of anti-Asian sentiment during the early days of COVID to beliefs that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are "reverse-racism", from judges who impose harsher criminal sentences to our understanding of the effects of climate change on the environment or unemployment on the economy, from whether we're supportive of or resistant to LGBTQ+ equality to the degree of anti-immigrant sentiment we hold. Of our three major news outlets, only Fox News coverage correlates significantly with social animus. In fact, a 2022 study found that even with identical coverage, the FOX masthead alone is sufficient to significantly elevate bias.
The Media Accountability Project raises awareness in faith communities about the impact this kind of media has not just on the viewers but the culture as a whole, and how we rein it in. The goal is simple: help people connect the dots -- seeing how messaging that alienates any of us creates an atmosphere of escalating hostility for all of us. Including our communities and our kids. It's not about putting companies like this out of business. It's about using audience power to incentivize them to change how they do business. That's because of our starting assumption. "While bigotry is, no doubt, real," our founder wrote in This Land Is Your Land, "There are exceedingly few of us who are willing to sacrifice our families on the altar of social supremacy. Except for crimes of passion and those prompted by mental or emotional instability, we are far more fixated on what we gain than what others lose."
This means that the driver behind those decisions is far more economic than ideological, and that the loss of listeners/viewers/readers/followers is, in most cases, sufficient impetus to change. And when those organizations change their tune, becoming places that serve all of us, that's also when they'll win us back.
The Media Accountability Project raises awareness in faith communities about the impact this kind of media has not just on the viewers but the culture as a whole, and how we rein it in. The goal is simple: help people connect the dots -- seeing how messaging that alienates any of us creates an atmosphere of escalating hostility for all of us. Including our communities and our kids. It's not about putting companies like this out of business. It's about using audience power to incentivize them to change how they do business. That's because of our starting assumption. "While bigotry is, no doubt, real," our founder wrote in This Land Is Your Land, "There are exceedingly few of us who are willing to sacrifice our families on the altar of social supremacy. Except for crimes of passion and those prompted by mental or emotional instability, we are far more fixated on what we gain than what others lose."
This means that the driver behind those decisions is far more economic than ideological, and that the loss of listeners/viewers/readers/followers is, in most cases, sufficient impetus to change. And when those organizations change their tune, becoming places that serve all of us, that's also when they'll win us back.
the Theology we sing (expand)
One afternoon, as Freedom Singer Bernice Johnson Reagan and a contingent of beaten and attacked, worn-down and demoralized civil rights marchers returned to the church, she felt inspired to do something to help bolster the group's flagging spirits. Out of nowhere, it hit her, and she began spontaneously singing the slave spiritual, "Trouble in the Air." But she made one important change. She substituted the word "freedom" for "trouble". "Over my head," she sang, with deep reverence and unshakable resolve, "I see freedom in the air," before continuing:
Over my head, I see freedom in the air.
Over my head, I see freedom in the air.
There must be a God somewhere.
Others joined in, verses were added (I see glory in the air, I hear justice in the air), before concluding, with resolute conviction, that "there must be a God somewhere." And instantly, a sacred song of lament was transformed into one of triumph.
When we think of theology, it's often sermons, homilies, decrees and creeds that come to mind. But for the average person, it's the theology absorbed from the songs we hold sacred that's most impactful. That's because group singing is active in ways most other things are not, because of music's deep emotional resonance, and because the songs we repeatedly sing are remembered long after delivered talks have been forgotten. The Theology We Sing is a free, cohort-based training program for ministers, sacred music leaders, performers and composers, teaching them to do exactly what Bernice Johnson Reagan did -- use music to advance a theology of agency and empowerment.
Over the 16-week course, participants engage in everything from writing new songs and revising old ones, to learning to identify the underlying theology taught by songs their faith tradition uses, and building a collection of songs that are inclusive of and accessible to everyone. “We become who we are through our songs and our stories, as much as through our kin, our communities and our countries," said Civil Rights storyteller, folk musician and theologian Kim Harris who, upon Bernice's passing, took up her mentor's baton, "So sing out! And let our songs ring of justice and guide our feet into the ways of peace.”
Over my head, I see freedom in the air.
Over my head, I see freedom in the air.
There must be a God somewhere.
Others joined in, verses were added (I see glory in the air, I hear justice in the air), before concluding, with resolute conviction, that "there must be a God somewhere." And instantly, a sacred song of lament was transformed into one of triumph.
When we think of theology, it's often sermons, homilies, decrees and creeds that come to mind. But for the average person, it's the theology absorbed from the songs we hold sacred that's most impactful. That's because group singing is active in ways most other things are not, because of music's deep emotional resonance, and because the songs we repeatedly sing are remembered long after delivered talks have been forgotten. The Theology We Sing is a free, cohort-based training program for ministers, sacred music leaders, performers and composers, teaching them to do exactly what Bernice Johnson Reagan did -- use music to advance a theology of agency and empowerment.
Over the 16-week course, participants engage in everything from writing new songs and revising old ones, to learning to identify the underlying theology taught by songs their faith tradition uses, and building a collection of songs that are inclusive of and accessible to everyone. “We become who we are through our songs and our stories, as much as through our kin, our communities and our countries," said Civil Rights storyteller, folk musician and theologian Kim Harris who, upon Bernice's passing, took up her mentor's baton, "So sing out! And let our songs ring of justice and guide our feet into the ways of peace.”
poverty of the spirit (expand)
"Sam had sayings," our founder wrote in the preface of This Land Is Your Land, about Senior Pastor Sam Williams, his Euro American ministry partner, who was both 20 years his senior and, like him, not just a Birminghamian, but from the same neighborhood. "We’d apparently shopped at the same stores and frequented the same places," he continued. "But white flight hit the neighborhood of Ensley hard. In Sam’s day, everyone at his high school identified as white. By the time my sisters were at that same school, everyone identified as black, whereas I’d come of age during its transition." It was there in this partnership between people separated by both a generation and the city's racial history, that they were able to forge something better than their past. And there, on the other side of the country, is where the duo was first called, "The Birmingham Boys."
Among Sam's most enduring sayings was, "We’re already smarter than we are good," the idea that the same American Christians who'd sat through more than 200 years’ worth of sermons and millions of hours of Bible study were also most likely to be the ones defending slavery, devaluing women, and dehumanizing LGBTQ+ people. "Christians don’t need to know more," Pastor Sam would often conclude, "We need to do better." MLK said it this way: "Modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We’ve learned to fly the air like birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven’t learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters...”
Poverty of the Spirit is a weekend workshop that helps faith leaders of all traditions learn to assess the moral lenses they're unconsciously advancing, rather than simply accept and perpetuate them. To determine whether they're built on a top-down (above/outside of us) vs. bottom-up (among/within us) approach. Whether their focus is vertical (handed down by a divine authority) or radial (real-world harm done). And whether their truth claims are absolutist or individual. Whether they enslave us or empower us. The difference between the two is profound.
A prime example of what we at MMI call "cognitive upstreaming" (changing the ideas upon which our actions are based, rather than trying to change behavior itself), impairment orthodoxy's big move -- stripping the human conscience of moral authority and bequeathing it, in this case, to the Bible -- is the defining difference between churches that defended slavery and those that fought to end it. "Soldiering requires the discipline to do the unthinkable," said Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in Conspiracy, "And politics requires the skill to get someone else to do the unthinkable for you." That's what impairment orthodoxy, poverty of the spirit does. It allows us to engage otherwise good people in doing the unthinkable.
Among Sam's most enduring sayings was, "We’re already smarter than we are good," the idea that the same American Christians who'd sat through more than 200 years’ worth of sermons and millions of hours of Bible study were also most likely to be the ones defending slavery, devaluing women, and dehumanizing LGBTQ+ people. "Christians don’t need to know more," Pastor Sam would often conclude, "We need to do better." MLK said it this way: "Modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We’ve learned to fly the air like birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven’t learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters...”
Poverty of the Spirit is a weekend workshop that helps faith leaders of all traditions learn to assess the moral lenses they're unconsciously advancing, rather than simply accept and perpetuate them. To determine whether they're built on a top-down (above/outside of us) vs. bottom-up (among/within us) approach. Whether their focus is vertical (handed down by a divine authority) or radial (real-world harm done). And whether their truth claims are absolutist or individual. Whether they enslave us or empower us. The difference between the two is profound.
A prime example of what we at MMI call "cognitive upstreaming" (changing the ideas upon which our actions are based, rather than trying to change behavior itself), impairment orthodoxy's big move -- stripping the human conscience of moral authority and bequeathing it, in this case, to the Bible -- is the defining difference between churches that defended slavery and those that fought to end it. "Soldiering requires the discipline to do the unthinkable," said Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich in Conspiracy, "And politics requires the skill to get someone else to do the unthinkable for you." That's what impairment orthodoxy, poverty of the spirit does. It allows us to engage otherwise good people in doing the unthinkable.
The Golden Rule in 10 Faiths
If you cannot find faith in humanity, be the faith in humanity. – Anonymous
"Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity." Maya Angelou
"If you want to awaken all of humanity, awaken all of yourself." Lao Tzu
Listen to
Someday (We'll All Be One)
Performed by R David Moore
Featuring the STRONGER Chorus -- advocacy choir for people with HIV/AIDS, family, friends and allies.
Someday (We'll All Be One)
Performed by R David Moore
Featuring the STRONGER Chorus -- advocacy choir for people with HIV/AIDS, family, friends and allies.