Vintage Saints and Sinners by Karen Wright Marsh

Author:Karen Wright Marsh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Like those 1964 summer student volunteers, I’ve been drawn to the glow of heroism from time to time. When I was their age, I tutored Cambodian refugees who’d fled the brutal Khmer Rouge. I imagined that if I equipped them with basic English grammatical constructions and taught the vocabulary words for foreign phenomena like “escalator,” “washing machine,” and “subway,” then I would fix them right up for a new life in Boston, far from the killing fields of war.

Twelve weeks of free English lessons are hardly a great gift to the world. Yet I see now that I was offering up what little I had, young and unexperienced as I was. My English language students, most of whom were adults at least twice my age, accepted my good intentions and offered kindness to me. They fed me sizzling spicy cilantro noodles and laughed when my face blazed with heat. They handed me their babies to hold. They invited me to dance in a circle with them, hands upraised, wrists bent—and I fell into the embrace of their warm fellowship for one brief moment.

In my settled life these days, I carry the grocery store’s Very Important Customer card. My university community, such as it is, emerges from networking and event planning, introductions and appointments. I am able keep my own identity intact, safe with people who look like me and share my preferences. But easy connections are fleeting, for they’re built on shifting, shallow alliances.

Fannie Lou calls me into a wholly different kind of community, where belonging means both risk and true companionship. Throughout Mississippi Freedom Summer, people entrusted their very lives to one another. When I think of the civil rights activists, the tight alliances formed by their common struggle, I wonder how I have missed out. When was the last time I was that close to someone?

Fannie Lou’s vision of beloved community was formed around more than a political cause; it was founded upon a living relationship with Jesus. One pastor who knew her well told me that “Mrs. Hamer spoke of Jesus casually, confidently, and constantly.” She showed us how to lead as Jesus led: she offered up her life for her brothers and sisters, for people of of all races and ages—and all of us. Fannie Lou taught us that true unity is bought at great price, and she was willing to pay it, even at enormous pain to herself. In the hard places she stepped up first, leading before she asked anyone else to make a sacrifice.

Fannie Lou always saw the fight for justice as a spiritual one. Her faith gave her the insight to say, “Christ was a revolutionary person, out there where it was happening. That’s what God is all about, and that’s where I get my strength.” She prayed with assurance and an eye on the concrete things that needed to get done. She sang scriptural songs of encouragement, even in prison after a night of torture. When the Voting Rights Act of

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