While perhaps not entirely common knowledge, most Americans are aware that February is a month set aside to commemorate the contributions of African Americans to our society. Thus, it is not surprising that the Washington, DC-based Wesley Theological Seminary should hold a lecture in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King during one of their Chapel services.
According to Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “spoke out not only against war but in favor of a just distribution of our nation’s resources.” (Photo courtesy UMNS) |
Less common knowledge to United Methodists whose apportionments support the Seminary, perhaps, was Wesley’s choice to invite Marian Wright Edelman as the lecturer for its February 5 service. While Edelman has the distinguished role of being the first African American woman to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar (via Yale Law School), her nearly 35 years of work as the founder and director of the Children’s Defense Fund has led her to advocate an unrestricted welfare state as the solution to nearly all of America’s social problems.
As someone who worked with the Rev. Dr. King, Edelman protested that many Americans today want to “sanitize” Dr. King’s message by only addressing the legacy of desegregation and racial equality he established. Edelman objected that many “ignore the words and the warnings that called for a reordering” of society. Arguing that Dr. King wouldn’t stand for the separation of his values, she contended that he “resisted those who sought to compartmentalize his concerns for social justice and peace.”
So just what political causes did United Methodists fund Edelman to expound at Wesley Seminary?
Wright’s only explicitly advocated political policy was “universal [government healthcare] coverage for everybody” that would end “means-tested,” limited government healthcare for poor children in favor of an “automatic enrollment at birth,” tax-payer funded plan. Her support for socialized medicine resulted in resounding applause from the faculty and staff assembled for the Tuesday morning chapel service. However, her criticisms of other societal trends ranged widely.
Edelman questioned, “How are we going to measure the progress of the next 100 or 1,000 years… by the kill power of…weapons?” She fretted that America was trapped in “the prison of violence that has been constructed in the name of peace,” and recalled that “Dr. King called for a war to challenge the weapons of war.” Citing the U.S. Defense Department budget for 2008, Edelman argued that America is involved in a “chronic romance with violence.” She claimed: “We’re going to keep having Vietnams until we address the underlying issues.”
According to Edelman, King “spoke out not only against war but in favor of a just distribution of our nation’s resources.” She asserted, “This new budget from our President is just morally obscene!” adding, “The President is trying to extend these tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires; how are we going to say ‘No, that money is going to give children… healthcare.’”
“There is a difference between charity and justice,” Edelman insisted. “I know all about the faith-based initiatives… [but] charity is not a substitute for justice.” She implored: “It’s time to end child poverty; it’s time to get everyone healthcare.” While Edelman acknowledged that poverty is not a new thing, she contended that, “What is new is that we now have the techniques and resources to get rid of it.”
Edelman also raised concerns about the number of persons incarcerated in the United States. If King were alive presently, she suggested, he “would be appalled that a black boy has a one–in-three” chance of being incarcerated. “This is a looming national crisis,” Edelman warned. “We have got to end our reliance on incarceration.” She predicted, “America’s cradle-to-prison pipeline… threatens to turn back the clock of racial and social progress.”
Such an agenda could not be achieved, however, unless the audience “act[ed] with urgency to reset the nation’s conscience.” She admitted her call for “social justice” “requires us to live our faith in new ways, in sacrificial ways.”
Consistent with her record as an advocate for a big federal bureaucracy, Edelman portrayed the federal government as nearly the only solution to America’s myriad of social ills. She did not acknowledge the statistical correlation between increased welfare spending and increased crime in many communities. Nor did she comment on how the church and non-government groups may offer unique services, and a vital spiritual message, that government programs cannot replicate. For Edelman, the solutions to all poverty and injustice can be found in additional government checks.
Edelman’s soaring confidence in the welfare state fits neatly with the materialistic emphases of the 20th century social gospel. But her message is at odds with traditional Christianity, which strives to meet the material needs of fallen humanity within the context of human spirituality.
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