It is hard to know how to respond to the situation when the President of our country is purported to have made a slanderous and vulgar remark against underdeveloped countries that is being widely reported and hardly denied.
In my position as a spiritual leader who has traveled for ministry to two such nations, including twice to Haiti, I cannot help but respond. As I thought about it, I have some suggestions for us all.
But first, at the outset, I would say that because of the love of those whom I have met in Haiti and Zambia, I am offended on your behalf. Let me recall just one incident. As my time as a Bible teacher was nearing conclusion in Zambia, one day I was sitting in the back observing a student-led chapel service. The students came back to me and asked me if they could pray for me. I will never forget being seated in the center of the circle at the front of the chapel, surrounded by, covered by, blessed by praying hands over me. I lived for months in the aura of that prayer. I am deeply offended for my friends. I do not even remember being remotely aware that I may have been the only white-skinned person in the service that day. It was not relevant. One who says such things as the President is reported to have said has never sat where I sat.
“In a statement to the church from the President of the Council of Bishops, Bruce Ough writes, “We call on all United Methodists, all people of faith, and the political leadership of the United States to speak up and speak against such demeaning and racist comments.”
In his response to the situation, Bishop Bickerton continued with a quote from Martin Luther King whose memory we honor tomorrow.
"On this weekend before Martin Luther King Day, it would do us well to remember the words Dr. King wrote from a Birmingham jail. Dr. King said, 'We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.'"