All cannot be fully well for any of us until all is finally well for all of us.
That is my less artful version of Martin Luther King Jr.’s more lyrical declaration, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable web of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
Chuck Poole
Those beautiful words of King’s echo Jesus’ simple saying that all the law and the prophets can be summed up in a single sentence, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” not unlike Paul’s counsel to the Galatians, “The whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
All of which is why serious people of every faith, along with people of no faith but good faith, keep working for a more just and equitable, welcoming and inclusive world. We know where the cumulative weight of the Spirit of God and goodness is calling and leading — toward a more just and equitable, inclusive and welcoming world.
I continue to be amazed and bewildered when people who belong to my own faith tradition of Christianity dismiss as “woke” and “liberal” the efforts of people of conscience and conviction to fully expand Medicaid to close the health care coverage gap, to find a kind and compassionate way to welcome immigrants, to get weapons of war off our streets, to protect the religious freedom of minority faiths, to work for racial justice, and to stand up for marriage equality for all people.
“It isn’t wokeism, it’s baptism.”
We don’t work that way because we have made an ideological decision to be progressive but because we have made a spiritual decision to follow Jesus.
It isn’t wokeism, it’s baptism.
We don’t work for a more just and equitable, inclusive and welcoming world in spite of the fact that we are serious, prayerful people of faith, but because we are serious, prayerful people of faith.
Our hope is eventually to grow to be exactly as liberal as God: the God who, for Christians, was most fully revealed in the one who spent his life, and gave his life, sitting down with and standing up for whoever was most marginalized, ostracized, demonized, dehumanized, stigmatized, suffering, struggling, overlooked, left out, hurting and alone. The one who is reported to have said, in Matthew 7:12, “All the holy words in all the holy books can be summed up in a single simple sentence, ‘Treat all others as you wish to be treated.’”
Which is how we came to know that all cannot be fully well for any of us until all is finally well for all of us; by watching Jesus, who now, one imagines, is watching us.
Chuck Poole retired in 2022 after 45 years of pastoral life, during which he served churches in Georgia; North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; and Jackson, Miss. He has served as a visiting preacher and teacher on the campuses of multiple universities, seminaries and divinity schools. He was the founding teacher of the Wood Street Bible Class in Jackson, which he led for 21 years. The author of nine books, numerous published articles, one gospel song and the lyrics to three hymns, Chuck has served as a “minister on the street” and as an advocate for interfaith conversation and welcome. He and his wife, Marcia, now live in Birmingham, where he serves on the staff of Together for Hope.