I've been reading Adam Russell Taylor's A More Perfect Union, which develops a vision for reclaiming the Beloved Community, one of the touchstones of the Civil Rights movement.
Taylor is the president of Sojourners, the ecumenical organization that bridges Christianity and social justice politics. He took over the leadership from the prolific and influential Jim Wallis, whose 2005 book God's Politics, challenged both the political left and right to rethink the connection between faith and public action. Taylor's new book follows in these footprints.
The words "Beloved Community" were popularized by Martin Luther King as a way of connecting the specific goals of the Civil Rights Movement to a broader vision. The word was coined early 20th Century by theologian Josiah Royce and others associated with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. King was a member. In 1956, following a favorable Supreme Court decision about bus desegregation, King spoke not of the incremental gain, but the ultimate goal:
"The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends. It is this type of goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men."
MLK was being aspirational, as are prophets of all stripe, pointing us toward blessings we did not know that we could receive. And so, too, is Taylor's new book. Polarization in Washington and in the nation would seem to make reconciliation and redemption seem remote and talk of it either naïve or cynical.
“It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends.”
However, Taylor argues that our current dark divisiveness presents an imperative for organized Christianity to get beyond either/or thinking. Fr. Richard Rohr calls either/or thinking dualism, which, he says, "works well for the sake of simplification and conversation but not for the sake of truth or the immense subtlety of actual personal experience."
In the second part of the book, which he calls "the beatitudes of the Beloved Community," he provides historic and contemporary examples of Christian communities leading public opinion, goading lawmakers, toward revitalizing democracy, advancing non-violence, and speaking truth to racism.
In both the prologue and epilogue, the book captures the imperative for Christians. After the 2016 election, Taylor's five-year old son responded his parents despair saying, "It will be OK because you and Mommy will make it OK."
But Taylor knows that Daddy and Mommy (or Mommy alone, or Daddy and Daddy) can't make things OK by themselves. God is personal but never private.
Parents need to organize, to find common ground. To plant their flag on it. To tell others, and invite them. They need to create the Beloved Community, to perfect the union.