As I write this, America mourns the passing of Congressman John Robert Lewis, the civil rights leader and long-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives who died from pancreatic cancer on July 17, 2020, at the age of 80.
Lewis was one of the “Big Six” who organized the March on Washington in 1963, and the last of these still surviving at the time of his death [1]. He filled many key roles in the civil rights movement and its quest to end legalized racial segregation in the United States [2]. In 1965 he led the Selma-to Montgomery marches across the Edmond Pettis Bridge in Alabama, in which the incident known as Bloody Sunday took place, involving the brutal beating by Alabama police of many of the marchers, including Lewis [3].
Lewis would go on to serve 17 terms in the House, serving Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District until his death in 2020 [4]. During this time he would hold prominent positions of leadership among his colleagues [5], and would eventually be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom [6], one of the two highest civilian awards that can be received by a citizen of the United States [7].
A Hero of Justice
Few have walked so heroic a path as John Robert Lewis. Facing death without flinching in his quest for justice, Lewis has few peers in the American experience. Born in 1940 of sharecropper parents, just outside of Troy, Alabama, Lewis witnessed some of the worst of America’s racial sins in the course of his eighty years. As a student at Fisk University, and later as an ordained Baptist minister, he dedicated himself not only to the cause of justice, but also to the non-violent pursuit of the same [8]. Though active in organizing sit-ins, boycotts, and the famous Freedom Rides of 1961 [9], he never veered from adhering to the principle of non-violence [10]. More than once he suffered violence himself, along with other peaceful demonstrators.
Most moving of all, perhaps, was the apology Lewis received from a former Ku Klux Klansman, Elwin Wilson, in February 2009—48 years after the beating Lewis received at a Greyhound bus station during the Freedom Rides [11]. Non-violent resistance to injustice is designed to touch and change hearts, and in the case of Lewis’s influence on Elwin Wilson, it appears to have succeeded.
A Bible Principle
The imperative of racial justice stands above and beyond politics. It is a Bible principle, first and foremost. The universal reach of Biblical salvation, and its implications for earthly human relationships, is affirmed as early as God’s call to Abraham, in which the father of the faithful was assured that “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3; see also Gen. 22:18; 28:14). The Old Testament assures us that “the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (II Chron. 16:9). Long before Jews were segregated from Gentiles in Herod’s temple—a practice fully devoid of divine authority, by the way—God declared through the prophet Isaiah: “Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (Isa. 56:7). Modern Bible translations, such as the New King James Version, say “all nations.”
When the centurion came to Jesus to ask healing for his servant, our Lord declared: “Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 8:11). The apostle Peter declared in the house of Cornelius that “in every nation he that feareth [God], and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him” (Acts 10:35). Paul declared to the Athenians that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26), and in his letter to the Galatians extended God’s offer of justification through faith to the heathen, on the basis of God’s promise to Abraham that “in thee shall all nations be blessed” (Gal. 3:8).
On the basis of these Bible principles, Ellen White and her Adventist pioneer colleagues in early Adventism called for the abolition of American slavery, and counseled our people to defy the infamous Fugitive Slave Act by refusing to return runaway slaves to their masters [12]. Even more strongly, Ellen White declared at one point:
Many Sabbath-keepers are not right before God in their political views. They are not in harmony with God’s word, or in union with the body of Sabbath-keeping believers. . . . These brethren cannot receive the approval of God while they lack sympathy for the oppressed colored race, and are at variance with the pure, republican principles of our Government [13].
Tragically, Seventh-day Adventists haven’t always adhered to these principles. But those who have failed to do so, and who still thus fail, stand in violation of our Bible/Spirit of Prophecy heritage as a people. Those who seek to honor this heritage cannot remain silent or inactive when they see racial injustice practiced in either the church or society.
“Good Trouble”
A recent article eulogizing John Lewis made the following observation, which I believe is perhaps the greatest lesson God’s people can learn from the life of this great man:
Finally, John Lewis constantly urged young people to get into "Good Trouble." By that, he meant that if they saw wrong, they must seek to make it right. If they saw war, they must try to stop it. If they saw poverty, they must work to end it. He warned that those actions would surely generate a strong and hostile counteraction. It will get you in trouble, Lewis would teach. But that is “Good Trouble,” and there is a sacredness in standing up against wrong [14].
This principle is of even greater import in the church than in society as a whole. And it faces some of its severest challenges from the middle class penchant toward controversy avoidance. This has proved to be one of the biggest problems in First World Adventism during the past several decades, as major attacks on the church’s doctrinal and moral integrity have provoked discussion and the taking of sides.
As a rule, middle class culture teaches its denizens to avoid debate over religion and politics, and prizes “getting along by going along” as the best way to navigate the seas of life. Contrary to stereotypes made popular by their theological opponents, Biblical/theological conservatives are not by nature folks who “crawl backwards over broken glass” if it can lead them to a fight. Most of the time they despise conflict, cherishing religious fellowship in particular as a haven of peace and quiet apart from the contention and chaos they usually associate with the world. When such persons suddenly find their church, its governing bodies and institutions, transformed into battle zones, they generally find themselves unnerved, disoriented, and often resentful.
But too often, irrespective of its religious leanings, middle class culture forgets the Biblical paradigm of spiritual reality, which is that of the great controversy between good and evil. “Standing up against wrong,” as John Lewis would say, is one of the highest imperatives of spiritual faithfulness for one claiming to be a Bible-believing Christian. Getting into “good trouble,” in Lewis’s words, has been the pattern set by such Biblical luminaries as Noah, Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and Jesus Himself.
We see this “good trouble” paradigm played out in contemporary Adventism, though not nearly enough. When a pastor or administrator braves opposition by standing for Biblical and distinctive denominational teachings in the congregational or institutional life of the church, he invites what Lewis would call “good trouble.” When a student in an Adventist school publicly corrects the unscriptural teachings or policies of a professor or school administrator, such a one provokes “good trouble.” When church members at a congregational business meeting, on a nominating committee, or at a Conference constituency meeting demand accountability from leaders relative to standards of doctrinal, ecclesiastical, and moral faithfulness, they are involving themselves in “good trouble.”
Conclusion
We need more “good trouble,” in both the church and society. That the legacy of John Robert Lewis will inspire positive and constructive change throughout the world, and a fearless espousal of Bible truth within God’s remnant church, is my earnest prayer as we bid farewell to this towering champion of peace and justice.
REFERENCES
1. “John Lewis (civil rights leader),” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_(civil_rights_leader)
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. “Presidential Medal of Freedom,”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom
8. “John Lewis (civil rights leader),” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lewis_(civil_rights_leader)
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 1, pp. 201-202.
13. Ibid, pp. 533-534.
14. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, “The ‘Good Trouble’ man,” The Hill, July 25, 2020 https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/lawmaker-news/508999-the-good-trouble-man
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan