Finding a voice and asking why
By Dr. Darryn Hewson, Contributing Writer
Recently in Washington State the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty. The case was primarily based on a study from 2014 that found that black men were four times more likely to receive the death penalty in Washington than white men. The study was done by a professor from the University of Washington named Katherine Beckett who couldn’t believe her study was so central, but who also couldn’t believe no one had ever looked at race and the death penalty before. She spent four year having her abilities as a researcher questioned, being called garbage, being disparaged for being a woman, but through all of it she stood up and pointed to the irrefutable data. The death penalty was ended because Dr. Beckett was one of those people who raised her hand to ask a question and didn’t stop there, she dug deep to find and answer and then made sure others would know as well.
Micah 6:8 asks, “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” When someone is being hurt, does it matter whether they are the same faith, gender, color, status or ideology as you? That should be rhetorical, but it doesn’t feel like it is. In any class there are always those who raise their hands to ask their own questions or to answer every question that’s being asked (even if they don’t know the answer), those who never raise their hands (even if they do know the answer or have their own question) and those in between.
When it comes to a cause it feels about the same. There are those who are always willing to march, to picket, to write letters or call their government officials, there are those who hold back even when it effects them and then there is most everyone else who is in the middle not really holding back, but also not really ready to raise their voice. In the past few years many people have expressed that they joined their first protest or marched their first march. There were moments when it seemed the middle had finally found something to push it beyond complacency, like the time when they were so sure they raised their hands in class, but then they went home…perhaps waiting, perhaps hoping, perhaps shifting further towards the hand raisers, but not quite there. Then all of a sudden even some of those hand sitters, the ones who never ever raise their hand, started to raise their hand, raised their voice that they felt had been taken from them, shared their story… and now…All people of faith are called and challenged to stand up for those who cannot, to ask the questions others won’t and to make sure that very march is just a beginning not an end. Now we are challenged to listen and to stand and to always seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.
Dr. Darryn Hewson spends much of his time learning about and experiencing first-hand the traditions of others. His doctoral work was focused on worship as a form of dialog and creating sacred spaces. He has worked with Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and others all over the world, trying to help people understand what is most important in their relationship to an infinite God. His mission is to build bridges across the things that divide us, doorways through the barriers that separate us, and windows into the knowledge that can erase the ignorance of hate and fear between us.
