Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
[hebrews 11:1-3 nrsvue]
For me, this journey started with prayer, y’all. In Mississippi, our prayers have often changed the course of history.
That’s how Scott Colom began his acceptance speech on Wednesday night after his historic election as the first African American Senator of the state of Mississippi since 1881.
Throughout our history there are many people who have lifted this state up through the power of prayer in very dark times.
He then shifted to the need for faith as the partner to prayer, and recounted a litany of the personal uphill battles and political challenges he faced during his arduous campaign, as well as the struggles that African-Americans before him endured in their quest for equal representation in the Magnolia state.
He cited the assasination of civil rights worker Medgar Evers and the relentless efforts of Fannie Lou Hamer.
He also mentioned other more recent names of those who contributed to the success of Colom’s campaign.
But his closing comment was the most gripping and most hope-filled of the night:
My commitment to you, each and every one of you, is that first I’m going to treat your children like I want my children to be treated. I’m going to treat your parents the way I want my parents to be treated. I’m going to treat your future the way I want my future to be. My commitment is to be someone that continues to stay in prayer, continues to have faith, and continues to work to make every Mississippian’s life better…in every decision I make I will never forget that the most important thing is Mississippi matters.
Colom’s words seemed to echo the eleventh chapter of the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews.
Like Colom’s speech, Hebrews names Old Testament figures who were examples of faith.
They persevered through trials, all the while continuing to obey God’s word.
Through faith, they sensed God’s presence at work in their lives even though none of them received what was promised.
When I think of Mississippi, the images that spring to mind are those of Emmett Till, the young fourteen-year-old who was murdered in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white girl.
I remember James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner; three young men who, in 1964, were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan simply for registering Blacks to vote.
There were some successes.
James Meredith became the first African-American student admitted to the University of Mississippi.
But in general, Mississippi’s history is one of violence and systemic oppression against Black people, despite having the highest percentage of Black or African-American residents of any state in the United States.
Will the election results change anything?
One can only hope. To quote the environmental ethicist Larry Rasmussen:1
The struggle is ongoing. Racism can be compared to a pandemic. It takes a long time to eradicate. Victories come by fits and starts and contests have to be engaged anew, over and again, not least because the poisonous virus develops new variant strains.
[The Planet You Inherit, p. 135]
One can never forget, after all, what followed the “Hope and Change” ushered in by the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency.
It will take time to see whether Colom’s hard-fought campaign, which needed a significant amount of white support, will generate real change, or just a brief pause in the continual cruelty that is characteristic of white southerners.
Again, one can only hope.
And hope does not disappoint (Romans 5:1-5).
If we need some tangible reassurance, we need look no further than the fact that a half-dozen of the candidates elected to the halls of congress are clergy.
All that religious presence stirs in us a sense that the Spirit must be up to something!
We live in faith, and armed with the power of prayer, we persist.
And we pray:
Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 100)
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Below is the video of Senator-Elect Scott Colom’s acceptance speech. It runs about 16 minutes. I would encourage you to watch when time allows.
- Rasmussen, Larry L. The Planer You Inherit. (Minneapolis, Broadleaf Books, 2022) ↩︎
