In a speech at the 5th Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue held on September 20, 2008, the late Dr. Vincent Harding referenced words by his friend Kwame Ture, also known as Stokely Carmichael.
Dr. Harding quoted Kwame saying that “for racism to die in America, a whole new America will have to be born.” Dr. Harding then juxtaposed Ture’s words with those of his other friend, Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., who said toward the end of his life that “America, you have to be born again.” Dr. Harding then commented that “not many people would have ever dreamed that Kwame and Dr. King would be carrying the same message.”
The reference to being born again belongs to a New Testament passage in the Gospel of John. It is where Jesus, in a midnight conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, told him “that no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Jesus was not speaking of a physical birth but an emotional, spiritual and intellectual new birth. The Pharisee Nicodemus had been steeped in a toxic tradition, irrelevant rituals and religious rigidity that prevented him from understanding the compassionate, caring and welcoming will and way of God. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that something had to die so that something even more beautiful could live in his faith practices.
Dr. Harding, in that speech, said that he consulted a midwife for insight on the birthing process, and the midwife shared with him the perspective of the fetus being born. She told Dr. Harding that if you think of the fetus as being “totally cared for within the womb and having to do absolutely nothing but enjoy the safety and security of the womb, but then that fetus must lose that life, die to that life in order for its new life to begin.”
Dr. Harding then used that process as a metaphor for America. He said for America to be born again, there needs to be midwives willing to guide the birthing process for America to be born again into something new and welcoming for all.
Beloved, to do that, Dr. Harding finally called for people who identify as white to first of all become midwives of a new America by talking to their white neighbors, family members and associates about a new birth in America.
This kind of midwife work takes imagination, creativity, courage, biblical and theological literacy and, finally, a love for all people as made in the imago Dei.
If I may take the metaphor of new birth just a little farther, it seems that the birth pains have already begun in the pain that this present administration, fueled by Project 2025, has unleashed upon citizens of this country and has reverberated across the globe.
The old toxic traditions of domination that have demonized certain people, and irrelevant rituals that celebrated violence against people who are different, are sending birth pains throughout the body politic of America. Something new is ready to be born, but where are the trusted voices of justice for the oppressed? Where are the midwives of liberation for the truth-tellers and deliverance for those suffering needless economic insecurity in a nation that can spend billions on war but strip funding for the social safety net?
Dr. Harding used the poem by Langston Hughes, who said, “America never was America to me, and yet I swear this oath, America will be! O, let America be America again, the land that never has been yet, and yet must be.”
Langston Hughes was a midwife trying to birth a new America into being. We need other midwives to help America be born again into an America that would reflect the beloved community as seen in the birth of the church at Pentecost.
Be well, be authentic and stay woke! Uhuru Sasa!!!
Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.”
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
- Rev. John E. Jackson
