It's unlikely you know the name of Clyde E. Fant. Years ago, he was the Chaplain at Stetson University in DeLand, Fl. Dr. Fant was a friend of my father's. During one of our trips to Florida, my father ran into Dr. Fant at some little restaurant.
Clyde Fant told us about the president of a bank in a Southern town where he served as Pastor of a congregation. This man was an outspoken critic of Martin Luther King, Jr. For years prior to King's assassination he would say, "Somebody ought to shoot that S.O.B." When Dr. King was shot, Clyde went to the community leader and asked, "I'm wondering if you had any part in that shooting." Of course, the man was infuriated by the question. Clyde went on to tell him, "No, you didn't pull the trigger, but you and thousands of other good, white Christians kept on saying he ought to be shot until someone finally did."
Riding back to the condo that afternoon, I thought about what Dr. Fant said. They killed King but who won? With racism at least discredited, and the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., now a national holiday, who was the winner, who was the loser?
Consider Anne Frank and her friends, a little group of Jews huddled together in an attic room,
away from the wailing sirens of the searching Gestapo-- who won? After World War II when the play, The Diary or Anne Frank, was shown in Frankfurt and Stuttgart and Berlin and the curtain rang down, everyone sat in their seats stunned. No one moved. The only thing you could hear were occasional sobs coming from the stricken audience. Who was the winner, who was the loser?
Consider Martin Niemoller, one of the greatest German war heroes of the the first World War, a much-decorated U-Boat commander. After the War he became a preacher and refused to cooperate with Hitler. Finally he was trown into prison because he preached with the Gestapo sitting in his Communion Service and said, "There will be only one sign erected above this altar, and it will be the sign of the cross!" And the Gestapo took the sign of the cross and broke it and threw him in prison. And yet, who was the winner, who was the loser?
Consider Audrey Grevious. She has worn a criss-cross network of scars on her legs for forty years because she stood her ground in the McCrory's department store, Lexington, KY, while being beaten with chains. But today, this African American woman can eat wherever she wants and vote in every election. Who won? Who lost?
I was always told that it wasn't tasteful to talk about religion publicly, but I can't seem to avoid talking here about Jesus. In the words of Fred Craddock,
They hammered the nails into the cross with the backs of their Bibles,
dusted off their hands, and said, ' That'll fix Him!'
Who won? Who lost?
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