By Courtney Mussen
The fruit of a collaboration between Goodwin House in Baileys Crossroads and the Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria (CCNA), Wednesday’s talk at Goodwin House senior living home near Falls Church entitled “Their Faith Moved Mountains” sought to situate faith at the center of the lives of two of America’s greatest statesmen, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. It was the second event in a two-part speaker series, The Journey Continues, the first of which, entitled “Through My Eyes,” was held last month.
Following a musical introduction, Retired U.S. Army Colonel, Jim Paige, CCNA’s Executive Director, invited a costumed Lincoln, who had himself visited Baileys Crossroads in November 1861 for a troop review, to recite the Gettysburg address. It served as a timely reminder, that this nation was “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Reverend Dr. Francis H. Wade, a retired Episcopal priest, then addressed “faith as a compass” with a view to orienting the audience to the panel discussion to follow. A belief, he said, is a commitment to an idea that lives in our heads or an ideal that lives in our hearts, all men are created equal being a case in point, while faith is the act of putting our beliefs into practice, or as the saying goes: “Belief is hearing the music of the future; Faith is dancing to it.” He noted that while many people accept the idea of equality, they are not always moved to act upon it, either in their own lives or in the life of the community. As Rabbi Spinrad later explained, this call to put one’s faith into practice is also part of the Jewish tradition: the Hebrew word “Amen” combines the meanings of the English words belief and faith, with a focus on faith as an act of lifting others up or sustaining them. In other words, faith requires action.
Wade continued that having made a commitment to act on our faith, we run up against power, which he characterized as the ability to cause or prevent change. He noted that most of us underestimate our own power or fail to recognize opportunities as they arise. Indeed, even Lincoln is said to have first encountered the cruelty of slavery as a boy on a flatboat trip to New Orleans, together with a recognition of his own powerlessness to change it. Lincoln later used his presidential powers to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which Wade characterized as one of this nation’s first steps on the journey to fulfilling the promise of equality for all people. In conclusion, the Reverend spoke of stewardship, meant to capture the idea that our faith ought to be conceived of as being in service to something greater than ourselves, whether that be God, family or the greater good.
Building on Mr. Wade’s introduction, a distinguished panel of speakers addressed human dignity and its roots in faith, as manifested in the lives of Lincoln and King. The panel comprised: David Gerleman, a professor in history at GMU, specializing in the U.S. Civil War era, military history and Abraham Lincoln; Dr. Leslie Dillard, Retired U.S. Army, Minister, Author and Speaker; and Rabbi David Spinrad of Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria, VA.
As Assistant Editor for the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Gerleman had the opportunity to research many of Lincoln’s papers at the National Archives. He characterized Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation as a political document, one that reflected the reality that Lincoln had no power to touch the institution of slavery. He further noted that Lincoln would later sign the resolution which, following his death, was adopted as the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States.
Turning to the issue of faith, Rabbi Spinrad recounted Lincoln’s faith journey, starting as a religious skeptic in his youth, but through the years coming increasingly to place faith at the center of his life, though he rarely spoke about his religious views. Dr. Dillard described Dr. King’s spirituality as rooted in the strength of his personal relationship with Christ. According to Dillard, King sought to follow His example in the way he lived his life, how he spoke to people, the way he treated them, particularly in the face of social injustice. One of King’s greatest strengths was his ability to bring communities together, regardless of faith or skin color on the basis of their common humanity. Building on Dillard’s remarks, Rabbi Spinrad referenced a high priest in ancient Jerusalem whose vestments bore the words “Kodesh L’Adonai” (a transliteration of the Hebrew, meaning Holy Unto God). Spinrad was of the view that if only we could all approach people with this foremost in our minds, we couldn’t help but respect each other and hold each other up. The importance of recognizing other people’s humanity was echoed by Dr. Dillard for whom communication, taking time to talk to each other, to truly share our experiences, was a way to better understand one another, a vehicle to cultivating dignity and mutual respect.
To reinforce the centrality of cultivating community, Col. Paige highlighted an initiative in Alexandria that brings older women into local schools, known as the Grandmother’s Table. The women act as mentors to young girls, finding ways to lift them up, befriend them, offer them advice and guidance.
The panelists’ closing remarks recalled the importance of each of us speaking out against injustice as a way of putting our faith into action. Rabbi Spinrad spoke of his work with the Alexandria Community Remembrance Project and its partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. The latter’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice is the nation’s first comprehensive memorial dedicated to thousands of African American victims of racial terror lynchings. More than 4,400 killed between 1877 and 1950 are remembered, their names engraved on over 800 steel pillars—one for each county where a racial terror lynching took place. One of the pillars commemorates the two documented lynchings of African American teenagers in Old Town, Alexandria in the 1890s: 19 year-old Joseph McCoy and 16 year-old Benjamin Thomas.
Dr. Dillard highlighted the life experience and wisdom of the audience members, encouraging them to recall their purpose and share their experiences with the younger generation – “we’re not here for ourselves, we’re here for each other.” Professor Gerleman emphasized the importance of knowing our own history. He characterized the current movement in favor of patriotic American history as doing a disservice to young people and the nation’s history.
A video of the full event can be found on Goodwin Living’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O_WEEhSq8w
A video of last month’s first event in this series is also available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6VAtBNw_W0
