Mennonite Weekly Review

ELKHART, Ind. — Vincent Harding suggested we are still on the march to a multiracial society at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary Jan. 16-17.

Vincent Harding speaks to a group at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in his visit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Harding emphasized the importance of understanding each other’s stories and listening to each other. — Photo by SaeJin Lee/AMBS

Harding, a close associate of King, reflected on the question of where King was heading in his ministry. At the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery walk for voting rights in 1965, Harding noted King did not say, “We have finally gotten to victory, so let’s sit down.”

“In the middle of that long, hard, victorious march, he comes to a point where he says, ‘We are on the move now,’ ” Harding said. “Could he have thought we would still be on the move in 2012? Do you need to move that long to make America what it ought to be? How much moving is necessary to make America a truly multiracial democracy for all its people?”

Harding, who served for a time as one of the pastors of Woodlawn Mennonite Church in Chicago, told about King going to Chicago and claiming his place with people who were suffering, sacrificing and dying for each other. He hinted that if we are honest we might say we are scared to follow King on that journey.

“Why have a God who we ask to take care of us and guide us if all we want are places that don’t scare us?” Harding asked. “You don’t need the Great Deliverer if you’re not going to any dangerous places. Going to stand with any deserted, pushed-aside people is a dangerous vocation. It is the only truly Jesus-connected vocation. That’s what Martin believed.”

In the discussion time that followed, Harding asked people to state their names, where they grew up, their “momma’s momma’s” names and where they grew up. Knowing that information already helps us know something about each other, he said.

Bill Swartzendruber of Middlebury asked what he could do as a white male to live out a Christian calling to color-awareness. Harding initially pointed out that Swartzendruber is not “white” — like a piece of paper.

“We must recognize that our healing as a nation depends on each other, on being as honest with each other as we can be, on breaking out of black circles and white circles and Asian circles and creating new circles,” he said. “We have all been wounded in ways that we need each other for healing.”

Harding spoke in a chapel ser­vice and lunch-time forum. Also featured in the chapel service was the choir from St. James A.M.E. Church in Elkhart, directed by Ray Barham.

Several times, Harding repeated King’s declaration that this nation “must be born again.” In his focus on what kind of education is needed, he again asked questions.