Chicago: "Carousel," Church, Courage

This past weekend, Jed and I went to Chicago. The idea for the trip was his. The evening before Easter Sunday, he said he had a "wild and crazy" idea. "How'd you like to go to church tomorrow?"

"Not at all," I said.

His idea, as it turned out, was to go to services at Trinity United Church of Christ in south Chicago, the church Barack Obama sometimes attends, where Rev. Jeremiah Wright is now senior pastor. I said I had other plans for Easter Sunday (going to a movie with a friend), but I thought it would be fun to go to Chicago, and interesting to attend a service at Trinity.

So Saturday afternoon we headed south; met my writing friend Anne-Marie for a wonderful dinner at Topalabampo; went to a good, somewhat minimalist revival of the 1946 musical, "Carousel," at the University of Chicago's Court Theater. I was surprised by how many words of those old songs I knew. (I'd had the same experience earlier in the month at a revue of Irving Berlin songs. I think it has to do with growing up in the 1950s, when all that music was on the radio, and also with music classes in elementary school, when we sang lots of songs, many either popular or patriotic.)

Of course, the most moving of the "Carousel" songs, especially for me, is "When You Walk Through a Storm." And that's really the theme of the show (it having been written just at the end of WWII): "When you walk through a storm/hold your head up high/And don't be afraid of the dark./At the end of the road is a golden sky/and the sweet silver song of a lark//Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart/and you'll never walk alone...."

What was interesting, was that this was also one of the themes of Sunday morning's service at Trinity, which has certainly been at the center of a storm recently. (As we were entering the church, a woman looked at us and said, "It's so nice to finally be going to church without all those TV cameras!") I had thought of our visit as similar to the visits I used to make to churches of various denominations when I was in high school, with others in the American Friends Service Committee youth program: something interesting to do. But it was immediately obvious that we--and other visitors--were really there as supporters of a beleaguered congregation, and we were very warmly welcomed.

The service was joyous, full of music and choreographed dancing by the "dance ministry" group of young people. Yesterday happened to be Youth Sunday; the youth choir sang, many members wearing really colorful African dress; and much of the service was led by young people. A high school senior, Anita Pennington, gave the sermon, which was about "persistence and consistence" in action, faith, and prayer. She was a powerful speaker, especially when she was talking about being persistent and consistent in "fighting for justice and fighting for our rights." She talked about the way Martin Luther King continued his pursuit of racial equality and justice even when his life was threatened, but she also referred to the inspiring persistence and consistency of King's widow, the widow of Malcolm X, and the mother of murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till in working for civil rights even after their devastating losses. The implication was clear: Trinity's members must continue on their path despite the storm of publicity and attacks on Rev. Wright, and the (politically necessary) less-than-fervid endorsement of Wright by Barack Obama. I'm not sure anyone at the church mentioned the word "courage," but it was really a service devoted to courage and hope. I think there must have been a thousand or more people in attendance--every seat in every pew was filled, and there were people standing along the back wall, as well as people in an overflow room somewhere, watching on video--and for sure, all those people were walking through the storm with their heads held high. They are black, and they are proud: of Jeremiah Wright, of their church, and of themselves.

The church bulletin included a fascinating and well-written defense of Wright by Tim Wise, a white man, the author of a memoir, White Like Me, and "among the most respected anti-racist writers and educators in the US." You can read the essay, "Of National Lies and Racial Amnesia: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and the Audacity of Truth," on Wise's web site: www.timwise.org. Just click on the essays archive.

On other subjects: next Monday, I'll give you a report on the CT scan I get this Friday. And I promise those who've asked that I will put up some pictures of the calligraphed tunic (see the last post, if you don't know what this is) as soon as I get a chance. Also--to those of you who do comment and wonder why I haven't responded: I don't get the email addresses of commenters. So if you want a response, please, please, send me an email with your address! But don't stop commenting! Thanks...