In Memory of Harry Sims Protecting the Freedom Riders

I had a moving experience this past Saturday. I attended the Freedom Riders Anniversary Event on Gurney Avenue in Anniston, coordinated by a friend and parishioner named Pete Conroy. There was a book signing and presentation by Charles Person, one of two living original Freedom Riders who came through town in 1961 to protest continued segregation in Alabama, after it was outlawed by the Supreme Court.

At the time their "mixed riding" was met with hostility from mobs of Ku Klux Klansmen, Person was 18 years old. I had heard the basic story, of course, but I mentioned on Sunday that I didn't realize it happened on Mother's Day.

Afterwards, one of our church members told me that a parishioner of our church, Harry Sims, was on that bus. In his blessed memory, and in honor of all those who are part of the fiber of our great church, I decided to learn more about what Harry did.

At the time of the Freedom Riders, Harry was a plainclothes state trooper who was on the Greyhound bus. He was on duty, not only keeping an eye on things with his partner (who was recording the whole thing), but ended up protecting the Riders from violence.

You probably know some of the main story. Two buses left Atlanta, bound for Birmingham, and the Greyhound stopped for a rest stop in Anniston. As soon as they left Atlanta, "beefy" Klansmen on the bus started taunting Person and the other black and white Freedom Riders. Harry and his partner were sitting in the back. Once stopped on Gurney Avenue in Anniston, out of nowhere, the Freedom Riders were met by a Ku Klux Klan mob who blocked the bus, slashed the tires, broke the windows, and beat it with baseball bats.

Once the bus was able to pull out, just a few miles out of town the bus had to stop on the side of the road. Having been chased by cars driven by the same angry mob, the infamous scene was set.

Harry and his partner blocked the doors to keep the mob from attacking the Riders. One of the KKK threw a fire bomb through a broken window, and the Riders had to get out to escape further injury from smoke inhalation. Harry drew his weapon to protect them from the mob, which then began to disperse. When the ambulance arrived, the driver refused to take the black Freedom Riders to the hospital, and the white Riders insisted that they would not leave their black friends behind.

After some stern words from Harry's partner, the driver relented and they ended up all going. Harry and his partner accompanied them to the Anniston Memorial Hospital, where there was continued agitation. After the hospital administrator told them to evacuate because of threats of burning down the building, Harry and his partner could not provide transportation or an escort. So Fred Shuttlesworth, Civil Rights leader, ended up sending cars for them from Birmingham.

I wish I had met Harry Sims and heard his version. Those were difficult times. But he was there for all that, and he protected them, and in his own way, he stood for what was right. I tip my hat to Harry Sims. For more information on the Freedom Riders, the incident near Anniston, and Harry Sims, see the NPR news article on the subject.

Better Recording of "I'll Be On My Way" by Shawn Kirchner

Some have asked to hear the most recent performance of my solo work with the Calhoun County Civic Chorale. It was a professional recording made in the recital hall at Mason Hall at JSU.

This is the spring performance of the Calhoun County Civic Chorale, doing "Ill Be On My Way" by Shawn Kirchner.

It features myself as the baritone soloist. The director is Dr. Eliezer Yansen, Jr. of Jacksonville State University.

YOU MAY VIEW THE PERFORMANCE BY CLICKING HERE.

“I’ll Be On My Way” by Shawn Kirchner

Some have asked me to share the audio recording my wife made of “I’ll Be On My Way” by Shawn Kirchner, performed by the Calhoun County Civic Chorale directed by JSU faculty member Dr. Eliezer Yansen, Jr.

I am the baritone soloist featured in the piece. 

Charles Wesley's Words Against Separation

This article was shared with me by S T Kimbrough, Jr.

A key sentences reads "Regardless of current opinions in the church, remembering the posture of our founders is essential if we would bear the name Methodist."

Kimbrough  is a retired NAC member of the North Alabama Conference and serves as a Research Fellow in the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition at Duke Divinity School

At the conclusion of John Wesley’s treatise Reasons Against Separation from the Church of England (1758) there is a rarely quoted paragraph written by his brother Charles Wesley. As one carefully considers issues related to dividing The United Methodist Church it behooves us to hear these words of one of the founders of the Methodist movement.

        “I think myself bound in duty, to add my testimony to my brother’s.

    His twelve reasons against our ever Separating from the Church of England,

    are mine also. I subscribe to them with all my heart. Only with regard to the

    first, I am quite clear, that it is neither expedient, nor lawful for me to

    separate: and I never had the least inclination or temptation so to do. My

    affection for the Church is as strong as ever; and I clearly see my calling;

    which is, to live and to die in her communion. This therefore, I am determined

    to do, the Lord being my helper.

        I have subjoined the Hymns for the Lay-Preachers; still farther to secure

    this end, to cut off all jealously and suspicion from our friends, or hope from

    our enemies, of our having any design of ever separating from the Church.

    I have no secret reserve, or distant thought of it. I never had. Would to God

    all the Methodist preachers were, in this respect, like minded with

                                                                                        CHARLES WESLEY.”

Following this statement Charles included a series of hymns and poems pertinent to this theme. I quote only one of them here. Regardless of current opinions in the church, remembering the posture of our founders is essential if we would bear the name Methodist. As “God is love,” the Wesleys remind us that this is the central force of individual and corporate life together. Charles reminds us that God transcends the opinions of our hearts: thou art greater than our heart. And humble love is to be our ongoing mark as followers of Jesus. In the current turmoil in United Methodism the deep sense of humble love in the spirit of Charles Wesley’s text below, alone is worthy of the people called Methodists who claim to be followers of Christ.

                    O Lord, our strength and righteousness,

                        Our base, and head, and corner-stone,

                    Our peace with God, our mutual peace,

                        Unite, and keep thy servants one,

                    That while we speak in Jesus’ name,

                    We all may speak, and think the same.

                    That spirit of love to each impart,

                        That fervent mind, which was in thee,

                    So shall we all our strength exert,

                        In heart, and word, and deed agree

                    T’ advance the kingdom of thy grace,

                    And spread thine everlasting praise.

                    O never may the Fiend steal in,

                        Or one unstable soul deceive:

                    Assailed by our besetting sin,

                        And tempted ’fore the work to leave,

                    Preserve us, Lord, from self and pride,

                    And let nor life, nor death divide.

                    Pride, only pride, can cause divorce,

                        Can separate ’twixt our souls and thee:

                    Pride, only pride, is discord’s source,

                        The bane of peace and charity;

                    But us it never more shall part,

                    For thou art greater than our heart.

                    Wherefore to thine almighty hand

                        The keeping of our hearts we give,

                    Firm in one mind and spirit stand,

                        To thee, and to each other cleave,

                    Fixed on the Rock which cannot move,

                    And meekly safe in humble love.

S T Kimbrough, Jr., retired NAC member

Interview with Paul Chilcote, Don Saliers, and Steve Harper

I was honored with a conversation on my new book with three people I look up to, Paul Chilcote, Don Saliers, and Steve Harper. This is segment #3 of UMsConnected, a new resource for those of us moving forward together as part of the United Methodist Church.

 

What if Someone Says Something I Don’t Like?

I get tired of having the same conversation over and over (haha). Somebody tagged me in a post about something an episcopal candidate in another Jurisdiction said, taken out of context to conclude that she didn’t believe in the divinity of Christ (which of course is not what she said).

First, I untagged myself from the post. Second, I wrote this. I share it with you, friends.

—

I don’t know her and she’s not a bishop, but here’s my comment. Every denomination has outliers and envelope pushers and extremists. If you leave the UMC, you are not leaving the outliers and extremists. You are leaving the main body of a wonderful denomination, for another denomination that will also have outliers and extremists. It’s human nature. If you shake a religious tree in America, a nut will fall out. In a 12.5 million person denomination, somebody somewhere is going to say something I don’t agree with. So?

It’s not new, and we work it out in the messiness of Christian community. It doesn’t bother me that somebody I don’t know somewhere believes something differently than me. Unless I’m willing to go have coffee with her, I let it go. Since this was given to me third hand and out if context, I do not fall prey to the hysteria. 

It bothers me that these little anecdotes and sound bites and half-truths get spread around the internet used as justification when the real reason people are leaving is over their fundamental intolerance of our differences. It’s nothing more that witch hunting. I choose love.

You asked, so I answered.

This is an excellent example of the method of rhetoric that involves taking an extreme example, spreading it as a anecdote out of context and perhaps even exaggerating it, wrapping it into a narrative of the infidelity of the whole, and using it to justify leaving. I’d rather just focus on making disciples.