Not many people are named Elijah. This article is about two of the only three Elijahs I have heard of, but they were two men with a similar defining characteristic: they spoke truth to power.
Remembering
Prophet Elijah (9th Century BCE)
The Old Testament prophet
Elijah has long been one of my favorite biblical characters. I remember
studying hard to learn more about Elijah and then leading a Bible study about him
65 years ago—yes, in the summer of 1956 when I was a college student.
Elijah was a prophet during the reign of the wicked King Ahab, the seventh king of Israel, and his infamous wife Jezebel, who was, well, a jezebel (= “an impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained woman”; Merriam-Webster).
According to 1 Kings 18:17 in the Old Testament, “When Ahab
saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘Is it you, you troubler of Israel?’ Elijah was a
“troubler” because he spoke out in criticism of the evil king and his notorious
wife.
Jonathan Sacks, the noted British Rabbi who died last November, published an article titled “Elijah and the prophetic truth of the ‘still, small voice’.” He stated, “Elijah was one of the greatest of the prophets, a man of justice unafraid to confront kings, condemn corruption and speak truth to power.”
That’s what the Old
Testament prophets did. It was only the false prophets who cozied up to kings.
A century before
Elijah, the prophet Nathan stood before powerful King David, guilty of adultery
and instigating murder, and declared, “Thou art the man” (2 Samuel 12:7, KJV).
That Old Testament
story is the basis of journalist Maina Mwaura’s January 9th piece titled, “At the Capitol, evangelicals’ ‘Thou
art the man’ moment.”
Remembering Representative Elijah Cummings (1951~2019)
Martin Luther King,
Jr., was born 92 years ago today, but as I have posted blog articles about him
previously (first on Jan. 11, 2010), I am writing now about an outstanding
African American man who was born three days after King’s 22nd
birthday.
Following his birth
on January 18, 1951, Robert and Ruth Cummings named their new son Elijah, after
the Old Testament prophet.
The Baltimore
Magazine unsurprisingly told in a 2014 article how Cummings remembered “running home from
church on Sundays to listen to Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches” on the radio.
From age 45 on, Cummings served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 23 years until his death in October 2019. Monday would have been his 70th birthday.
On the day of his
death, Phil Murphy, the governor of Maryland, tweeted, “A model of
dignity and strength, Elijah Cummings' upbringing in a segregated Baltimore led
him on a lifelong mission to promote justice, to always speak truth to power,
and to ensure a fair shake for every American.”
In February 2020, the
House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s hearing room in the Rayburn Office
Building in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Elijah E. Cummings Room in honor
of the late Baltimore congressman.
At that dedication
ceremony, Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black
Caucus, said Cummings “used his gavel to speak truth to power for our nation.”
If last week’s tragic
events had happened two years ago, Rep. Elijah would most likely have been a
key politician speaking truth to power—and the misuse of power by the President.
Cummings would, no
doubt, have joined with Rep. Jamie Raskin, who wrote the resolution calling on
VP Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove DJT from office.
(Raskin, b. 1962,
currently is the U.S. Representative from Maryland’s 8th District, where
both of my sons live; Cummings served that state’s 7th District.)
In 2018, the year
before he died, Cummings said, “I’m going to try and make people realize
that in order to live the life they are living, they need to have democracy,
and it’s being threatened.”
Little did he know then how much U.S. democracy was going to
be threatened on January 6, 2021.
How important it was/is for people like him and the Old
Testament prophet Elijah—and all of us in our own place of influence—to speak
truth to power!
This is a very good and informative blog today, on MLK's birthday. Thanks. It got me to thinking about the things going on currently, and by happenstance I read your blog right after reading Heather Cox Richardson's today. And I suspect that the reactionary white evangelicals, so much a part of Movement Conservatism, probably think they're speaking truth to power. The difference, I'm hypothesizing here off the top of my head, is the cause for which the two groups are speaking. The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures, with few exceptions, were speaking truth to power in the interests of the vulnerable and powerless; in other words, for justice and fair treatment. The modern-day Elijah(s) you're highlighting are in that same mode (with some modern additions such as democracy and civil rights), whereas the reactionary white evangelicals have sided with elite corporate power and white supremacy (with the modern addition of "liberty" understood essentially as self-interested doing-whatever-I-want). Or so it seems to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anton, for your thoughtful comments.
DeleteI also read Ms. Richardson's blog before making my post this morning, and, as usual, I was impressed by what she wrote.
You are right, I think, that the prophets of the OT from Elijah (and from Nathan) to Elijah C. in recent times were, indeed, "speaking truth to power in the interests of the vulnerable and powerless . . . for justice and fair treatment."
On the other hand, while some conservative white evangelicals may think they were/are speaking truth to power, it seems to me they were/are mainly trying to keep a man in power who has been the most untruthful POTUS in history and has largely been in word and deed against justice and fairness for large segments of the people who live in the U.S. Thus, instead of speaking truth to power, they have, shamefully, amplified the lies of the man in power.
True, Leroy, but they also see trump as "ordained by God to save" the USA (literally shared with me by a Qanon proponent) who will liberate the country from the deep and liberal state.
DeleteYes--and that is part of the problem. Indeed, as some well-known person asked, "What is truth?"
DeleteBut what is more concerning to me (as a Christian) than the conspiracy theories of QAnon is the position taken by devoted supporters of DJT by some conservative white evangelicals, and especially, it seems, by those in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement.
Along with Heather Cox Richardson, I am a regular reader of John Fea's blog posts (which are numerous). Here is the link to an important post he made this morning:
https://thewayofimprovement.com/2021/01/15/charismatic-prophets-at-war/
Even before Anton posted the above comments, I had a brief email from Bruce Morgan, another local Thinking Friend, with these brief comments.
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy. Maybe, with your encouragement, we will see more Elijahs in our future. We have too few."
Thanks, Bruce, for your comments; even though they are brief I much appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and to post your response.
DeleteJonathan Edwards, in a letter sometime in the 18th century: "I have known many gentlemen...tainted with those liberal principles; who, though none seem to be such warm advocates as they, for liberty and freedom of thought, or condemn a narrow and persecuting spirit so much as they; yet, in the course of things, have made it manifest, that they themselves had no small share of a persecuting spirit. They were, indeed, against anybody's restraining THEIR liberties, and pretending to control THEM in their thinking and professing as they please; and that is what they mean, truly when they plead for liberty." (Found in Timothy Dwight, 1834.)
ReplyDeleteOops! Sorry. The source of that quotation is Sereno E. Dwight, ed., Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards, A.M., in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1, 1974 ed. (Edinburgh, England: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1834).
DeleteAnton, as you probably know, I have long been a strong advocate of liberty--religious liberty and liberty in general. I have long emphasized four words beginning with the letter L, namely, Life, Love, Light, and Liberty.
DeleteIt pains me the way liberty has been so misused by so many people on the right--not only by religious conservatives but by secular people as well, and Sean Hannity comes to mind. And while I am an strong advocate of liberty, I generally am in disagreement with what most "libertarians" advocate.
Liberty sought only for oneself is a warped liberty, it seems to me, and the liberty sought by the religious conservatives as primarily the liberty to discriminate against LGBTQ people and Blacks, and to deprive women of reproductive rights is, I think, completely wrongheaded.
What Edwards wrote is, perhaps, pertinent to what I have written here. Thanks for sharing his words.
And then Temp Sparkman, another local Thinking Friend, wrote,
ReplyDelete"Your best paragraph was on how Cummings rushed home from church to listen to Martin Luther King’s sermons on the radio. Wonder how old he was at the time. His young mind and heart must have been a clue to the adult man whom you so appropriately wrote about."
King's "I have a dream" speech was in 1963, when Cummings was 12, and then King was assassinated in 1968, when Cummings was 17, so I assume it was probably in his early teen years, or maybe even a bit before, that he rushed home to hear King's sermons.
DeleteI have no idea if Pence had brought about the removal of Trump or a successful impeachment would change our country any at all. Trump either way will leave office as one of the most disrespected presidents in our history. Even among those who voted for him a significant number were, probably, voting against Biden rather than for Trump.
ReplyDeleteYes, we need more representatives like Cummings and Lewis. Their truth was couched in a statesmanship which is sadly lacking today. As I believe MLK, Jr said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." There can be no justice for anyone until there is justice for all. President Biden to build upon such a spirit will need to make sure his rhetoric is of statesmanlike quality. Don't wimp around the truth, but no one needs to throw salt into wounds.
My prayer is some strong, outspoken, statespeople (?)have been elected who will not tolerate rhetoric that serves only to inflame and has no desire to bring the unity for which President Biden has called. I don't care about their party, color, religion, or even sexual orientation; as long as they place the long term health of our country and our world above their own drive for power. That has been lacking in the leadership of both parties.
Tom, thanks for posting these good words. Early Wednesday morning I plan to post an article that, in part, calls for what you are praying for in your last paragraph. May it be so.
DeleteOn Saturday afternoon I received the following comments from Thinking Friend Eric Dollard in hicago:
ReplyDelete"Leroy, for sharing your thoughts about Elijah Cummings, a true American hero, who did indeed speak truth to power. We need many more like him in our Congress."