Wednesday, January 1, 2003

I believe we would do well to listen to Jesus as we digest the Trent Lott saga. Jesus said, "Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. The food that you put into your stomach doesn't make you unclean ... the bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean ... Don't any of you know what I am talking about by now? Don't you know that the food you put into your mouth goes into your stomach and then out of your body? But the words that come out of your mouth come from your heart. And they are what make you unfit to worship God. Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, vulgar deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others. These are what make you unclean" (Matthew 15:10-20).

As fellow senators and staff members cooked up some honor for U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, Sen. Trent Lott said, "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Now, according to basic history taught in Alabama, the words is that the political party headed by Thurmond, the Dixiecrats, organized in response to President Harry S. Truman's proposed 1948 civil rights package, understood by many whites as the greatest threatened federal intrusion into the South since Reconstruction.

The package consisted of four primary pieces of legislation: abolition of the poll tax, a federal antilynching law, desegregation legislation, and a permanent Federal Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to prevent racial discrimination in jobs funded by federal dollars.

Let me ask, what greater insult could be made to American blacks, particularly to those in the South, but for words to come out of one's mouth intimating that the country could have been better off without federal antilynching laws. Or that the tax to vote should have been sustained?

But Trent Lott is not the only one who should garner the prophet's business. Sen. Edward Kennedy is a joke to his faith. He was born into the Catholic faith and has maintained over the years close ties with Catholic leaders. Yet, out of his mouth comes death for the unborn. Kennedy is no more a Catholic than I am a Buddhist. The words out of his heart betray him. If his heart were right with his faith, he would come out whether politically correct or incorrect and declare himself pro-life.

Just as if Sen. Lott's heart has been right with his faith, he could have never endorsed the 1948 ticket ex post facto. There are many ways to be congenial at a birthday party other than political endorsement.

The issue, in my viewpoint, is not the current rhetoric from Lott, but what's really resident in his heart. I am afraid he still holds residence in an all-white neighborhood.

John Hatcher

Fayetteville

[Hatcher is a columnist for The Citizen and pastor of Outreach International Center.]