{"id":69881,"date":"2020-02-09T17:56:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T15:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=69881"},"modified":"2023-09-04T17:14:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T14:14:50","slug":"the-problem-we-all-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-problem-we-all-live\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem We All Live"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[781,413,444,577,438],"acf":{"old_id":"69881","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39525,"related_cahpter":"411","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Citing Jeremiah for slavery, not freedom\r\n","content":"

\u201cCursed is the man who integrates. Jeremiah 11:3-6.\u201d A white woman whose face was contorted into a scream held up this sign protesting school integration. The sign appears in a short video in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, highlighting Ruby Bridges\u2019 memories of her first day in an integrated school. Bridges was born into the Civil Rights Movement; Brown vs. the Board of Education, decided in 1954, less than four months after Bridges was born, would take years to operationalize. Bridges passed a test qualifying her for entrance into the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Because the other children who passed the test decided to stay in their old schools, Bridges walked into that school, a child alone, accompanied by her mother and four federal marshals. The scene, in all its innocence and darkness, is captured in Norman Rockwell\u2019s famous and heartbreaking painting \u201cThe Problem We All Live With.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We live with it still.<\/span><\/p>\n

What words could possibly have been lifted from Jeremiah to justify white hatred for little Ruby Bridges?<\/span><\/p>\n

And say to them, Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: \u2018Cursed be the man who will not obey the terms of this covenant, which I enjoined upon your fathers when I freed them from the land of Egypt, the iron crucible, saying, \u2018Obey Me and observe them, just as I command you, that you may be My people and I may be your God\u2019\u2014 in order to fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as is now the case.\u2019 And I responded, \u2018Amen, Lord.\u2019 And the Lord said to me, \u2018Proclaim all these things through the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the terms of this covenant, and perform them\u2019 (11:3-6).<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremiah <\/span>does<\/em> <\/span>curse the man who doesn\u2019t obey the words of the covenant, but it is a covenant based on redeeming the Jews from slavery. It never mentions enslaving anyone else with the shackles of prejudice. It celebrates the chance for freedom, for a land of milk and honey. Exploiting the Bible to support hateful politics will never ultimately win, as MLK reminds us, \u201cThe arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Montage of US Marshals with Young Ruby Bridges on School Steps (unknown DOJ photographer, Nov. 1960 \/ wikipedia) and Norman Rockwell, \u201cThe Problem We All Live With,\u201d 1963, from obamawhitehouse.archives.gov, July 2011)<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69882,"id":69882,"title":"bridges - rockwell","filename":"bridges-rockwell.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-problem-we-all-live\/bridges-rockwell\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"bridges-rockwell","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69881,"date":"2020-02-09 15:56:39","modified":"2020-02-09 15:56:51","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1277,"height":467,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-300x110.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":110,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-768x281.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":281,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-1024x374.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":374,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell.jpg","1536x1536-width":1277,"1536x1536-height":467,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell.jpg","2048x2048-width":1277,"2048x2048-height":467,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-1200x439.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":439,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/bridges-rockwell-1148x420.jpg","home_baner-width":1148,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Problem We All Live","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Citing Jeremiah for slavery, not freedom","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":69882,"id":69882,"title":"bridges - 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