Fifty years ago courageous men and women, including Christians acting out of biblical conviction, took risks to do the right thing. I only wish more Christians had been involved. Too many lost their historic opportunity.
Today I read an historical marker in downtown Birmingham with this inscription:
“On Mother’s Day, May 14, 1961, a group of black and white CORE youth on a ‘Freedom Ride’ from Washington D.C. to New Orleans arrived by bus at the Birmingham Greyhound terminal. They were riding through the deep south to test a court case, Boynton vs. Virginia, declaring segregation in bus terminals unconstitutional. Here they were met and attacked by a mob of Klansmen. The riders were severely assaulted while the police watched, yet the youth stood their ground.”
These obviously desperate criminals continued their rides, and they continued to be opposed, as evidenced by the mugshots above.
In every generation we who confess the Lord Jesus are confronted with well-established offenses against him, testing our courage. If we man up, some people will inevitably say we are moving too quickly and causing unnecessary provocation. That might be true. The moral nobility of a cause elevates no one above self-judgment, and crusaders can be the most self-righteous of all. But the lordship of Christ judges everything, including both the offenses he calls us to challenge and our own excuses for not doing so.
“We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) stands with authority over everyone until the end of time. Every generation of Christians can expect to be tested. May we discern and accept our historic opportunity, each one of us, and stand our ground.
