Jim Wallis on Hope and Cynicism

Jim Wallis rocked the pulpit this week. His speech left me with much to ponder, but one of the last things he said struck me the hardest because of events at the church earlier in the week. Wallis asked us not to give in to cynicism. He said that hope is a choice. “Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and watching the evidence change. Commitment makes you feel vulnerable, so cynicism is a buffer against commitment. It's a safe place. A sanctuary. Cynics are against the bad stuff. But they have given up hope, and decided to hunker down and protect their own security.”

A story from last Sunday: David Bonner is one of our three custodians. He is handsome, has a dry sense of humor, works very hard, and is a black man. He was out early last Sunday morning blowing the leaves off the steps of the church as we have done for the past 25 years. If you drive through downtown Austin on almost any day of the week, you will find all kinds of yard people blowing leaves into the street. Last Sunday, two police officers saw David with the blower, and started harassing him, asking if he was blowing litter into the gutters, and looking for corroboration from folks at the bus stop. They proceeded to start writing David a ticket for littering, and would have, had our Church Administrator, Jim Weaver, a white man, not stopped them. (In fact, he had quite a bit to say to the officers, who left sheepishly, according to those who witnessed this occurrence.)

When I heard this story, it was all I could do not to break down in
tears. I knew immediately in my heart, that had it been me out there blowing leaves, this would not have happened. David looked at me holding back my tears like I’d lost my mind. A black man in America knows that he is going to be harassed just because…

Now, I know that this is just a little thing, no one was killed or hurt, but it makes me so sad. If this small example of racism could happen in Austin, TX, in 2008, what else happens that I have no idea about? How difficult is it to be a person of color in America and not be cynical? How on earth can I make a difference?

Rev. Wallis says that we could be the people that make the evidence change. Change WILL happen if we have the commitment to make it happen. We, us, NOT any politician or political party.

I don’t have a big answer. But I have hope. I have hope in my children. I have hope in you. I have hope that one day none of us are going to have to step in and speak up on behalf of David just because…

This is my choice. I won’t be cynical. But it still makes me sad.