Transformations Past and Possible Surface at Union AME Church MLK Day Gathering
Warwick. KKK member's grandson explains his grandfather's later transformation, among other Martin Luther King Jr. Day reflections by clergy, local officials and others.
By Vera Miller
The assertion that “We have not yet overcome, but we will overcome,” by Union AME Church Pastor Ann Marie Bentsi-Addison Posey was joined by other spiritual and political assessments offered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the church, spoken by local government officials, activists and clergy, amid rousing music. Pastor Posey welcomed the congregation and guests to the service commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.’s achievements and philosophy of nonviolence and social and economic justice. Pastors came from various religious traditions and communities.
Tim Janzen, a Pentecostal minister from Warwick Assembly of God Church, spoke of “transformation of an angry and rejecting Saul into the Apostle Paul.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend,” Janzen said, and recalled how his grandfather, a Klu Klux Klan member, “transformed when he laid down his hatred and prejudice.” He quoted Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Forgiveness is not an occasional act but a constant attitude.”
Pastor Posey’s daughter, N’Darri Symone Bentsi-Addison Posey, 17, also spoke, having spoken on King’s birthday every year since she was in fifth grade, she said. Currently studying 20th Century history and the rise of fascism in the 1920s, she noted how she and her peers were struck by language resembling that of 1930’s fascists in Donald Trump’s campaign speeches.
She expressed her “moral obligation as a Black woman in America to be an educated voter” and encouraged voting “as if our lives depend on it.”
Manny Tirado, NAACP Middletown Chapter treasurer, noted King’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail,” as a treatise on civil disobedience written without access to sources and smuggled out. He urged all to read or reread it and to participate in social justice groups such as the NAACP.
Attorney Doug Stage advocated vigilant support for democracy in general and the Affordable Care Act in particular.
“It’s the same old story—the haves versus the have nots,” he said.
Village of Warwick Mayor Michael Newhard, asked, “Why has there never been a holiday where peace is celebrated all around the world?” Martin Luther King, Jr. was a role model for him, he said.
“What do you profess without saying a word?” asked Rev. Kevin Allen, of United Methodist Church of Harriman.
And new Town of Warwick Supervisor Jesse Dwyer said of the event, “I was lifted and moved by the music and spirit. It’s a great honor to represent a uniquely diverse and creative community.”
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