This morning, we went to a
service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was Martin Luther King's childhood
home, where he was also pastor for a short time with his father. I don't think
I have ever been more inspired or felt more spiritual than for those two and a
half hours in the church, even though I have attended church since I was a
baby. The kindness that the congregation showed us filled me with hope and joy,
and hearing the battle hymns of the Civil Rights Movement made me overcome with
emotion and gave me chills. It helped me to imagine how people must have felt
during the 1960s, using ministry to help prepare them for the pain they were
going to endure. Being able to sing the famed anthem "We Shall
Overcome" together was so inspiring, as it must have been then. I also
strongly identified with the words of the pastor, who said that true religious
people do not just go to church and pray, but really make an effort to
"feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the stranger." His
words and comparisons to the real life situations of the toxic water in Flint
and the rhetoric surrounding immigration made me think about my own complacency
in Baltimore. The service helped to give me the resolve to truly make an effort
to fight for better conditions for people in my own community, instead of being
a bystander.
Carolyn Sacco, Baltimore City
College
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