From the left: Dr. Cornel West, Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, and Tavis Smiley Photo by
Bob Gore
By Herb Boyd
Managing Editor, Our World Today
During his introduction of Tavis Smiley, the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, briefly touched on his guest speaker’s impressive resume, including 14 books, his coordination of the annual State of Black America conferences, his foundation, and his extensive background in broadcast journalism.
“And,” Rev. Butts continued, “Tavis’s mother is a Pentecostal minister.”
This final piece of information to the Abyssinian Baptist Church congregation last Sunday was soon made manifest as Smiley, for more than hour, sermonized on the importance of accountability, and that “you must be a co-worker with God.”
But before warming to his topic, Smiley introduced Dr. Cornel West, who had made a special trip from Princeton to celebrate the occasion with his good friend. “Tavis Smiley is one of this country’s leading public intellectuals,” West said, “and a recent Time magazine issue has listed him among the 100 most influential people in the world.”
As for influences on Smiley, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reigned supreme. “He was the greatest American we’ve ever produced,” and then cited several of King’s most memorable quotes. “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation,” he quoted Dr. King, a phrase that can be found in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail. “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
“This moment,” Smiley said, referring to the leadership of President Obama, “is pregnant with possibility.” But, he reminded his rapt listeners, that the president is not Jesus. “I want him to be a great president, but he will only be great by us holding him accountable.” Obama, Smiley said, is encumbered with a welter of issues—two wars, an economy in the tank, “and now a Supreme Court Justice has announced that he’s moving on.”
After sympathizing with Obama’s plight, Smiley, not known to bite his tongue, then listed a few grievances, noting that nothing has done about raising the minimum wage, as Obama promised during his campaign. “All the talk has been about Main Street, but nothing about [the nation’s] side streets,” he asserted.
Then, for more than fifteen minutes, Smiley revealed a portion of his biblical credentials, though admitting that “I’m not well-versed in hermeneutics.”
For his Scripture he chose to retell the story of the Prodigal Son, with his own unique perspective and language. It was a familiar parable about a son requesting his inheritance long before it was due; and upon receiving it proceeds to squander it in some distant land. He falls so low that he is forced to eat swill with swine.
“Now, I have a feeling that this son was not an African American because rather than eat with hogs, that brother would have had him some pig feet and pig tails…” he related to thunderous laughter.
Smiley’s point was that the Prodigal Son had “gone too far, spent too much, and stayed too long.” This folly was interwoven into several current issues troubling Black America, including the fact that “one in three children here in Harlem suffer from asthma; and that our communities are the location of toxic waste dumps,” he lamented. “We have gone too far, and spent too much on the wrong things.”
Everywhere in America there is poverty, Smiley said, “But during the presidential debates the word was not mentioned.” And again it was time to chastise Obama for suggesting that a rising tide lifts all boats. “But we are in dinghies and they are in yachts,” Smiley charged. And Obama, Smiley continued, seemed reluctant to cut his military budget and the speaker disparaged the terminology of the “working poor.” “It would appear that if you’re working, you shouldn’t be poor,” he said.
From his recently published book Accountable (Atria/Simon and Schuster, 2009), Smiley drew several anecdotes about the plight of ordinary people to make points about the environment, health care, and leadership.
“You can’t lead people if you don’t love them, and you can’t save them if you can’t serve them,” Smiley stressed as he turned again to the sagely words of Dr. King.
“Politics asks the question is it expedient; Vanity asks is it popular; But conscience asks is it right,” Smiley recited. “It’s the right time for Abyssinian to pick up the pace and lead.”
With Dr. Butts at the helm with a coterie of colleagues in his legion, including the Rev. Dr. C. Vernon Mason, Rev. Dino Woodard, Rev. Violet Dease, Steven Johnson, Ron West, Lana Turner, Gerald Barbour, Bob Gore and other church notables to call on, Abyssinian is well-prepared to honor Smiley’s challenge.
