Search for honest man spans centuries, lands > Pastor links ancient Jerusalem, today’s Washington

BANGOR — Walled city? Smart people? Sophisticated? The Rev. Joseph Roberts was referring to the prophet Jeremiah’s description of Jerusalem 2,600 years ago, but went on to draw his own parallels to a present-day capital where God might have equal trouble finding one true and honest man: Washington, D.C.

Roberts, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, was in town Wednesday to share “Enduring Truth from the Life of Martin Luther King Jr.” with clergy and laypeople attending the annual convocation at Bangor Theological Seminary. King had been associate pastor at Ebenezer when his father was the senior pastor.

“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,” Roberts quoted from the fifth chapter of Jeremiah, and find “one person who acts justly and seeks truth,” so that the Lord may spare the city.

God looked first among the poor and lowly in Jerusalem, Roberts read, but decided it wasn’t fair to expect them to yield the just and true person. Then God went looking among the great and the rich.

“Surely they know the way,” Roberts said, but the results were no better. Jeremiah’s writings likened the mighty to “the nation that has eyes but sees not.” Rather than offer protection and guidance, the minister said, Jerusalem was a city of corruption and immorality.

Roberts then turned to current times. “Run to and fro in Washington,” and look for a just and true person. “Is there one? Well, let’s look at the record.”

The minister then talked about a cornerstone of the Republican’s “Contract with America,” the solving of budget problems by giving the states block grants and allowing them to decide which programs to fund.

“The terrible evil of that,” Roberts said, “is the cynicism that is wrapped up in it. Congress can sit back and say, `They made the decisions, and we didn’t.”‘

He brought up other money crises and Congress’ lack of response, from the federal shutdown to the funds due to expire in March for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, then quoted again from Jeremiah: “They have made their faces harder than rock; they refused to turn back.”

But that doesn’t mean God will come up empty if he keeps searching, Roberts said. “There is one whose truth still lives among us.” Washington and the country may be spared “because of the continued life and legacy of Martin King.”

King’s observations still apply, Roberts said. Notes published after King’s 1968 assassination referred to the interrelated problems of “war, inflation, urban decay, white backlash and a climate of violence, racism and poverty.” Those problems still exist, he said.

It is a time for self-examination and reassessment, Roberts said. Americans spend $41.9 million a year in legal gambling, he said, unaware that even lotteries and other small forms of the activity hurt the poor.

The country is still “deeply racist,” he said, offering an example of the kinds of assumptions Americans tend to make.

When Clinton goes out of office, his successor will be the 43rd president of the United States, Roberts said, unless that successor should be Colin Powell. In that case, he would be — then and forever — “the first black president.”

That is racism, he said.

“It’s not a matter of pride when you become inclusive. It’s a matter of shame that it took you so long,” Roberts said.

Overcoming such problems will require the cleansing of “minds and hearts, not just bodies,” he said. “This washing has to take place in black and white Americans.”

Roberts closed his talk by paraphrasing a passage on anger from Aristotle’s “Ethics,” a passage he said contained truths that King knew:

“Anyone can get angry — that is easy — or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy.”

Roberts’ other talks during the two-day convocation focused on topics such as the challenges of ministry in urban areas.

Also speaking during convocation were Sharon Ringe, professor of New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington; and Glenn Miller, academic dean and professor of ecclesiastical history at Bangor Theological Seminary.