The Gifted Seer and The American Heart
By Joseph Evans, Ph.D.
“…[B]orn with a veil and gifted with second-sight in this American world – a world…which only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, – an American, a Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn under.”
W.E.B. DU BOIS “OF OUR SPIRITUAL STRIVINGS”
Howard Thurman remains among the celebrated and elite preachers of twentieth-century renown (1899-1981). Thurman, a prophetic thinker and a self-described mystic, was gifted with second sight; a phenomenon that W.E.B. Dubois once described on the pages of “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” in The Souls of Black Folk.
“Thurman the gifted seer prophetically forewarned us about fascism’s content located in the American heart.” Joseph Evans, Ph.D.
Thurman was born within the veil of American oppression which may have been the source of his gift of second sight. The gift for Thurman is like an Old Testament Seer. “I am the seer,” Samuel replied. “Go up ahead of me to the high place, for today you are to eat with me, and in the morning, I will send you on your way and will tell you all that is in your heart” (1 Samuel 9:19). Thurman the gifted seer prophetically forewarned us about fascism’s content located in the American heart:
These [Fascist] organizations exploit the active and latent prejudices that the average American has against the non-white races on the one hand and against the Jewish people on the other. They make it possible for a creative rationalization to provide a cloak for group hatreds which can be objectified as true Christianity or true Americanism.
In other words, they provide for a legitimizing of sadistic and demonical impulses of which under normal circumstances they might be ashamed. To appeal to anti-Negro sentiment in many sections, communities and among many groups is a “natural” for the would-be demagogue. It is sure-fire.
The above words are Thurman’s and are included in Peter Eisenstadt’s “Howard Thurman’s ‘Fascist Masquerade’: The Black thinker who saw this coming 75 years ago.” Eisenstadt, also the author of Against The Hounds Of Hell: A Life of Howard Thurman, points toward the seer of Thurman’s second sight and how Thurman employed his gift to peer into the American heart.
What Thurman saw was a nation leaning toward, and eventually accepting, anti-democratic norms, its embrace of fascism and its sycophantic disciple’s unbridled and unadulterated lust for authoritarianism. Eisenstadt’s article on Thurman is subtitled “At the end of World War II, pioneering religious thinker Howard Thurman saw fascism coming to Christian America.”
“In Peter Eisenstadt’s “Howard Thurman’s ‘Fascist Masquerade’: The Black thinker who saw this coming 75 years ago.” Eisenstadt, also the author of Against The Hounds Of Hell: A Life of Howard Thurman, points toward the seer of Thurman’s second sight and how Thurman employed his gift to peer into the American heart.” Joseph Evans, Ph.D.
“In this new year, we approach the first anniversary of the infamous January 6 terrorist attack on the symbols of democracy.” Joseph Evans, Ph.D.
The subtitle underscores what I believe. That is, throughout his career, Thurman performed a spiritual examination of the American Heart:” His examination’s results were accurate. It pointed toward the looming, immoral, and political American dysfunction. Readers, we need only to remember the American terrorist demonstrative act on its symbols of American democratic institutions.
Nearly a year ago, January 6, 2021, the world witnessed the apocalyptic fulfillment of the prophetic Thurman’s warning. The attack on the United States Capitol, the symbol of America’s commitment to democracy and its norms, the symbol of the citadel and fortress that represents America’s commitment to the rule of law was compromised by treasonous confederates, which previously recited, “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands one Nation under God indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
“There is no Martin Luther King, Jr.’s urgency of now.” Joseph Evans analyzes how the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s preaching brought the “living word” and various rhetorical techniques together in ways that helped people understand, and be given hope by, his messages. The author observes that James Baldwin – himself a gifted writer and provocative thinker – considered King to be an “Polished Preacher.”
This can no longer be believed about American Christianity as it has been defined by whites’ protestant traditions. Why? Because there is no outrage against our existential threat to democracy. There has been minimal public resistance from white mainline citizen Christians for justice, a reckoning, and an examination of the American heart.
Plainly stated, many so-called Christians as I have described have failed to demand an exacting justice against American fascism and its fascist acolytes who by blind rote pledge allegiance to a former rogue president who, like Nero, fiddled while Rome burned. This country’s and the world’s citizens wait to see if American jurisprudence will prevail, or will it succumb to what is now obviously an uncourageous American political and moral stalemate.
This book weaves Baldwin’s poetic and fiery words, passion for justice, and admiration of King’s oration into a detailed, thought-provoking examination of the rhythm of determination and transformative power in King’s speaking, writing, and faith. Click below to watch Joseph Evans talk about why he wrote “The Polished King”
It is the stalemate that underscores the straying democracy.
In the meantime, in horror, the world’s citizens, friends and foes watch the hypnotic looping cable news videos that endlessly continue. Among the world’s citizens, we wait for justice and reckoning. There is no Martin Luther King, Jr.’s urgency of now. Therefore, we wait with and as global citizens; we wait to exhale; we wait to breathe. We wait nervously and many prayerfully for justice and at the same time, we continue to witness America’s growing and unimpeded fascist leanings that are spreading and mutating like our strains of COVID viruses.
In this new year, we approach the first anniversary of the infamous January 6 terrorist attack on the symbols of democracy. As a response to newness, perhaps, someone will take notice of Thurman’s gift of second sight and have an urge to be gifted similarly. Still, the seer Thurman forewarned the nation and now the world over 75 years ago that this fascist deluge would soon emerge.
Well, it’s here and we must deal with it straight away and head-on. We must come to terms with the condition of the American heart, like Thurman, and like those before him, and those after him. And we are those after Thurman. We must protest by demanding that action be taken before it’s too late. The assignment is before us: we must spiritually examine the American heart.
Dr. Joseph Evans is the Dean of Morehouse School of Religion. Dr. Evans is the author of “Reconciliation and Reparation Preaching Economic Justice, and The Art of Eloquence: The Sacred Rhetoric of Gardner C. Taylor. (Published in 2021) The Polished King: Living Words of Martin Luther King Jr. is Dr. Evans current title; published by Judson Press January 3, 2022. Dr. Evans contributes ecumenical and social perspectives at ReelUrbanNews.com.
Article reprinted by permission
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