SOCIAL JUSTICE AND NORTH AMERICAN HAITIAN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM
It is no secret that there is a disconnect between the North American Haitian Seventh-day Adventist church (NAHSDAC) and social justice. I’m specifically speaking of the NAHSDAC in the northeast of the United States since that’s the one I’m familiar with. The reasons as to why aren’t all the same as is with Adventist churches of other nationalities and social-ethnic groups. To be fair, members of the church have participated in protests to support Haitian concerns in the country. For instance, “In 1990, the FDA recommended a policy of banning blood donations from people of Haitian and sub-Saharan African origin, it proclaimed that all Haitians had bad blood” (L’Union Suite). This resulted in 100,000 Haitians marching across the Brooklyn Bridge. I was nine years old at the time and can’t give an account of whether or not my local assembly, or the conference to which it belongs, lead a segment of marchers or encourage participation.
If I were to pause and reflect parenthetically here, I would ask: did this contribute to the issue that the NAHSDAC has with members opting to distance themselves from science and medicine? While it’s difficult to tell what is the consensus of the majority, it still remains that a significant amount of members have embraced a contrary stance to the idea that science and medicine can significantly impact their well-being. Although related, this is a question that requires a separate article wherein which I would have a similarly difficult time wrapping my mind around the nuances that I hope to elaborate on below.
“We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality” — Martin Luther King Jr.
Another major instance that can be conjured is that of the march on behalf of Abner Louima. On August 17, 1997, John Kifner writes, “Thousands of demonstrators, many waving toilet plungers or Haitian flags, marched through Flatbush, Brooklyn, to the 70th Precinct” on behalf of Louima. The march featured posters with the “two accused officers with horns and the title “Devil in a Blue Suit.” There were even comparisons between the NYPD and Ton Ton Macoutes, a paramilitary group in Haiti known for atrocities. While I know of Haitian SDA participation, I can’t recall if the church had encouraged participation in marches and public activities.
I’m 40 now and can’t recall when the church, the organization, had encouraged me to march in protest of social wrongs. It may have been that the church did and I simply can’t recall or that it never happened. In either case, it isn’t a prominent occurrence enough for me to associate the church with social activism of that kind. What I do know the church for is acts of service in the form of meal distribution. Church members give to charity and visit prisons. But most churches aren’t doing this large scale on a regular basis. Societal wrongs, particularly against Haitian Americans, may be mentioned and brought up during sermonic discourse but that’s usually about as far as it goes. Why is that?
“I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
The North American Haitian Seventh-day Adventist Church & Politics
Allow me to share a few points of consideration that may, admittedly, be subject to a great deal of scrutiny and correction by those more astute in NAHSDAC culture and history than I. The first is the traditional view of how the church relates to polities. It appears to me that in the NAHSDAC culture politics is something that one keeps to one’s self. So personal is politics that political happening in the nation being mentioned on the pulpit during worship service is a modern occurrence and doesn’t occur in the majority of places in the American northeast (at least as far as I can assess). When it does happen it isn’t met well.
But it isn’t just the pulpit. Politics is considered a subject that is barred from being discussed on the sabbath. In fact, to bring political speech and thought to the pulpit can quickly be said to be the politicization of the temple and thus sacrilegious. It would be desecrating a sanctified space. Political mentions on the pulpit during sabbath is a desecration of holy space and time. I’m still attempting to describe here. This wouldn’t go well with many senior members. These members tend to be in the affluent larger churches.
It may seem like I opened a parenthesis that isn’t a direct answer to the question. This isn’t necessarily true. Politics and social issues are interwoven to the degree that effective long-term solutions can’t be brought about without radically changing the policies embraced by the ruling brass. Any discussion about policy will eventually require a conversation on what is on the political agenda that is best for the community. Right alongside of that is a conversation on who is the advocate and what other policies that they have that may need to be considered as well. It’s all tied up.
Jesus’ Ministry, Post-Ascension New Testament History, & Social Justice
I have never heard the NAHSDAC deny the appeal to social justice in Old Testament prophetic literature. This leads me to my second point of consideration. NAHSDAC, and many other SDA groups to some extent, don’t interpret the actions of Jesus as comparable to protest of social wrongs. Jesus is seen as addressing social wrongs by going out in the community to mainly tell what is true (preach) on the way to the cross. Healing, and whatever was done in the community, is viewed secondary in the sense that it happened as an aside to the preaching. Thus, preaching is viewed as the mission of the church. engaging in socio-political rhetoric and protest is viewed as a distraction.
Naturally, it’s important to describe what is meant by preaching truth in this context. The general affirmation, as is observable in sermons preached in the church, is about what one must do in order to maintain individual purity from sin. Certainly, this is an oversimplification that may require even more development at some other time. The objective here is to sort of assist in helping clarify what the preaching being referred to is.
Following Jesus’ ministry, post-ascension history is not regarded as including descriptions of social justice activism as is observable within the modern setting. The apostles are believed to have continued doing what Jesus was doing, telling of a coming kingdom and telling the world to prepare for that kingdom.
What Happens Now?
If the church is to address these issues there needs to be a real vision on how it actually plays on the ground. Looking at what doesn’t work is one thing. Leaving it there doesn’t solve anything. It’s time to begin having serious conversations on social justice within the Haitian Seventh-day Adventist context.
Originally posted here. For more, visit mrjerryjacques.com.
SOURCES
- L’Union Suite (cf. New York Times)
- Kifner, John. “Thousands March to Protest Police.” The New York Times, Aug. 17, 1997.
