{"id":9296,"date":"2015-01-13T11:01:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T19:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=9296"},"modified":"2015-01-21T13:02:59","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T21:02:59","slug":"dear-dr-king-have-our-dreams-been-deferred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/dear-dr-king-have-our-dreams-been-deferred\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Dr. King, have OUR dreams been deferred?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, as we lead up to the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/a>, several writers and friends from the PNW have joined together to share their personal letters to King in the style of Bishop Woodie W. White<\/a>. White annually pens his “Dear Martin” pieces that are deep reflections on the state of race relations in the US. For our writers, these short messages reflect the impact that MLK has had on each of their lives and ministry. <\/p>\n

In today’s installment, seminary student Nico Romeijn-Stout speaks on our lack of progress due to modern-day segregation with equality for today’s generation still a dream – yet to be realized.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Dear Dr. King,<\/p>\n

It has been half a century since some of the most significant triumphs of the civil rights movement, yet I am sad to say that there are days even now when it seems there has been no progress. We are greeted each and every day these past months by news that our nation is still plagued by racially motivated violence, and still perpetuates systems of injustice that judge people by the color of their skin and the zip codes of their homes.<\/p>\n

If you were here today, you would look at a country in which racial segregation may not be legal, but is still the de facto norm. Our children do not grow up in racially integrated neighborhoods or schools. Instead, \u201cwhite-flight,\u201d suburban sprawl, and private schools have helped to ensure that privileged children grow up in \u201cgood\u201d neighborhoods and schools. And it pains me to say that even we in the church cannot seem to break down these barriers, as Sunday mornings remain one of the most segregated times for our country.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most tragic sign of our lack of progress lies in similarities between the dreams of those who marched with you — to the dreams of those who march today in cities and towns across this nation. Dreams for children to play together, learn together, and sit together at the table of sisterhood and brotherhood. Dreams that votes by disenfranchised people will not be difficult to cast and count, just as votes by people of privilege. And dreams that come Sunday our churches represent the true diversity of their communities.<\/p>\n

I pray that when we bid you a happy birthday next year, we can do so with happier news of further progress towards the realization of dreams too long deferred. <\/p>\n

\n

Nico Romeijn-Stout is a student at the Boston School of Theology
\nand is a member of The Pacific Northwest Conference.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, as we lead up to the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., several writers and friends from the PNW have joined together to share their personal letters to King in the style of Bishop Woodie W. White. White annually pens his “Dear Martin” pieces that are deep reflections on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":9298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,15,6,436],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-justice","9":"category-conversation","10":"category-mlk"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IDEAS_MLK_Niko.jpg?fit=700%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-2pW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9296"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9303,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions\/9303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}