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Changing the world one step at a time

By Andrew Bell

The world lost a remarkable person when Rosa Parks (92) died recently. We all know how Rosa became an unlikely civil rights hero, when in 1955 she refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger. Young Baptist minister Martin Luther King responded by inspiring thousands to rise up and ultimately end some racist practices. As a result, Rosa became known as the mother of the Civil Rights movement. She wrote of that day:

“The time had just come when I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed, I suppose. They placed me under arrest. And I wasn’t afraid. I don’t know why I wasn’t, but I didn’t feel afraid. I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being.”

I know all about South African legalised racial segregation and how much courage it takes to defy the rules. Courage is a strange commodity that fuels your heart and enables you to do what you thought was impossible before.

Award winning author Paul Rogat Loeb suggests that we must tear away the popular myth surrounding Rosa’s historic actions. He writes: “in the prevailing myth, Parks decides to act almost on a whim, in isolation. She’s a virgin to politics, a holy innocent. The lesson seems to be that if any of us suddenly got the urge to do something equally heroic, that would be great. Of course most of us don’t, so we wait our entire lives to find the ideal moment.”

Loeb points out that Rosa was in fact a veteran of the civil rights movement who grew in stature incrementally over a twelve year period. There had been a similar bus boycott in Montgomery 50 years earlier. Just prior to Parks’ defiant stand, a young pregnant woman had also refused to give up her seat, but because she was unmarried, she was considered an unsuitable symbol for the campaign.

Loeb suggests however that the traditional stripped-down version turns Parks into an impossible act to follow and so we do nothing in the face of blatant injustice and leave it up to the “heroes” rather than joining the movement for change.

When writing the history of mission we have also picked out stories of the “greats” with which to inspire people. Somehow we seem to forget the thousands of faithful missionaries who went, did the hard yards, returned and didn’t even expect to be met at the airport. Some, of course, never returned at all, and others lost loved ones while overseas.

However, we still ask the “heroes of faith” to tour the country on deputation tours to tell their stories. Often the unintended result is to leave our congregations feeling breathless, and the next generation then decides that there is no place for them in mission. Surely this isn’t the message we want to give?

As Loeb points out, Rosa didn’t make a spur-of-the-moment decision to give birth to the civil rights movement. She was but one part of an existing movement for change.

There isn’t a single missionary who serves alone. This is the message the Global Mission Office is trying to give people and parishes around the country. We are a mission brokerage that exists to help parishes fulfil their mission dreams.

We are not here to do mission on your behalf. Our aim is to encourage ordinary Presbyterians to step out and do what they thought was impossible before. Our unique point of difference is that we work with local churches, enabling them as best we can to achieve their priorities.

Jesus said that he would build his church (Matthew 16:18). Why should we try to do anything different?

The beauty of Loeb’s thesis is that it shows Rosa to be just like us. Like Rosa we too can find the courage to change the world.