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In a Whirlwind Return to the Forest, the Rev. William J. Barber II T'03

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In a Whirlwind Return to the Forest, the Rev. William J. Barber II T'03 THE In a whirlwind return to The Forest, the Rev. William PREACHER J. Barber II T’03 delivered a pair of inspiring speeches that urged graduates to COMES HOME commit to a life of service. Photo Credit After the Theological School’s hooding ceremony, Barber shares a laugh with Professor of Religious Education Nancy Lynne Westfield. 6 Drew Magazine I drew.edu/magazine Summer 2017 7 Karen Mancinelli Helping is “too puny” for the task at hand, insisting these times require “a new tongue” to articulate a “moral agenda.” As he states his Others case, Barber’s voice begins to rise. Help And it’s clear when you find your moral foundation rooted in that language, then you understand something: It’s not about Others left versus right; it’s simply about right versus wrong. DREW TRUSTEE SUZANNE MERTZ The crowd inside the Concert Hall lets forth a concurring chorus SPERO C’91 OVERSEES A FAMILY of oohs and aahs. FOUNDATION FOCUSED ON NEWARK. Anywhere you pray, from Isaiah, from Jeremiah, from Ezekiel, As executive director of the MCJ Amelior Foundation, Suzanne from Luke, from James, it’s just wrong—Barber pauses—to Mertz Spero C’91 helps fund programs that foster mentoring relationships and entrepreneurship in and around Newark, take away health care from 20 million Americans. New Jersey. But that’s not all. Spero also cofounded Jersey Cares, which organizes projects to address critical community needs. But The audience—it’s his audience now—erupts in cheers. that’s not all. She also serves on the board of MENTOR, a national But Barber is just getting started. organization whose mission is to “close the mentoring gap” for the many young people who grow up without a mentor. I’m glad about the Affordable Care Act, but let me tell you, that’s not really where our moral framework ought to be. Spero believes there’s a common thread that runs through all three As founder of the Moral Mondays Because health care is not something you ought to have of her nonprofit endeavors. “The impact we all can have when we protest movement in North only if you can buy it. Health care is a human right. engage with the life of someone who’s less fortunate,” she says, Carolina, Barber has campaigned “can be pretty profound.” against legislative cuts in funding for Medicaid, public education His voice bellows. The whoops and cheers grow louder. Feeling comfortable as a student in the relatively small environment and programs for the poor. of Drew made it easy for Spero to forge relationships with faculty And it’s wrong to blame our economic challenges on poor who helped her find her career path. In particular, she cites Barbara people, immigrants and people of color, while we give welfare Salmore, a political science professor who specialized in New Jersey to corporations in the form of dramatic tax cuts, and we treat government, for “overseeing my academic pathway” en route to corporations like people and people like things. That’s not right her graduation with honors. Over the years, she has maintained or left, it’s just—and now Barber holds up his hands and allows her connection to Drew through her service on the College Alumni Whether in the pulpit or the public square, the Rev. William J. Association and the university’s board of trustees. the congregation to finish the exhortation with him as his hands Barber II T’03 stands as a compelling orator—the theologian fall to his sides—wrong! The MCJ Amelior Foundation is a family-funded enterprise with a small staff. Spero says that means the foundation can identify a Cornel West has called him “the closest thing we have to Martin Near the end of Barber’s speech, the Concert Hall takes on problem, provide funding promptly and “really see the change.” the urgency of a tent revival meeting, the steady applause She cites the foundation’s investment in Newark charter schools Luther King, Jr. in our midst”—and on this sunny May morning at and the spontaneous “Amens!” creating a sort of simultaneous as “real tangible evidence” of how a proper education can end the call-and-response with the preacher’s sermon. Barber returns cycle of poverty. Drew he does not disappoint. to the story of Pentecost, and the metaphor of the mighty “We don’t always get it right, but it’s been an amazing opportunity wind, invoking slavery, the abolition movement, the civil rights for me,” Spero says. “The people we are allocating our resources movement and apartheid. to are some of the best and brightest unsung heroes who are tirelessly working on issues that are really difficult in urban areas.” Barber has returned to campus from his home in North and the moral crisis we face demands, a political Every time I see Moral Mondays, I see a wind blowing. Every Carolina to deliver a speech at the Theological School’s Pentecost in America today. time I see Black Lives Matter, I see a wind blowing. Every time hooding ceremony and, the following day, to address I see women marching, I see a wind blowing. more than 500 graduates at the University’s 149th Barber’s entreaty to the Theological School Class of 2017 inspires the first outburst of assent in a speech commencement, where he will receive an honorary degree Barber’s speech intensifies, and his audience is cheering now that will last nearly 35 minutes. It will not be the last. in humane letters. Before several hundred seminary through every word. professors, graduates and their families gathered This is familiar terrain for Barber, who in 2013 founded inside the Concert Hall at the Dorothy Young Center, Every time I see Muslims refusing to go into hiding, I see a wind the Moral Mondays movement, a series of protests Barber frames his speech around the Biblical story of blowing. Every time gay people say, “I’m going to stand up and be against North Carolina’s conservative-dominated Pentecost, when God infused 120 disciples gathered who God created me to be,” I see a wind blowing. Every time I see legislature, which had ended same-day voter registration, in Jerusalem with the holy spirit, delivered in the form people fighting against voter suppression, I see a wind blowing. of a mighty wind. The disciples were then sent forth restricted early voting and cut funding for Medicaid, to deliver the word of God. Addressing the graduates public education and programs for the poor. Although The graduates are now on their feet, soon to be joined by the directly, Barber speaks in a low and deliberate voice. his politics veer decidedly left of center, Barber prefers Theological School professors onstage behind Barber. not to get entangled in vernacular that inevitably I want to suggest to you this morning that you pits Democrat versus Republican or liberal versus Every time I see a seminary that still cares to teach about were sent forth preaching. These times require, conservative, telling the graduates that such language AP Photo/Chuck Burton. Facing page, Peter Murphy justice, to teach about mercy … 8 Drew Magazine I drew.edu/magazine Summer 2017 9 Meeting Simple The clapping and hollering escalate, so that Barber Needs can barely be heard. … I see a wind blowing. And I see you about to leave and go BRENDA RHODES C’86 FOUNDED A GEORGIA out and preach the gospel and challenge Caesar and all of the NONPROFIT THAT HELPS THE POOR AND chaplains of Caesar, I feel and I see a wind blowing. Don’t you THE HOMELESS. IT’S HER SIDE JOB. feel it? Brenda Rhodes C’86 laughs, though she’s totally not joking, when “Yeah!” she recalls the therapist who described her charitable impulses as an addiction. Like her late mother, who once took in a family she’d Barber pauses now, then resumes, his voice down low. never met—furniture and all—after they were evicted from their apartment, and then loaned them her car for a trip out of state, There’s something blowing in the wind. Rhodes can’t turn away those in need. Over the past eight years, the inveterate volunteer has established He raises his voice. “And I pray today that all of a growing series of programs aimed at helping the homeless and poor in Marietta, Georgia. It started when, as a volunteer at a Feels like justice to me. Feels like mercy to me. Feels like love to you will be accused at some shelter, she noticed clients had limited supplies of personal care me. Feels like truth to me. products. So she hit up everyone on her email list to buy toiletries. point in your life—that you His audience reaches a frenzied pitch. Barber is practically Barber gained a national “I thought, ‘These guys and women are already so stressed out will be accused of being a shouting. profile following a about having to be in a shelter,” she says. “‘We can at least give them stirring speech at the basics.’” part of those who protest the 2016 Democratic And when the wind blows us into the street, and we have the National Convention. That effort led Rhodes to find tents and sleeping bags for those tongues that are necessary for this moment, and we have the injustice in the name of love.” no longer eligible for shelter beds after their six-week stay. Yet illumination of this moment, we will see change come and we another focused on matching the newly rehoused with furniture will be a part of another generation that refused to be silent — THE REV.
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