Meet Eddie

I am in London for the week. I visited speaker’s corner today at Hyde Park. A speaker, Eddie, had a notebook full of disturbing images from the American civil rights movement. These images did not speak very highly of those who stood by as these atrocities took place. As many Christians were gathered he began to yell at us. “How dare you gather and speak poorly of someone else’s beliefs.” “Hypocrites!” “You are all hypocrites!” “Apologize!” he continued. “This is what Christian let happen!” Many of the images I had seen before because the event took place in Mississippi, my home state. When he finished, he quietly stepped down off his ladder. It was almost as though the ladder made him a different person when standing on it. Now a much quieter Eddie went to join the crowd as an observer. I walked up to meet him and told him I grew up in Mississippi and that there was much of our history that we should not be proud of. I admitted that the church and Christians were guilty of standing by and doing nothing while men, women, and children were treated less than human. That began a great conversation with Eddie. I can’t say that his views on Christianity or American’s are any different, but Eddie and I for a brief moment saw eye to eye one nice afternoon in London.