Poor People’s Campaign Bible Study #6: Coming into Power
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We are often told that Advent is a season of anticipation; a season of preparation for the birth of Jesus and the celebration of Christmas. The Magnificat, sung most often during Advent, is a beloved canticle and testament of Mary’s importance as the mother of Jesus. It’s a song of God’s victory over the powerful and a song of the liberation of the poor. Liberation theologian Ivone Gebara writes that, “Mary’s song is a war chant, God’s battle song enmeshed in human history, the struggle to establish a world of egalitarian relationships, of deep respect for each individual, in whom godhead dwells.”
“Rich Man’s House” is a new movement song that emerged from the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. The song comes from around the campfire at the Highlander Center. According to Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, while on the Freedom for Hunger, Unemployment, and Homelessness Bus Tour in 1998, the previous day’s stop at church in Durham, North Carolina had put the song “Enemy’s Camp” in everyone’s head. When they arrived in Tennessee, they experimented with variations of the song. The song talks of spiritual warfare, or “taking back” what the devil has stolen from you through temptation and sin. Around the fire that night, a multiracial group of poor and homeless families decided to rewrite the song and take back what was stolen from them: their dignity and humanity.
This study pairs the Magnificat with the song “Rich Man’s House,” a quote from Rev. Dr. Martin King Jr. during the planning of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, and an excerpt from a speech by Fannie Lou Hamer. It is recommended that you first read the Magnificat (5 minutes) and then sing Rich Man’s House (5 minutes). If you have the time, try swapping out “rich man’s house” for other oppressive powers in your life. We alternate rich man’s house with “welfare office,” “landlord’s house,” and “housing office.” Discuss the similarities and differences between the two songs of liberation (10-15 minutes). Read over the remaining excerpts (30 minutes). Use the provided questions as suggested talking points (30 minutes).
Discussion Questions
- What are common misconceptions that we can make about Mary’s character in the Magnificat? How is she actually portrayed by Luke?
- In the Magnificat, what is the significance of Mary’s soul magnifying the Lord, or the covenantal God that stated, “I am your LORD, your God that brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of slavery”?
- Connecting “I Don’t Mind My Light Shining” to our two songs, how does Fannie Lou Hamer’s faith manifest as political power?
- “Rich Man’s House” is a variation of the song “Enemy’s Camp” that changes a lot of the more typically spiritual themes like temptation, sin, and the devil into real world problems that poor and marginalized people face. Is there a difference between material and spiritual problems? Try and describe the tension between material and spiritual problems.
- Why is dignity and humanity found in direct action?
- What kind of power is King suggesting we mobilize? In this excerpt, King is responding to elected officials who are asking that the movement present them program ideas. Programs, King asserts, will be “an administrative detail” when the people come into power. What does it mean for programs to mirror the aspirations of the people?
- What parallels do we see between King, Hamer, Mary’s song, and Rich Man’s House? Do these parallels change how we read verses 48 and 50? How else do these connections inform how we read the selected texts?
The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55 NRSV)
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
“Rich Man’s House“
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Well, I went down to the rich man’s house,
And I took back what he stole from me,
(I took back!) Took back my dignity.
(I took back!) Took back my humanity.
Well, I went down to the rich man’s house,
And I took back what he stole from me,
(I took back!) Took back my dignity.
(I took back!) Took back my humanity.
Now it’s under my feet, under my feet, under my feet!
Ain’t gonna let no system walk all over me.
Fannie Lou Hamer in “I Don’t Mind My Light Shining,” speech delivered at Freedom Vote Rally in Greenwood, Mississippi (Fall 1963)
You see, he made it so plain for us. He sent a man in Mississippi with the same name that Moses had to go to Egypt. And tell him to go down in Mississippi and tell Ross Barnett to let my people go. And you know I feel good, I feel good. I never know today what’s going to happen to me tonight, but I do know as I walk alone, I walk with my hand in God’s hand.
And, you see, you know the ballot is good. If it wasn’t good how come he trying to keep you from it and he still using it? Don’t be foolish, folks: they going in there by the droves and droves and they had guards to keep us out of there the other day. And dogs. Now if that’s good enough for them, I want some of it too.
You see, as I said, it was on the tenth of September when they shot in the house for me sixteen times, but I didn’t stop. Now some of the time since then I got hungry, but I got consolation because I had got hungry before I got in it. Wasn’t going to be no more hungry now than I was then. Then, on the ninth of June, this year, I was beat in a jailhouse until I was hard as metal. And I told the policeman, I said, “It’s going to be miserable when you have to face God.” I said, “Because one day you going to pay up for the things you have done.” I said, because, as the Scripture says, “Has made of one blood all nations.” He said, “It’s a damn lie,” said, “Abraham Lincoln said that.” So that’s pitiful — I’m telling you the truth, but it’s pitiful, you see — that people can have so much hate that will make them beat a person and don’t know they doing wrong.
But open your New Testament when you get home and read from the twenty-sixth chapter of Proverbs and the twenty-seventh verse: “Who so diggeth a pit shall fall down in it.” Pits have been dug for us for ages. But they didn’t know, when they was digging pits for us, they had some pits dug for themselves. And the Bible had said, “Before one jot of my word would fail, Heaven and earth would pass away. Be not deceived for God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
All we got to do — that’s why I love the song “This Little Light of Mine” — from the fifth chapter of Matthew, He said, “A city that’s set on a hill cannot be hid.” And I don’t mind my light shining; I don’t hide that I’m fighting for freedom because Christ died to set us free. And he stayed here until he got thirty-three years old, letting us know how we would.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in “Where Do We Go From Here?” (1967)
When a people are mired in oppression, they realize deliverance when they have accumulated the power to enforce change. When they have amassed such strength, the writing of a program becomes almost an administrative detail. It is immaterial who presents the program; what is material is the presence of an ability to make events happen. The powerful never lose opportunities — they remain available to them. The powerless, on the other hand, never experience opportunity — it is always arriving at a later time.
The deeper truth is that the call to prepare programs distracts us excessively from our basic and primary tasks. If we are seeking a home, there is not much value in discussing blueprints if we have no money and are barred from acquiring the land. We are, in fact, being counseled to put the cart before the horse. We have to put the horse (power) before the cart (programs).
Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power so that government cannot elude our demands. We must develop, from strength, a situation in which the government finds it wise and prudent to collaborate with us. It would be the height of naiveté to wait passively until the administration had somehow been infused with such blessings of good will that it implored us for our programs. The first course is grounded in mature realism; the other is childish fantasy.
We do need certain general programs for the movement, but not for use as supplicants. We require programs to hold up to our followers which mirror their aspirations. In this fashion our goals are dramatized and our supporters are inspired to action and to deeper moral commitment.