To work among the rejected, I was preparing you to show people how to make it with a crippled life and still be called and still be anointed. In America and in the world, the rejected are gonna lead the revival. I need to know, are there any folk that know what it’s like to be rejected? But in your rejection, God has revived you and reconciled you and redeemed you and there is a rejoicing that only the rejected can do. I wonder is there is a rejection praise in here? They said I’d never make it. They said I wouldn’t be nobody. They said I was too gay, too radical, too lesbian, too poor, but look at what the Lord has done! The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone! Somebody just ought to stop talking and start praising it! And give him glory! And say neighbor, watch a rejected person rejoice! (Bishop William J. Barber, II)
We at the Kairos Center want to congratulate Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II as he joins the College of Affirming Bishops and Faith Leaders, consecrated by Bishop Yvette Flunder in New Orleans, LA on July 22, 2018. His call to serve Repairers of the Breach is a holy one and his devotion to raising up religious voices in the prophetic tradition is much needed in these difficult days. Rev. Dr. Barber’s moral analysis, articulation and action is a model for all.
As Rev. Dr. King said as he was building the 1967-68 Poor People’s Campaign,
Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from deep social and economic wounds. They need brigades of ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present system until the emergency is solved.
Rev. Dr. Barber has answered the call to help lead brigades of ambulance drivers to heal the deep wounds of racism, militarism, and poverty. He has taken up the call to finish the unfinished business of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and build a Poor People’s Campaign for today. He is following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ who, two thousand years ago, led a Poor People’s Campaign and sparked the Christian movement that has transformed all of human history. We see no better candidate for Bishop than he in this time and in this place. We are all in need of his moral and spiritual guidance, care, and charge. The Kairos Center affirms his apostolic call.
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