There are no words… and so my words come from the Psalms where laments make up the largest category. This lament from a portion of Psalm 142: With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit is faint, you know my way. I cannot imagine the cries of those mourning the death of a loved one, and so I cry to the…
Jennifer Copeland, Executive Director
Increased Energy Rates, Decreased Funds for Missions
Remarks offered at the Duke Energy Progress Rate Increase hearing on Monday, September 25. Right now I have the privilege or the pain of owning two houses in Durham, NC. I hope to own only one in the near future, but for now this is my reality. Both houses help support the corporate earnings of Duke Energy Progress, which also helps support my retirement dreams because part of my Roth IRA is invested in Duke stock. Now you have my full disclosure, which I hope also demonstrates that my words…
Regaining our Faith in Democracy
In surveys conducted during the months leading up to the 2016 election, large numbers of Americans reported little interest in the political process. They said things like, “nothing will change,” “the elected leaders just do what they want to,” and “my vote doesn’t really count.” And that, my friends, is the beginning of the end of democracy. We believe there is a better way. For five days across North Carolina, we will offer Faith in Democracy workshops and provide an alternative to the fatalism many feel about the political process….
The Infection in Our Democracy
On April 26, 1865, my great-great-grandfather was camped a mere five miles from where I now live in Durham, NC. He was from the upstate of South Carolina, as am I, yet there he was and here I am. The historians among us know what happened that day in 1865. Confederate General Johnston surrendered to United States General Sherman, ostensibly ending The War. Yet vestiges of that war continued on and on and on. It was played out again in Durham this past Monday night when a crowd toppled a…
In the Face of Violence
Today, Friday, August 18, 2017, South Main in Durham, NC, is closed to traffic. Civil employees have been sent home. Some banks and many businesses in the downtown area have closed early. And a group of people have gathered on the Courthouse lawn. All this because of the possibility that a group of White Supremacists would march there at noon today. That hasn’t happened yet and now the news is they will march at 4pm. The official news from City Hall is that no permit was obtained by anyone to…
Wages of War
Wartime profits are a thing — from the people who make the machines we use to kill other people to the garment factories that provide clothing for the people who do the killing, there is money to be made keeping the war machine equipped. Eisenhower, the retired Army general we elected president in 1952, warned against an economy fueled by war — the military industrial complex. Simply put, waging war requires stuff and stuff requires people to make it and making stuff provides jobs. Ergo, when there is a war…
America’s Role in Torture — Beginning the Path to Forgiveness
With so many issues confronting us, our nation’s involvement in acts of torture is fading from the public’s priorities for concern. Five years and $40 million in the making, the Senate Intelligence Committee 6,700-page report is the only official action to address the CIA’s 2001-2006 detention/interrogation program. Released in December 2014, the 500-page executive summary offers the following highlights of what is contained in the fuller version. According to the summary, the CIA: used techniques more brutal than the agency portrayed, was not subject to adequate oversight, misled members of…
Healing Miracles
Just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” — Luke 13:11-12 The House health care plan would leave nearly 24 million people without health insurance; the proposed Senate plan “only” 22 million. The numbers are so staggering we lose sight of their meaning, but consider the Research Triangle Region (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) has…
What Gives Me Hope
Remarks delivered at the NC Justice Center’s 2017 Defenders of Justice Awards where the Council was recognized for Grassroots Empowerment. In 1960 Terry Sanford ran for Governor of NC. By all accounts, he should not have won. He was not as well-known as his opponent and he consistently mentioned raising taxes. But he did win because he convinced people across NC that their tax dollars would be used to benefit everyone in the state and especially used to empower through education. At one time — some of us in the…
2017 Stand Up Sabbath — June 16-18
About this time two years ago, I accepted the offer to become the next Executive Director of the NC Council of Churches. We agreed that I would spend two weeks with the outgoing ED in June learning the ropes, and then I would really get to work in August. My first day in the office was June 18, 2015. I had heard the news from Charleston that morning when I woke and I knew that event would forever define my first day at the office. The NC Council of Churches…
Special Interest Altar Calls
By now, most of us have read “Dark Money” or heard enough about the subject it explores to recognize that money is suffocating our democracy. Add to this styptic environment a potential new infusion of money, this time through the tax-free political contributions that could flow directly into nonprofit organizations and communities of faith across the country. The alarm bells went off in February at the National Prayer Breakfast when we heard the President promise to “get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of…
Shepherds of Creation
Sermon preached on May 7, 2017 at Church of the Nativity, Raleigh. When I was in kindergarten, we memorized the 23rd Psalm. Of course, it was the King James Version, so different from what we read here today since we’ve all moved on to the modern translations that change so often we can’t keep up our memorization habits. Still, after all these years since kindergarten, I think if I had to do it, I could recite the 23rd Psalm for you in the King James Version. I also still recall…
Workers’ Memorial: Remembering Those Who Have Died
Remarks delivered at the Workers’ Memorial, April 28, at the Old Capitol Building, Raleigh Micah 7:1-4, 6:8 God has always had a preferential option for the marginalized and the down trodden of society, while also holding out hope that the dominant and powerful will see justice the way God sees it. Sometimes people in charge don’t see the injustice occurring to those who work beneath them; sometimes they don’t understand it when it happens; and sometimes they know exactly what they’re doing, but they do it anyway because they are…
Guns on Campus Are a Bad Idea
Two of the most volatile elements on a college campus are alcohol and hormones. These ingredients contribute to sexual assault (23.1 percent of female and 5.4 percent of male undergraduates), property destruction (50 percent of college administrators from schools with high drinking levels say their campuses have a problem with alcohol-related property damage), and poor academic performance (25 percent of college students report missing class and doing poorly on exams or papers related to alcohol consumption). Most students survive all three of these, though sexual assault brings its own kind…
No More of This
In the final hours of the first day of the Triduum, these intense three days when Christians rehearse the events between Maundy Thursday and the Easter Vigil, the juxtaposition of bombs in Afghanistan and swords in Gethsemane boggles the mind. In Gethsemane when they came out with swords and clubs to arrest Jesus and someone with him took out a sword and “struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear,” Jesus declared, “‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him” (Luke…