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"Lisa Sharon Harper

Lisa Sharon Harper is the founder and president of Freedom Road, LLC, and the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed, "The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right." Asked why she does what she does, Lisa's answer is clear: “So that the church might be worthy of the moniker ‘Bride of Christ.'" Through preaching, writing, training, network development, and public witness, Lisa—an Auburn Senior Fellow—engages the church in the work of justice and peacemaking. She was named “#5 of the Top 13 Women to Watch in 2012” by the Center for American Progress and was awarded the 2013 Faith and Justice Leadership Award by the National Black Women’s Round Table. She formerly served as the Chief Church Engagement Officer at Sojourners."

"On Saturday, August 12, in Charlottesville, Va., I was faced with a choice: “Would I pick up my cross?”

Jesus warns his disciples: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)

Just before walking onto the street, organizers of the Charlottesville Clergy Call walked us through the changing dynamics of the situation. There would be four times more white nationalists in Charlottesville than previously projected. One quarter of the clergy they thought would be there actually showed up. If we stepped onto the street we were risking arrest, injury, or death — from the police or the white nationalists.

We knew what we were walking into.

We knew that we might not come back.

I was hesitant and torn and almost didn’t do it.

I imagined the devastating loss my mother would feel upon hearing of my death in Charlottesville. I felt guilty for leaving her alone just before her second knee surgery. How would she make it through? I imagined not being present to witness my nieces and nephews and family.

It was as if all that is most treasured in my life flashed before my eyes as the rest of the clergy walked out onto the street.

I sat in silence and begged God for a definitive word.

God spoke: “Be present.”

That was the call: Be present; even if it means being present on your way to the cross."

"This has been the cross that people of African descent and Native American people have borne for more than 500 years on U.S. soil. Ever since the demon called Colonization led Europeans to claim the land, enslave, then remove its original inhabitants, then enslave and exploit people of African descent to work that land and build their country in the name of colonizing them (read Black History of the White House, p. 195, by Clarence Lusane), black people and indigenous Americans have had to risk death to bear witness to our right to live.

It has been the cross that Latino and Asian-American people have borne for the past 200+ years since colonization stole land from Mexicans and declared it was now “America,” and Chinese men were exploited to build the railroads and fill empty slave cabins in the shadow of emancipation. Yes, Chinese men were the next wave exploited to build the U.S. economy after the Civil War. Now Muslim and Sikh and LGBTQ people risk death to proclaim their right to live — to take up space, to flourish.

The demon Colonization claims human flourishing for its own exclusive pleasure. The colonizing spirit declares the self to be fully human — to have the right to steward the world — and all else either an asset, a burden, or an obstacle — to be eliminated on the way to the self’s exclusive “human” flourishing."

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