| To keep Kings dream alive, much work remains  BY CHESTER JONES This year, Americans are marking the 40th anniversary of the historic March on Washington. At the same time, United Methodists are observing the lesser-known but vitally important 35th anniversary of the churchs Commission on Religion and Race. We should celebrate these milestones and the progress they represent. However, both anniversaries also remind us that achieving the dream of justice and equality that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. set forth still requires much work.  Recently, I attended a rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, where thousands of Americans from all walks of life gathered to celebrate Kings legacy. It was at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, that he gave his famous I Have a Dream speech.
Soon the Commission on Religion and Race will meet in Minneapolis to celebrate and reflect on the dreams and dreamers of the United Methodist Church who, like King, envisioned a world where racial equality would be achieved through nonviolent social change. In 1963, people came to the Lincoln Memorial for the purpose of cashing a check at the bank of racial equality, as King put it. The nations founders wrote this check to obtain social, economic and educational opportunities for all people. Four decades later, listening to some of the same speakers who were at the March on Washington, I was reminded that in many ways the check has bounced due to insufficient funds. Deposits of justice, compassion, integrity and love had not been made, while an overabundance of greed, intolerance, hatred and dishonesty have filled the account, rendering us incapable of caring for the least of these among us. Certainly, during the past 40 years, legal, political and social advances have lifted disenfranchised groups of all kinds. We are seeing an unprecedented number of racial ethnic persons in national and international leadership. Women are shattering glass ceilings. But while things have changed, they remain the same. Racial, economic and gender disparities abound. Racially motivated brutality toward people of color continues. Women on average are still paid less than their male counterparts. The U.S. poverty gap widens yearly. The Commission on Religion and Race, established five years after the March on Washington, was a product, in part, of an outcry for peace and justice. The agencys goal is to help the church ensure that when the check of justice and equality is cashed, and that there are adequate reserves from which to draw. The churchs journey has paralleled in many ways the American struggle for racial and social justice. Despite advances, we continue to face the same methods of personal and systemic oppression employed throughout the history of our denomination. While we can count people of all races in our leadership, roadblocks remain for lay and clergy persons of color. Many annual conferences are nurturing congregations and ministries for all ethnic groups, but getting the resources and support to develop ministries for Asian, black, Hispanic, Native American and Pacific Islander people is difficult. While we celebrate the possibilities of open itinerancy, we are still feeling the wounds that are inflicted when congregations are unwilling to accept pastoral leadership from a person of another race or from a woman. At the past few General Conferences, some have questioned whether the Commission on Religion and Race is still needed. Many United Methodists believe Kings dream has been fulfilled and that racism is no longer a problem facing the church. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Racism is still an ugly reality among us not only in society but in our own faith family and church. As I reflect on the lessons of Kings life and death, coupled with the current realities of The United Methodist Church, I cant help but wonder, Why is it that we kill our dreamers with the hope of killing the dream? Those who conspired against King and many of our other leaders believed they could kill the dream along with the dreamer, but the dream lives. The dream is in all of us and will take all of us working together to bring it to fulfillment. The last words in Kings sermon still ring true: I may not get there with you, but one day we as a people will get to the promised land. By our collective effort and prayer, the dreamers of The United Methodist Church are keeping the dream alive. That same collective effort and prayer are needed to realize the dream for justice. The Rev. Chester Jones is top staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race in Washington. | 
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