Heber M. Brown, III is a clergy-activist who serves alongside a variety of community organizations that address issues of homelessness, poverty, racism, worker’s rights, environmental justice, self-determination for Afrikan people and justice for oppressed people groups throughout the world.
He is a regular voice in local media and for nearly 5 years has explored the intersection of religion, policy, and activism on this blog appropriately called Faith in Action.
He earned his B.S. in Psychology from Morgan State University in Baltimore and went on to earn his Master of Divinity degree from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond. He currently pastors a wonderful congregation in North Baltimore.
Dear Pastor Brown,
Reading what you do and think brings joy to my heart. I love reading when faith has a very practical "earthly" side. =-)
Lots of love from Germany's Black Forest and the lil church I attend to both you and your family.
Sending love, peace and light your way. J. Morgenstern, Gernsbach, Murg-Valley, Germany
Thanks Juergen! I can only imagine the beauty of God's Creation that you get to behold in Germany's Black Forest. Love, Peace, & Light to you and yours as well.
Please don't be a stranger!
Heber! It is such a treat to have you on this delegation. You have a radiant message.
Diana
Thanks Diana! You are a sweet soul with an open heart. It was great being on the delegation with you and hearing your insight.
Hi Barry! Following up on your blog by recommendation of a mutual friend, Barry Newman. Looks like we share interests in the intersection of faith and social change. Hope you can watch my documentary tonight on PBS, "The Calling." Doing the do in LA. Blessings.
Dear Pastor Brown:
For many millions of Americans today the civil rights era for which Dr. King worked tirelessly to create and ultimately died might as well never have happened. We are the targets of the covert war our undeniably, patently fascist military dictatorship persecutes each and every day, just as it did when Dr. King lived and worked. We have continually sought the help of (1) civil rights organizations such as the ACLU for help mitigating the effects of the civil deaths we experience; (2) civil rights attorneys such as Harvard’s Charles Ogletree; (3) human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch; and (4) our individual chapters of various social justice and peace/anti-war organizations such as Stop the Wars and Veterans for Peace. We have been rebuffed – often, with classic PSYOP discrediting tactics – universally. We have sought the help of these organizations and individuals because we have received even more brutal treatment at the hands of local civil authorities, including police and judiciary. You who refuse to acknowledge our presence among you are aiding the fascists that have created our wall-less concentration camps, in which we are not permitted to work, to commune with others at our churches, to engage in dialogue with the larger community about our persecution, to have contact with our families, to keep any assets we might acquire, to vote or even to serve jury duty. This is the America in which you live, and it would kill Dr. King to see it.
I have just finished reading a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, long a hero of mine, and I am struck by how passionately Bonhoeffer believed it was a duty – almost, a privilege – demanded of him by God because he was a Christian to help the victims of the fascists in Nazi Germany, particularly, the Jews. Now THAT’S Teshuva! I am also wondering why, after now 50 years of government-sponsored war against liberal activists, the closing of American society, and the erection of the secret police state that represses, to one degree or another, all of us, no person or people of faith has or have since Dr. King stood up to the forces of evil that now control our government and this system of political torture. THIS IS FASCISM. If the invasion, occupation and colonization of Iraq hasn’t proved this fact to you, I can’t imagine what will. All we are told is seek help from the very institutions that have proven themselves quislings by their complicity with our government in its secret war, made legal way back in 1981 by Ronald Reagan. Who will speak for us, then? Where is our Bonhoeffer? Our Dr. King? Is your tiny congregation our only true ‘Confessing Church’ ministry? Why is there no Teshuva for us?
http://dontfearyourfreedom.blogspot.com/2010_10_01_archive.html
Their have been many Christian and Muslim Americans since Dr. King who have passionately opposed white supremacy, imperialism and oppression in America. A great many are U.S. political prisoners, some entering their fourth decade. The media does not cover them as much as Dr. King, and there is no mass movement against the war now. Nonetheless there are many groups doing great work–and being jailed for it. Perhaps you could try a different faith community that is more active. Or find an activist group–there will undoubtedly be Christians in whatever area you pursue.
I just looked at your ‘What I Am Reading’ page. You ARE the closest thing we have to Dr. King. Yes – Jim Crow does still exist; yes – the prison industrial complex proves it. But just as true is the fact that it no longer affects only black- and brown-skinned people. The same tactics used by supremacists against ALL people of color (including whites who helped register black voters in the south and were killed for doing so) are in use today by today’s supremacists, the vigilantes employed in our police state, such as Shawna Forde. You know how Samuel Johnson said ‘He that makes a beast of himself rids himself of the pain of being a man?’ Well, that’s what this country, from top to bottom, is run by – beasts. You know who prized above all else being a beast? The Nazis – heretofore the most notorious fascists in history. They saw any person guided by a moral worldview – especially, the clergy, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer – as “weak” and undeserving of life.
Thank you for your incredibly passionate, uncommonly ethical ministry. And the blog, the pages from 2008 about your ministry to youth considering military service being the only ones yet I’ve read. (They remind me of Muhammed Ali’s sacrifices.)
We can’t be sitting around demanding things from Obama when we’re not willing to fight for them ourselves. Cornell is right, we do need to hold Obama accountable and criticize him when he waivers on his promises. The point to be drawn from that exchange is that Obama’s core supporters, blacks and progressives alike, should be organizing and rallying as well as the tea-baggers who out-hustle us now. We need to match the pressure that Obama feels from the right to capitulate.
You possess an incredible anointing for culturally responsive, liberatoy, kingdom centered agency. Your prophetic contributions to the Body are truly in the lineage of David Walker, Paul Bogle, Daddy Sam Sharpe, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Vernon Johns, Dr.King, James Cone, and others. I pray to connect with you on some level in the near future.
Cousin, I remain enlightened, impressed and proud of your intellectual capacity and your socially responsible way of thinking and living. Keep up the good work!
Hey Cuz! Thanks for the love! Just offering the world my 2 cents. Love you!!
Thanks Mrs. Basement! I'm enjoying your blog as well.