Civil Rights and Ruth (and James)

Since the colonial period, many Americans have decried the gap between demands for political liberty and the treatment of enslaved people. After the Civil War, Robert Brown Elliott was one of the first African Americans in the U.S. House of Representatives. He advocated for the Civil Rights Act of 1875 as “a great measure of national justice.” The law prohibited discrimination in public transportation, public accommodations, and schools. In a famous speech before the packed House, Elliott alluded often to the Bible. He concluded with an appeal to the letter of James and a well-known quotation from Ruth 1:16–17 as he argued for these actions needed for African Americans to fully exercise their liberty.

“The Holy Scriptures tell us of a humble handmaiden who faithfully, and patiently gleaned in the rich fields of her wealthy kinsman; and we are told further that at last, in spite of her humble antecedents, she found complete favor in His sight. For over two centuries our race has ‘reaped down your fields.’ The cries and woes which we have uttered have “entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth” [James 5:4 KJV], and we are at last politically free. The last vestiture only is needed—civil rights.

“Having gained this, we may, with hearts overflowing with gratitude, and thankful that our prayer has been granted, repeat the prayer of Ruth: ‘Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.’”

Reflection

The Bible teaches that liberty carries a weight of accountability. The letter of James includes a strong and uncomfortable warning to wealthy people, which Elliott and others at the time (including the preacher Henry Ward Beecher) applied to the prosperous United States. We are all prone to let gaps grow between our ideals and our treatment of others. Did reading the passage today help you identify any such gaps in your own life?