American letter | The mysterious paths of divine justice

Every Sunday, our correspondent in Washington tells us a slice of life in American society.

(Washington) On Sundays when I’m Washington, I go to the Shiloh Baptist Church, two blocks from my house. I don’t even get up anymore when visitors are asked to come forward to be greeted. Hey, I’m from the neighborhood…

“We have the Reverend Thomas Bowen for the sermon,” announced Pastor Wallace Charles Smith. As you know, he works at the White House now, so if you have any messages for Mr. Biden, just come see him after…”

Thomas Bowen, who is “Minister of Social Justice” in Shiloh, is well known in Washington. He has long been an advisor to the mayor for “African-American affairs” and spiritual issues. For the past two months, he has been working as a “senior community engagement advisor” to the President of the United States.

The paths of righteousness are sometimes difficult to follow, and God works in mysterious ways, he told the 250 people gathered at the historic church.

This is the modern parable that Reverend Bowen told us.

Thirty-five years ago, he began, five young African-Americans were arrested for the rape of a jogger in New York’s Central Park. A crime that shocked the whole country. Without waiting for proof, without waiting for the trial, a man bought a full-page advertisement in a New York newspaper…

Thomas Bowen doesn’t need to name it. Everyone here knows he’s talking about Donald Trump.

The five teenagers were all sentenced to heavy sentences. Twenty years later, a man confessed to being the real rapist. It has been proven that there was a miscarriage of justice…

Several nod their heads, we hear “yeah”.

And now, 35 years later, the preacher continues, one of these young men is a city councilor in New York. And the man who bought the page ad in the newspaper to call for the death penalty for these people when they were innocent until proven guilty, this man is now himself accused in a New York court. …See how God works in amazing ways!

Thomas Bowen smiles. He takes a step back from the lectern, waddling to savor its effect and give the audience time to fully absorb the incredible twist of divine things.

The organ, piano, guitar and drums take over, then the choir, one of the most renowned in the city. There are only 8 of them this morning, but they sound like 25. At Easter, there were 50 and the walls were shaking. Some of the group’s soloists have already recorded records and others are expected to do so.

The history of Shiloh, one of the oldest black churches in Washington, is inseparable from that of African-Americans in the capital.

The church was originally owned by planters from Fredericksburg, Virginia. “It was a white congregation, but they accepted freed blacks,” Judy Williams, the church historian, told me. They also took their slaves, and sat them around and on the balcony to watch over them. »

In 1854, the church was sold for $500 to 21 former slaves, and it became the African Baptist Church. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Union soldiers commandeered the building to use as a hospital. In exchange, soldiers from the Army of the Potomac escorted the 450 members to Washington, where slavery had been abolished in 1862.

For a long time, the church was at the heart of life in the Shaw neighborhood. “The church had to provide everything a person could need: from leisure for children to housing, food and clothing for those who needed it,” says M.^me Williams.

Shiloh, like many Baptist churches, was also a place of struggle for civil rights.

Martin Luther King came to preach here, and during the Great March on Washington in 1963, the church was one of the gathering points.

Judy Williams remembers King’s assassination in 1968. “Our hearts were split, all hope for improvement seemed gone, a very dark period followed, anger was everywhere. » In Washington, as in several large American cities, riots and fires broke out. She remembers the pastor at the time, the same one who brought in MLK, walking the streets trying to calm people down.

Shiloh is famous for its choir singers. They occupy at least half of the “service”, which of course has nothing to do with the formatted austerity of the Catholic “mass”.

The singer Leontyne Price came to sing here, in front of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. George Bush Sr. visited Shiloh. Bill Clinton came there to preach in favor of Al Gore. Obama also came to this temple, one of the largest in town.

Like many others, Shiloh is losing limbs. We have seen churches go bankrupt almost everywhere, and several high places of African-American political struggles in big cities are in difficulty. Young people are absent in Shiloh, except for the major holidays – Easter was a full house. And then this historically African-American neighborhood is gentrifying. Members live further away. Buildings had to be sold. Pastor Smith, at 75, announced his retirement after suffering a stroke, and a successor is being sought.

But on Sunday, even with 8 singers, the choir will sing the same hymns as if there were 80, and even the distracted passerby in the 9^e Rue will hear “ Yes, He lives! Yes, He lives! Yes, He lives! »