While we celebrate this Labor Day weekend, it is important that we focus on our extended families in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and parts of Tennessee, as well as those in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other areas hit hard by Hurricane Ida and its remnant impact.
We also embrace residents of California and Nevada who are dealing with wildfires, and those in Haiti who are recovering from another devastating earthquake.
We are constantly facing one major catastrophe after another (with COVID-19 at the lead) hovering over our lives in our every activity. However, we must hold on to our steely resolve and keep moving forward.
Here at American Baptist College, located in North Nashville, we were blessed not to have suffered any loss of life or to have sustained any property damage. Our campus stands strong. Still, we extend our heartfelt prayers to those who have suffered the loss of loved ones or property. Additionally, we lift up those whose lives have been and continue to be disrupted by COVID-19.
These are life lessons that are difficult to understand, yet continue to challenge us and our faith.
Nonetheless, this is the time to reach into the deep recesses of our being and do what we can to steady the ship, help others who are in peril, and continue on the journey with a deep and abiding faith.
The Labor Day celebration is a time to honor the dignity of work and workers, which can transform both the economy and religion. For us here at American Baptist College, this transformation means that faith drives our commitment to justice and needs to be examined in terms of what religion does and does not do. Religion makes sense only when it inspires people to work for the common good. Work inspired by faith, the biblical writer of James says, is about loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Faith that ignores this is not only dead, but a problem, as it makes the world a worse — rather than a better — place.
Let us join together in prayer and supplication, sharing our resources and doing all we can to be safe, healthy, and supportive.
Sincerely,
Forrest E. Harris, Sr.
President, American Baptist College
