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 Throughout
2005, beginning with Justice Sunday, the National Religious Affairs Association
of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice invite you to join
us in saluting the tireless efforts of Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr. We bestow
this honor upon him as a clergy affectionately deemed by us to be the father
of a modern day movement with zealous passion to reduce the number of boys
and girls who enter the criminal justice system. This honor is the first
in annual tradition to honor the vocation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
as a clergy, by selecting an humble servant committed to service this present
age of justice related issues.
Through our annual national Justice Sunday theme, “A
Charge To Keep We Have: Service Before and Beyond,” we commemorate the commitment
to service exemplified by the ultimate sacrifice of the late Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. on behalf of his “beloved community.”
We salute those who continue Dr. King’s commitment to make a difference.
In 2005, we launch an annual tradition to recognize other trailblazers,
who like like Dr. Goode in the years to follow Dr. King’s death,
have raised national attention and action for measurable change in some
of society’s most complex social issues.
Children with one or more parents in jail or prison are one of the most
endangered populations in this country. Their lives are threatened by the
ever-present challenge that they too might emulate the choices of their
incarcerated parent without intervention and the strong support needed
to remain crime-free. In testimony provided on March 23, 2004, before the
United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Criminal Justice,
Drug Policy, and Human Resources, Dr. Goode stated, “. . .It is possible
for one to look at the current situation and simply throw in the towel.
It would be easy to believe that nothing is working; failures are outnumbering
the successes by wide margins. Much of the investments in programs for
children and youth have not yielded the kind of results expected. . .” These
words along with others by countless stakeholders have resulted in support
at the highest levels of our government for this cause.
David Lowes Watson, a contemporary Wesleyan scholar and professor at Wesley
Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, suggests that “acts of compassion” and “acts
of justice” may be a more contemporary translation of the “works
of mercy” in their personal and social forms, and “works of
piety” can be translated into “public acts of worship” and “private
acts of devotion.”
We have every one of us a
charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify,
an immortal soul to provide for, needful duty to be done, our
generation to serve; and it must be our daily care to keep this charge, for it is
the charge of the Lord our Master, who will shortly call
us to an account about it, and it is our peril if we neglect it. Keep it ‘that ye
die not’; it is death eternal death, to betray the truth we are
charged with. But what we know it as is the hymn that comes out as the
mandate for mission, a sending forth into the world as those who have
worshiped and been charged “to serve the present age.”
Learn more about Dr. Goode and the charge he keeps by
visiting:
http://www.amachimentoring.org/bio.html
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