![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The dual reality of white injustice and black faith, as a part of the structure of life, created a tension in my being that has not been resolved. Two things happened to me in Bearden: I encountered the harsh realities of white injustice that were inflicted daily upon the black community and I was given a faith that sustained my personhood and dignity in spite of white people's brutality. Their voices are clear and insistent: "All right, James Hal, speak for your people." The people of Bearden are present around my desk as I think and write. The importance of Bearden is the way it enters my thinking, controlling my theoretical analysis, almost forcing me to answer the questions about faith and life found in the experience of my early years. I am not homesick for Bearden or even for the Macedonia A.M.E. Is it nostalgia? It may be that, but I do not think so. The more I reflect on who I am and what is important to me, the more the Bearden experience looms large in my consciousness. ![]() When people ask me about the decisive influences on my theological and political perspectives, my response always includes something about my mother and father, and what it meant for a black person to grow up in Bearden, Arkansas, during the 1940s and '50s. ![]()
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