Note: We sat down with Pastor Horace recently, and asked him why he thought Jackson needed a Peace and Justice Center. – Pastor Hugh
This project is important to me because I have seen people in our congregation and in our community wrestle with dilemmas that I don’t think anyone should have to face.
Have you ever had to figure out how to get back and forth to work every day when there is no public transportation and you can’t afford a car? How many days could you find someone to give you a ride? What if their vehicle wasn’t reliable?
Have you ever had a child that you knew needed some kind of additional support or intervention, but the only thing you were able to do was send them to school and hope they got what they needed?
Have you ever had to take far less than the amount of medication your doctor prescribed for you because you had to make your money stretch to also cover your rent and your car payment too?
Have you ever wanted to feed your family better more nutritious food, but you ended up feeding them what you could afford to feed them instead?
Have you ever had a loved one lose their job, apartment and belongings while they had to sit in jail for a crime they were never convicted of because they couldn’t afford bail?
Have you faced the choice of taking on life crippling debt in order to pursue your education or of abandoning your dreams in order to make ends meet?
Me and most of my friends growing up were middle class and above. We never had to make any of these types of choices. And frankly, I don’t believe anyone should.
Yet I’ve seen people in our congregation and in our community wrestle with these dilemmas and many more just as bad. The Gospel if anything else is supposed to be good news for the poor:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,” – Luke 4:18
The Peace and Justice Center of the Deep South can help provide some solutions to these systemic injustices. We cannot ignore the needs of the people living around us.
We are inviting our community to share their gifts. In addition to raising the remaining funds, we are looking for volunteer skilled and unskilled labor and for people to share this project with their networks.
