The Mercy House, Anderson, Indiana

I was up in Anderson, Indiana yesterday and stopped by The Mercy House.   I wasn’t sure if it was going to be open, but heard about this unique church during Shane Claiborne’s stop in Indianapolis last year as part of the Jesus for President Tour.

Anyways, if the rest of the country is in a recession, Anderson is in a depression.  Located a quick drive from thriving white-collar Indianapolis suburbs like Fishers and Noblesville, Anderson’s once strong industrial economy (home to more GM jobs than any other city, including Flint, Michigan), has been wrecked by the thirty year process of economic globalization.

Here is a New York Times article from this spring about Anderson that paints a more rosy picture about Anderson’s future, but the city that has lost tens of thousands of GM jobs and other factory jobs and has declined in population by 8.3% since 1970.  Check out the recent HBO documentary Dirty Driving: Thundercars of Indiana for a glimpse of post-industrial Anderson.

The Mercy House is located in the old Shadeland Elementary School on the westside of Anderson’s downtown. The Shadeland neighborhood is a historically African-American neighborhood, whose economic well-being was tied to the fortunes of GM.   The elementary school shout down about ten years ago and was sold to a church, who then turned the building over to the Mercy House.

Anyways, in this abandoned elementary school, Mercy House is a place of hope.  From the website:

For this reason, everything we plan, organize, participate in revolves around this idea of reconciliation: acts of unity, social justice, and relationships. We hope to continue to be a place of reconciliation for Anderson, challenging the church to take Jesus seriously and offering grace, mercy and love to the world around us.

I talked with Steve, who heads up the maintenance for the mammoth building.  He is a graduate of Anderson University and talked about how the Mercy House is making a difference.  Though virtually ignored by Anderson’s political structure and surrounded by over a dozen slowly dying churches, Mercy House has large and multi-cultural worship services.  In a city that sees more people move away every year, the success of Mercy House has attracted people to Anderson and more students from the university are staying because of what’s going on there.

What Steve said made a lot of sense.  People in Shadeland and Anderson are tired of outsiders coming in to town with big dreams, promising the world, and then leaving when things seem too tough.  After five years of being part of the community and a commitment to be there for the long haul, Mercy House might be post-industrial Anderson’s biggest asset.

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KO’d by Love! Thoughts on Do The Right Thing, 20 years later

1989 was a good year for movies, though I was 12 years old at the time and more interested in baseball cards than great film.  This summer we wiill celebrate the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing and do the same for Michael Moore’s Roger and Me.

We will screen Do The Right Thing tonight at Earth House and show Roger and Me this fall. Anyway, here is a nice take on 1989 as a landmark year for film.

When comparing then and now, Spike Lee had this to say:

In 1989, you still had affordable housing in New York City,” he told us. Then his outlook became more positive. “The racial polarization you had, when this film was made, is not in the New York City I know today.

The biggest difference between ‘89 and ‘09 though is the politics.  The economy sucked in ‘89 and it really sucks in ‘09.   Both times, the economy had been wrecked by years of supply-side economics.  Though Jesse Jackson had run a transcendent presidential campaign in ‘84 and ‘88, the nation overwhelmingly voted for Reagan and Bush I.   Remarkably enough, a young Chicago lawyer/former community organizer named Barack Obama and another young Chicago laywer, Michelle Robinson, went on their first date that summer of 1989.  They saw Do The Right Thing.

Here in the summer of 2009, I am constantly reminded by the Martin Luther King qoute that “the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.”  It took way too long and it isn’t quite dead, but the “southern strategy” of winning elections by exploiting and inflaming white racism is mostly over.

And maybe it goes all the way back to Radio Raheem and Do The Right Thing.  Radio Raheem preaches a message of peace–or atleast blares it on his radio and shows it off in his knuckle rings, “…Hate K.O.ed by Love.”

Let me tell you the story of “Right Hand, Left Hand.” It’s a tale of good and evil. Hate: It was with this hand that Cane iced his brother. Love: These five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man. The right hand: the hand of love. The story of life is this: Static. One hand is always fighting the other hand; and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand, Love, is finished. But, hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes, now, that’s right. Ooh, it’s the devastating right and Hate is hurt, he’s down. Left-Hand Hate K.O.ed by Love.

Filed under: Barack Obama, Earth House, New York, Thursday Night Film Festival, chicago, community, community organizing, economy, film, gentrification, movie reviews, progressive , George Bush, martin luther king, Earth House, michael moore, Barack Obama, chicago, economics, film, community organizing, ronald reagan, economy, racism, race, New York, film reviews, lockerbie central umc, Spike Lee, Do The Right thing, 20th anniversary, 1989, 1989 film, 1989 films, Roger and Me, Radio Raheem, K.0.d by love, supply side economics, moral arc of the universe is long, Michelle Robinson, Michelle Obama, southern strategy, cain and abel, genesis