Acceptance Remarks by the 2008 Davis Award Recipient, Rev. Deborah A. McKinley

Faithful Living: The Call to Social Responsibility — the theme of this morning's gathering. Living faith publicly — in the realm of the marketplace and the statehouse, not simply within the halls of our religious institutions.

I want to talk with you today about prophets.

Prophets are rarely welcomed with open arms. They are often kept at arm's length. Because prophets make people uncomfortable.

I speak of a prophet not as one who predicts the future. Biblical prophets did not predict the future. Prophets see the world as it is. They name it for what it is, and call for change. They speak the truth. They speak God's truth.

You and I, I believe, are also prophets. The work we do, on behalf of women and men, is prophetic work. I know this is said every year — but it's true: the work we do is sacred work. Thank you, Tom Davis, for that fantastic phrase. Sacred work. What you and I do is sacred work, it is prophetic work.

Prophets see the stark contrast between the world God desires and the world as it is. They see a young woman on a stretcher, her septic body unable to fight the infection, and the prophet says, "This is not right." The prophet says out loud, "This is not right" — and points attention to those places in the world where things "are not right."

Prophets speak truth. They name lies for what they are — lies. Let's start with the obvious ones:

     It's not "pro-life." It's anti-choice.

     Abstinence-only education does not work.

See? You can do it! You're a prophet. Prophets name lies for what they are: lies.

The prophet's job is to make the people uncomfortable — so that they move away from those lies and toward the truth, so that they move toward justice, so that they move toward right living. Prophets do not settle for less than the truth. Reinhold Niebuhr stated it well: "We should be far less concerned with the purity of our actions and much more concerned with the integrity of our compromises." Prophets speak the truth, and don't settle for less than the truth.

Prophets speak not just to individuals. Prophets speak truth in the halls of the statehouse, calling governments to right living and justice making. Prophets speak truth in the marketplace, calling those in business to set aside the bottom line so that justice might be served first, before the pockets and pocketbooks of the stockholders.

Prophets are willing to struggle with the hardest of life's situations. Because, in the end, the prophet knows, living in God's way is the way of justice, the way of life, the way of fullness. So the prophet enters the hardest of life's situations, and calls for truth and justice and life — no matter how hard and difficult — because it is God's way.

As the prophet speaks truth to those in power, the prophet also speaks a word of hope to the vulnerable and the powerless. The prophet holds the hand of that woman on the stretcher as she dies — offering comfort and hope when hope has run out.

You and I are prophets. We speak truth. We disclose lies. We raise our voices in the halls of the statehouse and in the marketplace. You and I struggle with the hardest of life's situations — situations in which there is no good answer. And in those most difficult of life's situations, you and I offer a word of hope — reminding those without power that someone speaks on their behalf, someone stands with them, someone listens to THEIR story, someone holds their hand, reminding them they are not alone.

You are a prophet. Speak the truth — publicly. Offer a word of hope — publicly. Live your faith — however you describe it — publicly. Don't be shy. Don't be quiet. Remember that young woman on the stretcher — and speak the truth.

Thank you.