In Honor of Dick Gregory
“The next time you put your underwear in the washing machine, take the agitator out, and all you’re going to end up with are some dirty, wet drawers!” Dick Gregory speaking to Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes
Dick Gregory, like Roger Williams, decided his purpose in life was to be an agitator. He found sharp humor to be at least as powerful as a sit-in in our modern world.
Agitation does not destroy the clothes in the washing machine when it is working properly. Similarly agitation in culture does not kill or maim. Heather Hyer should not be dead. Her killers demonstrate agitation gone terribly wrong, and her own agitation when respecting the civil peace should be protected.
Toleration does not prevent agitation, it enables it. A society that protects agitators is a society that respects a heart-felt conscience in protest and that ends up with cleaner, sounder character.
Christians are called to agitate using scripture as the power behind the agitation. We are all fallen, all dirty, all in need of agitation. Christian agitation is not hateful when done well, but is rather a call to sharpen our conscience, a love letter from our creator who wants us to trust Him, where the term “love” is defined as wanting our highest good.
Originally published on Medium in About Rekindled.
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