Remarks Made at the Rev Fred Shuttlesworth's Funeral

These are the highly time restricted remarks I had the privilege to make at the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth’s funeral at Bethel Baptist Church in the Collegeville Neighborhood, Birmingham, Alabama, October 22, 2011, upon the invitation from his widow Mrs. Sephira Shuttlesworth.

Pastor Wilder, members of the clergy, honored guest, Mrs. Shuttlesworth, members of the Shuttlesworth family;  my deep love and appreciation goes out to you all and may the sure comfort of the Holy Spirit rest on you and be with you in these days of our loss and grief.

First of all, honor, praise and thanksgiving to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the gift of the life and ministry of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth to us gathered here, to Birmingham, to Alabama, the United States and to the entire world.

Fred has revealed the meaning of the Christ and the meaning of Christianity for the 21^st Century.  He took the Christ out of an irrelevant Sunday School class room, where he had been presented as a weak passive victim that could be manipulated to make us feel good, and placed the risen Christ on the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, and the streets of the world as a Nonviolent Spiritual Warrior who used the power of Love to stand up for the human dignity and worthfulness of every person born of the universe.  The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, in his own standing up, revealed the Christ who has stood up for all of us and was crucified for this loving witness and also revealed the Christ, who in his resurrection is still standing up for all of us, the Christ who taught that there are no second class human beings; that everybody is somebody, an heir of worthfulness.

For all who through the Spirit have been healed of their racial and class blindness; we can now see that to truly follow the Christ in the 21^st Century is to stand up for human dignity and for the dignity of all creation.  Thank you Fred for this healing gift!

The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth also revealed for us the meaning of Christian righteousness for the 21^st Century.  No longer can Christian holiness be the illogical ascent to an irrational opinion about a book.  Christian holiness is human rights for all people, especially the poor and marginalized and people of color.

What does it look like to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself, even the neighbor who doesn’t look like you, or your neighbor that is an enemy?   Fred showed what this Christian righteousness for the 21^st Century looks like, it is human rights!  Christian Holiness is to make it our first responsibility as an individual, a church, an institution, a state or a nation to stand up for the human rights of every person born of the universe.  Thank you Fred!

May we all honor Fred’s passing by reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then live them by getting on the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights bus with Fred to a future of peace and justice for all.

Amen!

R. Lawton Higgs, Sr.