Some people look with bewilderment at some of the racial strife in our society today--particularly the tension between the “Black lives matter” movement and police departments across our land. However, some of you are old enough to know that we have been here before.

In his fine book, On a Wild and Windy Mountain, William H. Willimon tells of being in New Haven, Connecticut as a student at Yale in l970 during the famous Black Panther Trial.  Those of you who remember that turbulent era recall the strife, discord and agony that tormented our society in those days. 

During the week that the crisis at New Haven reached its peak, Willimon attended a choral mass at a nearby Catholic Parish. A boy’s choir was singing, “Deus Ascendit-- “God Has Gone Up.” 

“Just as I thought,” Willimon thought …