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SHIRLEY SHERROD
(Today’s Joseph Story)
He was thrown into the dungeon. She was thrown under the (proverbial) bus. The similarities of the bible’s story of Joseph, and the story of now former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) official Shirley Sherrod are uncanny!
Joseph came from a place of pain. His own brothers sold him into slavery, separating him from the love of his father Jacob (they were jealous of him because Jacob favored Joseph over them, and young Joseph boasted some alarming dreams he had of the future). However, Joseph made the most of the situation, and by demonstrating his godly nature, he was entrusted to handle all the affairs of his master. Then suddenly, when he refused the advances of his masters’ wife, she falsely accused him, and he was thrown into the dungeon.
Sherrod also came from a place of pain. She was separated from her father Hosie Miller when he was murdered by a white farmer. However, she too made the most of the situation. She was forced to deal with some understandable anger and hatred by being challenged to help a poor white farmer save his farm. She often told the story of how it changed her life and her perspective. With faith in God, and years of dedicating herself to helping the poor, she was appointed to a USDA post in the state of Georgia. Then suddenly, when a false report claimed she was a racist based on an edited tape of one of her speeches, she was thrown under the bus. The USDA rushed to judgment and called for her resignation.
While in the dungeon Joseph used the “press” to plead his case. Both Pharaoh’s chief butler and chief baker had been placed in the dungeon for a spell. Both had disturbing dreams that Joseph accurately interpreted for them: restoration for the chief butler, and death for the chief baker. Upon the chief butler’s release, Joseph asked that he remember him, and to make mention of his plight to Pharaoh.
While under the bus, Sherrod also used the press to plead her case. Where conservative agitator Andrew Breitbart and Fox News had called for a “death sentence”, she contacted reporters at CNN who probed a little deeper and found the evidence that she in fact was being wrongly accused. For three days she was on the air telling her side of the story, but the head of the USDA, Tom Vilsack, was unrelenting. The airing of the favorable testimony of the white couple, Roger and Eloise Spooner, whose farm Sherrod had helped save, undoubtedly helped turn the tide.
Two years after the chief butler was released, Pharaoh had two disturbing dreams that he could not understand, and no one could interpret. Then the chief butler remembered Joseph. When Joseph convincingly interpreted the dreams for Pharaoh, he was so impressive that Pharaoh made him governor over all the land of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself.
The final outcome of the Sherrod story is yet to be known, but as of this writing she has been vindicated – the head of the USDA has publicly apologized to her and offered her a new position within the department that’s on the table for her to decide upon. She also received a personal phone call from President Barack Obama expressing his regret over the whole ordeal. With all the publicity, Sherrod has gotten her message out, and now has a platform that seems to be larger than that of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who had also wrongly come against her, and all the churches combined. Her message is not about racism, but about helping to bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots. Although her story may have (to a degree) overshadowed President Obama’s signing of the Wall Street Reform Bill this week, the irony is that it underscores America’s great divide twofold: rich and poor; black and white (poverty and race).
So this was a parallel story about reformation: Joseph from a boastful young lad to a humbled servant; Sherrod from a perspective of racial divide to a greater calling on behalf of all poor people. The story also parallels redemption as Joseph summed it up so famously: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” Hopefully, this “teachable moment” will help break up the political logjams, and our leaders will find some meaningful common ground.
~ Larry Buford, freelance writer
Residing in Los Angeles, CA
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