January 13, 2006
By Kelly Martini

For Andris Salter, a trip to Pakistan – where Christians suffer persecution and have seen their churches burned – served as a reminder of the struggles of the U.S. civil rights movement.

Salter, an executive with the Women's Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, traveled to Pakistan in November with a group of four women from different denominations and countries. They represented a women's solidarity delegation sponsored by the World Council of Churches.

With the United States celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 16, Salter reflected on how her Pakistan experience evoked intense feelings about civil rights, persecution, and her belief that the work started by the civil rights leader must continue, both nationally and globally.

"Being an African-American woman in Pakistan, I could relate so much to what the oppressed people there are struggling with," Salter explained. One of the stopovers for her delegation was a Pakistani town where protesters had burned five churches, as well as homes of Christians, to the ground.

Hearing the stories of Pakistani Christians and seeing the burned houses and churches paralleled her experiences of living through the civil rights era in the United States.

"I could not help but relate it to the black church burnings," she said. "I kept stopping myself because I was having difficulty separating black church burnings in the United States with the church burnings in Pakistan."

Salter recalled the hatred that drove people to burn churches in the 1960s. Hatred ran so deeply that people obliterated black houses of worship to ensure nothing could be saved.

"They would make sure to throw rocks through every single window pane, not just one. They would smash every flower pot and decimate every room in a building. They wanted to destroy people's souls," she said. "Burning a church is destroying something people have wrapped their lives around."

Seeing the burned churches and houses in Pakistan – knowing that, in one instance, 400 Bibles were burned – also reminded Salter that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. started a movement that has to press forward and look both internally and globally.

"Look at what is happening around Hurricane Katrina," she added. "The media does not pay attention anymore. People are still suffering. Imagine all the things black people have lost, and yet, they do not get the justice they deserve. Insurance companies are refusing to pay claims or are paying only small portions of the claims."

In Pakistan, Salter witnessed instances where the country has been taking care of its neighbors better than the United States has for its own citizens following the hurricanes. In one camp for Afghan refugees, Pakistan has created schools, health care centers and markets for handmade goods where refugees can sell their wares for fair prices.

"We sit in judgment of these folks (Pakistanis), but go to Louisiana, Mississippi or Florida – we have made them refugees by not treating them fairly in our response."

Salter recalled one story of a black man whose house was destroyed because of the hurricane. Although his house was valued at $165,000, he received only $8,000 in insurance. The insurance company defended its decision, saying the house was destroyed by winds, not flooding, which was all the insurance covered.

"We need to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, but we need to speak up for the injustices that we still have not cared for in our nation," Salter declared. "Martin Luther King struggled so we could get to the place where we didn't have to struggle and so we wouldn't see people's skin. Yet, skin color is still the barometer by which we judge people in this country."

In other countries, the struggle for justice may not be due to skin color, but it's very real. "I was most impressed with the women in Pakistan who choose to be Christian, even though they face persecution," Salter said. "When they make this choice, it often comes with a harder life."

Many women are pushed into the sex market for economic reasons. They live as second-class citizens because they are women. They struggle with their own dreams for their daughters. Injustice and discrimination have close ties.

"These women have lived this life for so long that they often cannot see a new dream for themselves," Salter pointed out.

"For me, these are the injustices that Martin Luther King tried to stop. We've made some strides, but we have a long way to go."

United Methodist News Service
Kelly Martini is communications director for the Women's Division.