Sharpton in Fort Worth: Don’t be too careful

Take risks, the Rev. Al Sharpton told the congregation at Saintsville Cathedral Church Sunday, adding that they cannot be too cautious or too afraid to step into uncomfortable spaces or they will never be the people God has called them to be.

“It’s easy to go along to get along,” Sharpton said. “But history is made of people who were not too careful.”

Sharpton said he was in Fort Worth on Social Justice Sunday to highlight the birth of the new North Texas chapter of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization that he founded in 1991. Sharpton said he made the trip at the insistence of the new chapter’s president, Viner Monfoot-Greene.

Social Justice Sunday is a global effort celebrated by many churches in March, which the National Action Network has declared Social Justice Month.

The church was packed with leaders of Fort Worth’s African-American community including U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Brooks, former Fort Worth school Superintendent Walter Dansby, Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairwoman Deborah Peoples and former state District Judge Mary Ellen Hicks.

Sharpton said he had to stop officiating at so many funerals because he grew weary of making up their lives in their eulogies. While many people have nice homes and cars, that doesn’t make good material for the final words spoken at a funeral, he said.

“The only thing that will matter two minutes after you’re gone is what you have done for others,” Sharpton told the crowd.

People have become afraid to speak their minds and take on challenges or to do things people may take the wrong way. At a small reception in Dallas on Saturday, Sharpton, who has been attacked in many different ways, said it never bothered him. Over the past 40 years, the names of his attackers may have changed but their methods did not.

“I just keep on doing what I do,” he said.

Sharpton told the crowd Sunday there will be questions in life that Google cannot answer and for those questions they need faith in God.

Every day is a gift, Sharpton said, and God does not give gifts to enrich one’s own life, but to be used to enrich the lives of others.

Sharpton also said that he has been approached by people who boast of spotless records, who have never done anything wrong, who want to become his friends. Sharpton said he advises them to find other friends.

“If you’ve never been through nothin’ then you are guessing about what God can do,” Sharpton said. “I’ve been lied on, cheated, talked about, mistreated and through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus. I’ve learned to depend on his word.”

Milton Pace, Saintsville Cathedral Church pastor, said he agreed with Sharpton’s message and that he hopes others will see its wisdom.

“You can’t control what others do, but you can control what you do,” Pace said after Sharpton’s sermon. “Today is a continuation of what has been going on at this church for years.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2015 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Sharpton in Fort Worth: Don’t be too careful."