|
Aspiring Toward the Beloved Community
Danny Bell is the founder and publisher of the Beloved Community Journal, a quarterly magazine that highlights people and organizations advancing Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision for a just and equitable society. The Beloved Community Journal has been in circulation since 2002.
A native Oregonian, Danny has been involved in Portland's faith community, focusing on youth outreach since 1984. As a youth director at the Grace Collins Memorial Center, Danny was instrumental in designing and implementing after-school programs for low-income youth in the North Portland area
Danny has also been an organizer for the Western Prison Project now Community Safety and Justice, where he was an outreach and advocacy worker for criminal justice reform. He was an organizer on two separate occasions for ACORN and Portland chapter chair for Oregon Action.
In his own words, Danny shares his joy in educating new generations about Dr. King’s vision for a beloved community.
This idea of the Beloved Community intersects the promise of the Kingdom of God and the ideals of the United States meritocracy. It is imperative for man to use our capacity for compassion and love, or we will ultimately annihilate the species. My goal with the beloved Community Journal is to impart the idea that there is such a thing as a higher good. Man does have a noble spirit that can be aspired to loftier ideals.
My basic motivation is not to save the world, but to perpetuate the species. The planet has finite resources. Consequently, at the rate we’re going, we’re on track to burn out those resources way before they’re expected to naturally deteriorate.
Ms. Evelyn Collins and her mother, fondly known as Mother Collins, ran the Grace Collins Memorial Center, which provided Christian daycare services for low-income kids in Northeast Portland.
At the Collins Center on NE Rodney, I started to become involved in mentoring young children in the foster care system. After two years of volunteering, I came onboard as a director, where I developed grant proposals, did marketing and other tasks.
I ran the after-school program at the Collins Center for eight years. I coordinated a number of special events intended to connect the youth with the community, and vice versa. We brought in people from the community to talk to the kids about work ethic and education. Once a year, we would host a neighborhood party where we would invite youth and prominent Christian youth leaders in the community to come together.
In the late 1990s, I started Good Shepherd Children’s Outreach to continue the spirit of Ms. Collins work. After the Collins Center shut down, we worked with several community members to keep the ministry going. Churches and organizations provided space for the youth to come together.
I’ve always had a dual-track career. While working in youth ministry, I also worked in advertising sales for The Skanner. Then, I took on a sales role at The Portland Observer, where I worked off and on for about 18 years.
The idea for the Beloved Community Journal started in 2000. Union Gospel Mission’s Bill Russell was an early supporter of the idea, and helped formulate the format for a social commentary publication. We delivered the first edition in April 2002.
Many of the popular magazines that reach people of color in the Northwest are lifestyle or sports publications. Most social commentary magazines are conservative. We have a very strong advertising base. We get advertising from companies that tend to be more conservative, but have a legitimate interest in community. The spectrum of ads cover from Mom and Pop and mid-size businesses, to churches and government agencies.
I started the magazine with $40. Nevertheless, had the good instinct to solicit others to be pr that helped get the magazine off the ground. Originally we put out an edition just once a year, and over time as I started built an advertising base that I knew I could count on. The journal evolved into a quarterly distribution. It’s been a lot of hard work , sacrifice, a bit of luck, and at some times meant taking chances.
Our goal is to focus on those of us who want to arrive at the Beloved community, to try and educate the community about the groups, individuals and agencies that are working for the betterment of mankind. We don’t necessarily practice “feel-good” journalism. We consider our commentary filtered through a progressive lens that is intended to resonate readers who share our point. Consequently, by using a thought-provoking approach we are always making a call-to-action among those of us who stand for the betterment of humankind.
Ultimately, it comes back to the idea of what the Beloved Community should look like. Part of that is imparting information about an interpretation of the of Christ’s message of love and redemption . Which has a multi-faceted translation to care about one another and to be good stewards of the environment that sustains us. Part of that is identifying our shortcomings and strengths as human beings, and then presenting and implementing ideas toward advancing the journey of humankind to arrive at the Beloved Community.
Spring 2009 Colors of Influence
|
