The stones that struck the deacon down
came not from soldiers' hands,
For neither law nor government
did issue such commands.
No, those who seized and dragged him out
to crush his life away
Are given no name or title here;
the scripture calls them "they".
How often since, in centuries gone,
have deeds of violence
Been done by those unnamed, unknown;
the darkness their defense.
Our history hides in darkened doors
while we still look away
While nameless, faceless, masked-up hate
is killing still today.
Enslaving barons stealing lives
across the distant seas
To hold in chains, to whip and shame
and bring down to their knees;
Indigenous children taken, too,
from family and from names;
And garment girls locked in the shop
to perish in its flames.
No, Stephen likely was not first
and certainly not last
To be struck down by mindless rage
while we still stand aghast.
Lord, give us righteous anger now
to make such violence cease,
And kneel before your holy throne
and yield before your peace.
TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, April 2026, after Acts 7:55-60.
MUSIC: Tune RESIGNATION, USA folk melody, Lewis's Beauties of Harmony, 1828.
References in verse 3: kidnapping, trafficking, and enslaving Africans in North America; kidnapping of Indigenous children and inserting them into "Indian schools" to strip away all Indian-ness; the death of over one hundred workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory by fire with the factory doors locked.
