10 Commitments of Resistance
Beloved community, our recent
national election has significant spiritual, ethical, and theological
implications for us as people of faith.
If you are like me, you are still reeling from the results of that
election and all that it portends for all people and the earth. We will have continued conversations about
these issues in the weeks and months ahead—and how we, in faith, are called to
respond. And as a starting point, I want
to share part of an article by Jim Wallis, published in Sojourners on 11-17-16, titled “10 Commitments of Resistance in the Trump Era”:
When Sojourners put out the call for you to tell us
your post-election stories, we found ourselves tapping into a deep well of
lament. Your stunning Reader Stories put on display the real feelings of people
across the country—fears felt by ethnic minorities, Muslims, women, immigrants,
LGBTQ people, those struggling with their faith and on and on.
This campaign made often
implicit ugly racial and gender views explicit; it lifted up dangerous things
that are often covert and made them overt.
Both fear and anger are deep in America now, especially among people who
belong to groups who were targeted and maligned during the election campaign.
They wonder if the America President-elect Trump wants to make “great again”
includes them.
The election revealed the deep racial divide in
America with a majority of white voters—of all economic levels, genders, and
even religions—going for Trump. The media’s new focus on the genuine grievances
of the forgotten white voters painfully reveals its own continuing racial bias
in its lack of focus on whole communities of color who continue to be forgotten
and left behind. White people who dismiss the real fears parents of color have
for their children reveal how disconnected they are from those families. America’s Original Sin clearly still lingers
in America, and the repentance of that sin clearly calls upon us to replace
white identity with faith identity—the reversal of what happened in this
election among the majority of white voters who voted together as a tribe.
We know you are fearful. We
know you are still feeling the loss—the loss of a hoped for America that valued
diversity, or perhaps the loss of your faith community whose white majority
voted for an embodiment of our worst natures.
But we also know that you are ready to resist.
You are ready to join the millions who will repeat daily that this ugly
rhetoric and dangerous policy proposals cannot become normalized. Racism should not continue as normal,
misogyny can’t remain normal, and threatening the well-being of those God calls
us to welcome cannot become normal.
Here’s how we get started:
1. We
will go deeper in faith.
Our times require a moral compass. We must replace certainty with
reflection. Go from simply belief to actual practice. Seek both courage and
humility. Read, study, and live the
words of Jesus. Replace white identity with faith identity. Replace nativist religion with multiethnic
and international faith. As the prophet Micah said, “do justice, love kindness,
and walk humbly with your God.”
2. We
will lift up truth.
Sojourners will always replace fear with facts when it comes to public
discussions about immigrants, refugees, Muslims, racial diversity, and national
security. Multiracial truth-telling about race in America is urgently needed as
we move to a new demographic future where America will no longer be a white
majority nation. Sojourners will always lift up the voices of these communities
so that they can share their own stories.
3. We
will reject White Nationalism.
We will name racism and xenophobia as sins against our neighbors and
against the God who made us all in God’s image. We all must move the nation
forward and not backward. Affirm diversity as a gift, blessing, and great
opportunity for our nation — and reject the language of threats. Inclusion
means full participation
4. We
will love our neighbors by protecting them from hate speech and attacks.
We will act in support of people who belong to groups who are afraid
because they have been targeted, especially standing with parents who are
worried about the safety of their children of color. We all must watch, report,
and confront hate speech and behavior—against all ethnic and religious groups, women, LGBTQ people,
immigrants, and all marginalized groups—and surround people being attacked with
supportive community. White supremacist groups who are celebrating the results
of this election need to be identified, isolated, and prosecuted.
5. We
will welcome the stranger, as our Scriptures instruct.
We will block, interfere, and obstruct the mass deportations of
immigrants who are law-abiding and hard-working members of our communities. We
all must accompany, advocate for, and invite immigrants and their families into
our faith families and congregations when they become vulnerable. We will
provide opportunities to call on local elected officials and law enforcement
officers not to participate in rounding up immigrants — in the name of public
safety and family protection — and, if necessary, force federal enforcement
police to arrest immigrant families in our churches, instead of at their homes alone.
6. We
will expose and oppose racial profiling in policing.
We will reach out to our local police departments to make that commitment
clear from the faith community. If the Justice Department and the White House
no longer hold police departments accountable to obey the law in relationship
to people of color, we all must take on that role in our religious communities.
Local ecumenical and interfaith clergy councils should meet with sheriffs and
police chiefs in local communities for an open dialogue with them. We will
offer resources to study together the important report of the Presidential
Commission on 21st Century Policing, and help work with them to
implement it. We must make it clear that local faith communities promise to
watch and monitor the relationship of our police to our communities.
7. We
will defend religious liberty.
We will defy the defamation and banning of Muslims. We all must embrace
Muslims as fellow Americans and protect them from the fears of attack, protect
mosques with congregational solidarity, and protect national security with our
Muslim fellow citizens. We must also resist anti-Semitism as part of the White
Nationalism on the rise. If the registration of Muslims is called for, as has
been suggested, Christians and Jews will join the registration lines.
8. We
will work to end the misogyny that enables rape culture.
We will make every effort to replace misogyny with mutual respect. The
language against women that was used in this presidential campaign must be
completely rejected. We will name sexual assault for what it is: a sin and a
crime. It must be exposed and resisted on every level of our society. Gender
fairness and equality must be a fundamental principle in our workplaces,
schools, and political systems.
9. We
will protest with our best values.
We will defend constitutional values and workplace fairness, and fight
for climate justice and environmental protection as we serve as stewards of our
land. Whether in our streets, our schools or our workplaces — we will provide
resources and opportunities to protest with dignity, discipline, and
non-violence, not with hate for hate. We will respect the Constitution and our
democratic processes and expect the same from this new administration. But if
those procedures are violated, we must not be silent.
10. We will listen.
The nation is more divided and polarized than most of us can remember at
any time in our lifetimes. So we will listen to you and we can all listen to
each other if we desire healing and we all should. Our congregations must
become safe and sacred spaces for hearing each other’s stories, pains, fears,
and hopes — as people who want many of the same things for our families and
children. Our educational institutions should also be such safe spaces for
dialogue, learning the meaning of the diversity and pluralism that is America’s
best future.
The days and weeks and years ahead will require much
of us. I pray that our faith community
will be able to provide each of us sustenance for the journey, resources for
study, and opportunities for prayerful resistance and action. Everything isn’t
going to be all right, but we will stick together, sustain each other, and
mobilize our energy, time, and resources, to protect the people, values, and
commitments we care most about. I pray
that we will find increasing ways to expand our circle and to move forward
together.
See you in church,
Christy