Song: The Next Right Thing | Smithsonian Article on Dr. King's (lack of popularity. |
Friends,
No more boot! I'm walking in a regular sneaker (with the back cut out) but can move to real shoes in the next few weeks.
Just in time for the Episcopal Divinity School Alum gathering May 29 and 30. Whew.
Keeping taking one more step.
-Liz
Introduction to Act! Be Church Now
I live in an intentional community. We gathered as a small group, recruited more members, raised $17 million dollars, and built a neighborhood with 34 homes and a shared common house for meals, workouts, watching TV. We make our decisions by (modified) consensus and no one is in charge.
New people make one common complaint "how do I know who is in charge?" A lot of stuff doesn't get done. Anyone can lead but not everyone want to be a leader. And because it's a community with a home ownership model, we can't just decide to leave when things don't go well.
Similarly, nationally, almost all of us cannot simply choose to move someplace safer, kinder, or more democratic. And similarly, a lot of us are looking around and asking "who is leading the resistance?" At least I am!
Some of that is question is political--who will run for president, for congress, who of those already elected will stand up to the illegal and immoral behaviors? Some people are yelling to politicians to "be more mainstream" or "be more radical" or "be younger". Some are shouting for more diverse candidates, others feel it is safer to stick to old white men. I not only don't know who is leading this, I don't know who I *want* to be leading this.
At the same time, the answer is not simply a political answer. Who is running the resistance? I had high hopes for Rev. William Barber and the Poor People's Campaign, but he certainly isn't getting publicity around resistance. Liz Theoharis similarly is doing great work, but isn't a universal image. I was invited to go to Minneapolis during the worst of the ICE protests, but I'd never heard of the organization that was running the event, and when I checked with my Minneapolis colleagues, they were working with a different organization. I get regular emails for Indivisible, and from Massachusetts Community Action Network, but no one seems to be in charge of those groups either. Or at least I don't know whose in charge.
I want someone to tell me what to do!
At the same time I'm doing writing about Jonathan Daniels, a martyr who went to Selma, Alabama, and was shot while protecting Ruby Sales, an African American teen freedom fighter. Episcopal Theological School had many students respond to Dr. King's call to come to Selma. (I work for ETS's successor, Episcopal Divinity School.)
Judith Upham, another ETS student, wrote about hearing King's call to action, and says her response was to get out her check book. Which, I must say, is what i have done. I have heard the call to action and responded with my check book.
But Jonathan Daniels turned to her and asked if they should go. So she did. The two of them spent a semester registering voters, teaching, and working to integrate the local Episcopal Church. Upham went home before Daniels was killed.
Jonathan wasn't a leader in the civil rights movement. He built relationships, showed up when asked, supported those that were planning marches, protests, and voter registration events. He is a martyr because his gut reaction was to protect his neighbor when the shotgun was raised.
Looking back we see Dr. King as the clear, or at least *a* clear leader of the civil rights movement. But it wasn't nearly as clear then. Most white people didn't support his actions, and many black leaders did not either. Many organizations were working for civil rights, and to oppose the Vietnam War, and to work against poverty, and any number of other projects.
We want a clear leader to tell us what to do. I want a clear leader to tell me what to do. I have a fantasy that I would do more if I knew what to do.
But that is how resistance works. All we can do is find a project that makes sense to us. Find an organization we can support. Choose to be a people who live out our faith by caring for the immigrants, the poor, the lonely, and the oppressed. Choose to be a people who live out our faith by opposing war, fighting income inequality, standing up for the value of diversity. We have to do this without knowing which ideas will succeed, without knowing which groups are doing the best work, without any confidence that we are following the person who will be famous fifty years from now for turning this around.
All we can do is to keep doing the next right thing.
What organizations is your church, or are your church members, supporting? Reply to this email to let me know what's happening.
Smithsonian Magazine's article on Dr. King's 75% disapproval rating and how threatening white people found his suggestion that black and white poor people should work together to guarantee jobs for all.
Frozen II's song The Next Right Thing, sung by Anna when no one was available to lead her to the next steps.
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