This is That Moment
We’ve all asked ourselves, when hearing of some moment of historical courage, “What would I have done?”
This is That Moment, plain and simple.
Our president speaks of other nations as ‘shitholes.’
People who were promised stays are being deported, separated from families, returned to poverty, oppression, and death.
Health care is threatened.
Food is threatened.
Creation is threatened.
Rights are threatened.
The question that this Moment asks us isn’t, “What Would Jesus Do.”
We know that answer.
He sided with the oppressed, the poor, the vulnerable, the sick, the outcasts, and those from shithole places—he was from one, after all (“Can anything good come from Nazareth?”)
The question, instead, that this Moment asks each of us is, “What will I do?”
Each of these people below were faced with a different Moment but the same question.
Each of these people answered with courage born of their faith, a faith that freed them in the knowledge and trust that death doesn’t win.
Even their own.
Read their stories.
Add your name to their stories.
In your own small—or big—way, you can transform this national Good Friday moment into an Easter one.
Death is real. Life is real-er.
These people knew and know that.
You. Do. Too.
________
Sojourner Truth, 1797-1883. US Pentecostal Resister to Systemic Racism and White Women’s Privilege
Harriet Tubman, c 1820-1913. US Christian Conductor of the Underground Railroad.
Martin Niemöller, 1892-1980. German Lutheran Nationalist, Harsh Critic of Hitler.
Dorothy Day, 1897-1980. U.S. Roman Catholic Social Justice Advocate.
Kaj Munk, 1898-1944. Danish Lutheran Pastor, Resister to the Nazis.
Witold Pilecki, 1901-1948. Polish Roman Catholic Resister to the Nazi Regime. Martyr.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1943. German Lutheran Resister to the Nazi Regime. Martyr.
Irena Sendler, 1910-2008. Polish Roman Catholic Smuggler of Jewish Children, Rescuer of More Jews Than Any Other Citizen During the Holocaust.
Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, 1917-1980. El Salvadoran Roman Catholic Archbishop, Outspoken Critic Against Governmental Repression and Hostility to Human Rights. Martyr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968. U.S. Baptist Resister to Systemic Racism. Martyr.
Dorothee Sölle, 1931-2003. German Protestant Liberation Theologian and Political Activisit.
Desmond Tutu, 1931-. South African Anglican Archbishop, Anti-Apartheid and Human Rights Advocate.
Helen Prejean, 1939-. US Roman Catholic Nun, Advocate Against the Death Penalty.
John Floberg, US Episcopalian Priest, Pipeline Protestor at Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota.
Anita C. Hill, 1951-. US Lutheran Pastor and Advocate for GLBTQ Full Inclusion in the Church.
Wendell Griffen, 1952-. US Baptist Minister, Judge, Political Advocate, Protestor of the Death Penalty.
(Please comment below with more names to add to the list. Just as acquiescence is contagious, so is courage.)
Anna,
Yes, this is right on. Thank you for naming what many of us also are aware of. Here are a few other courageous saints/names that popped into mind:
Pete Seeger, 1919-2014. Renowned American folk singer-songwriter, creative union rights organizer, human rights advocate, environmentalist, who sang and worked for Civil Rights, poorly paid workers, union rights. Fought McCarthyism in the 1950s, and “paid dearly” for it in terms of contracts and such. Also, for years sang and worked to clean up the Hudson River, which flowed by his backyard.
Sigurd Olson, (1899-1982): Son of baptist minister, Minnesota nature writer, teacher, founder and president of the Wilderness Society, key advocate of preservation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and other wilderness areas. Author of “The Singing Wilderness.” Due to his undying advocacy to protect the pristine nature of what became, the BWCAW, his effigy was burned in his hometown of Ely.
Dorothy Day, 1897-1980: American journalist, social activist, convert to Catholicism. Worked with street people, the poor, and others in New York City.
Thomas Merton, Contemplative (Trappist) monk, priest, author of over 30 books on contemplative spirituality, prayer, active non-violence, and questioning contemporary, unthinking, consumptive society. “Fought” with his Abbott, and the Catholic Church over writings about the Vietnam war in the 1960s.