Resilience

A time for the faith factor to emerge.

After the first two and a half weeks of his presidency, it is clear that Donald Trump is trying to take over the whole of the American government. Because millions of poor and vulnerable people, in the United States and around the world, are being put in great jeopardy– this is not just a political crisis but also a matter of faith.

I find myself turning back to Psalm 46, in the midst of the lawless and astonishing political events now happening every day. The Psalmist reminds us to “Be still and know that I am God.” Knowing that God is still God, that we have been through such things before in places like our Black Churches and elsewhere, and that our faith can help ground us, are important things for us to remember.

It is time for resilience in America, which is deeper than resistance. And I believe faith communities could help lead the way.

I believe that resilience from many sectors of civil society, especially from local communities, nonprofits, state and local governments, business, and, in particular, from faith communities is now critical.

In Washington D.C. unprecedented executive orders and actions from the White House, the second branch of government, continually ignore and directly challenge the Constitution's first branch of government– the Legislative branch. Both Democrats and Republicans must find the courage to obey their oaths of office and represent their own people and not just obey the President. So far those results are unclear. The third branch of government–the Judiciary– may be the last defense of democracy in the face of the biggest overreach of Presidential power in American history.

As Ezra Klein points out, the rapid fire assaults from the White House are meant to overwhelm and distract us, but focus we must.

In just the past few days Trump has threatened to “take over” the Gaza Strip by displacing Palestinians from their homes for his new “Riviera in the Middle East.” The new president, with the enforcement of his unelected and unconfirmed billionaire top donor, has frozen foreign aid for food, medicine, education and other critical and life saving services around the world. Domestically they have threatened cuts to Medicaid and SNAP– health care and food for the poorest people in America.

In response demonstrations from farmers, unions, teachers, students, and faith communities, and many others have risen up around the country. This is what resilience looks like.

A former Georgetown student of mine called me to ask, “How can those who call themselves people of faith go along with all of this.” How, indeed.

The big question in all of this becomes where is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and which Christians will show up for what they say they believe?

That question came to the forefront for me in Columbus, Ohio last weekend. My time there became a case study for me in the resilience of faith in a national moment like this.

Together with those gathered, we asked where the gospel was in our contemporary situation and sought the courage and hope to stand up for the teachings of Jesus. In particular, Jesus’ call to protect “the least of these” in Matthew 25, including “the stranger”- which in the original language which literally means “immigrant” and “refugee”- became central to the weekend.

All Christians are accountable to that passage, which was Jesus' final teaching and test of discipleship– no matter their political leanings nor how they voted.

On Sunday, we took up the Good Samaritan parable showing us that the neighbor we are called to love, proving our love for God, is often different from us and probably lives outside our neighborhood. The best example of a good neighbor Jesus offered to the lawyer testing him, was one of those being “othered” by the Judean society around him, including the man robbed, beaten, and left for dead beside the Jericho road. The Samaritan’s “compassion” after seeing the suffering of one other to him; cost him time, inconvenience, risk, and personal resources. The gospel story teaches against the “us and them” paradigm of the politics now being acted out in the White House, and being used to divide us from one another. Instead, we must act by reaching out to whomever is vulnerable on the side of the road today.

What if Christians from across our traditional divisions started to collaborate with each other to stand for and with undocumented immigrants– the “strangers”- among us? What if large and wealthy churches with funding resources and “armies of lawyers,” as one pastor told me, were to come alongside and support Hispanic church leaders and immigrant groups in their city? And what if the Black pastors who were also in the room in Columbus found solidarity with white pastors to help them defend their Black youth from the potential of increased racial policing? What if faith brought them all together and sustained them for the long battles ahead? That seems likely to happen in Columbus, Ohio.

Instead of just reciting the growing injustices each week, we must found our resilience in this struggle grounded in our faith.

It is always the call to come back to Jesus that can spark spiritual renewal and revival, and bring us together– even across traditional lines and boundaries. I felt Jesus' teachings cause the energy to visibly rise in the rooms and sanctuaries we were in. It could be that faith communities, at both the national and local level, could help bring both the spiritual and practical resilience we now need.

We must seek greater clarity about where the gospel of Jesus is now at stake and find collaborations between Christians and others willing to show up for those who are most vulnerable now. This will not only change our politics, but it will change us too.