As I keep seeing war stories from Gaza and Ukraine, South Sudan/Sudan, Haiti and more, I wonder if we are witnesses to a new age of destruction or whether it is simply more of the same—albeit in the midst of ecological disaster unfolding all over the globe. As I sit comfortably in my study/home office looking out the sliding glass double door at the oaks and pines swaying in the breeze, the birds swooping and the squirrels scampering, all that trouble seems far away. And yet, of course, it really is right here, too, without the carnage but lurking nonetheless.
These days, I am really struggling, for the umpteenth time, with my heart saying nonviolence is the only way to go and my mind saying yes, but . . . . . what about Ukraine? Surely you can’t think the Ukrainians can simply hold signs denying the evils of Putin and his forces and sit down and refuse to fight. Putin has no hesitation in spending untold rubles and Russian lives to create his dream, a Russian Empire loyal to Czar Vladimir I.
And the Palestinians have surely tried patience (mostly) with the Israelis…….that is, until Hamas decided to strike back. Of course, Hamas and its allies are not worthy of support but condemnation for the way they have abused not only the Israeli captives and hostages but also failed to actually do anything to advance the cause of justice and life for Palestine.
Sadly, Palestine lacked creative, strong, engaging leadership before 1948 and ever since as they have struggled to stay alive under the duress of Israeli domination. The Israeli policy has been essentially to keep the Palestinians in submission. That surely explains Netanyahu’s ongoing (only somewhat hidden) help for Hamas as a way of undercutting the Palestinian Authority. And those machinations surely explain, at least in part, why now he is so outraged at Hamas. And yet, the skeptic in me wonders if he is glad for this war because he thinks it will be the end of Palestine in any form, resulting in holding his throne atop an Israel from the river to the sea.
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
So here we are, or at least here I am, juggling and thinking and praying and sighing and struggling to discern where I want to put my energy and attention to what feels like a perpetual and ugly dance of patriarchally-entitled “leaders” which requires total victory not just for their respective causes but for their own personal enthronement. They do not seek peace or even justice but only to sit solidly on their respective thrones. And they soon may be joined by another with similar ambition in the United States.
I know only one response: resistance, not only resisting these oligarchic movements but also their lack of care for the looming, and too often current, ecological disaster. As German feminist Dorothee Sölle theologian wrote, in her poem, “Credo,” ”I believe in god/who willed conflict in life/and wanted us to challenge the status quo/through our work/through our politics.”
Each of us must choose our own form of resistance, but one thing is clear to me: we must understand resistance as our foundational attitude and action. And for me, it is peaceful resistance, even if that means at times I will support armed resistance (self-defense) when I see no other option.
In my personal life, I will pray and write and listen and speak and learn, seeking to reach across various lines to connect with others to encourage and support resistance. We need a global resistance movement.
And I will keep this wisdom of Steven Charleston in my heart.
I invite you to do so, too, and perhaps we can work together to build that movement.
“Our Common Spirit”
Let us dare to love one another
All of us, no matter how different we may be
No matter how stern the rules
That forbid us to appear in public together.
Let us climb over the high walls of our down doctrine
Sneak past the guards of the caste systems
That tell us we are never to speak to those people
And see what it feels like to be out under the open sky.
For too long our religious fences and racial fears
Have kept us hidden.
Now is the moment for our peaceful insurrection.
Let us dare to love one another
To listen, to learn, to be the friends
Our common spirit tells us we are and always were.
“Our Common Spirit” by Steven Charleston, Spirit Wheel: Meditations of an Indigenous Elder, p. 100.
Loved this.
And that poem! Just soo moving!!