The simple truth is that we are not prophets unless we are incarnated among those directly impacted by injustice. Prophetic agency is first and foremost about truth and truth cannot be acontextual. It is entirely about relationships with people who are suffering and it is located in the lives of those who live directly in the path of impending danger and evil. This is where we must go. This is where we must run towards.
There is much more involved with the pollution of racism than “being mean” or calling people names… racism involves an unjust system. The rise of active racism is not something that occurred in a vacuum, but it has its roots in a more commonly accepted passive racism. Many white folks, sitting comfortably inside their homes, believe that racism was a thing of the past. What they do not realize is that racism has taken on some different forms.
But it’s not simply that he couldn’t speak. It’s that God created the conditions for him to listen more deeply. As a priest in the temple, I can only imagine what he heard, what he saw; what God wanted him to hear, what God forced him to see. Without the temptation of speaking, he could perhaps listen with the ears of the heart.
We may be fearful because our tomorrows look like they may be completely darkened by the threats of self-serving political leaders who speak over everyone, place a price tag on everything, and seek to control every aspect of our lives. We may be fearful because we feel abandoned in the wooded wilderness of indifference. But when you know that your heavenly Parent knows where you are there’s no need to fear!
By Mindy Johnson-Hicks
So much darkness
soul pain
the pus from years of rejection, race through my soul’s veins
the middle class celebrate
the power class has won
Medicare will be cut back
health care for the poor eliminated
a wall will keep the outsiders out
the gays will again be damned
women will again deserve to be raped
the gains of generations fall at the altar of the middle class’ wallet… again
37 years I labored, until my body fell victim to my desire for success
I sit now powerless in my soul darkness
knowing the weak must die and I am now the weak
knowing the work I accomplished only supported the system of sickness
under which I will now die in pain
The Reverend Dr. Mindy Johnson-Hicks completed advanced studies in Leadership and Biblical Preaching at Asbury Theological Seminary. Mindy’s dissertation established that a correlation exists between effective spiritual formation practice and dynamic emotional wellbeing, answering a lifelong question following a childhood diagnosis of PTSD related to familial alcoholism and domestic violence. Rev. Dr. Johnson-Hicks is currently Executive Pastor to Redemptive Work, www.RedemptiveWork.org, where she has co-authored two books; ‘The Wealth of Poverty’ and ‘A Bias Toward Action’ now available on Amazon. Mindy lives a beautiful life in love with Jesus and with her wife, Amy. Her ministry credential resides in the fellowship of believers in the Church Within a Church, a Methodist related grass roots movement BEing community, faith and justice.
As we more fully embody the incarnational relationships to which we are called, we will help one another to name our needs, and then to claim and receive the support that will help us and our families walk together through the challenges that befall us. We’ll make that walk together and eventually sit down together, still family, reunited at the table.
Many people who have been challenged to think about how they would respond in the midst of hatred in our history. The time is now. We must be vigilant. We must act. We must gather all of our courage to say that our neighbors matter in our words and actions. We must resist the belittling and reduction of human rights. And if this is an endeavor you must carry, I have formulated a simple but challenging list.
All injustice needs for justice to wither and die on the vine is for good people to be busy with sterile and conflict-free church work that never amounts to anything meaningful in regards to tangible change in the face of injustice and tyranny. For justice to happen means that we must be willing to risk and that risk is not just our lives (though under a trump presidency this might be required), but even more, it will require risking our reputations and even our upwardly mobile institutional church careers.
I let you see my tears, even though you can't yet understand their source. I want you to see. I won't--can't--shelter you from my pain, from my fear for you. For all our babies. Today I feel my heart breaking open, wider and wider. Creating more excruciating pain, yes, but also creating exponentially more room within me for love. Love wins. I do not know how. But love wins.
I believe the time is so ripe for us to throw off the shackles of institutional commitments that make us busy and perhaps even give us identity, but which also blur our vision and suck our passions dry, and for us to build a revolution. And this will be a revolution of invitation that eliminates marginalization, a revolution of shared plenty that overcomes greed and isolation, and a revolution of love that drives out fear. Thanks to Jesus, the revolution is here. We need only to live it out in shared spaces with others.
I went to North Dakota this past week to be present with the Standing Rock Nation and other indigenous peoples who are acting as water protectors of the Missouri River against the very real threat of the Dakota pipeline that will run fracked oil under said water sources. It is literally a crime, breaking treaty and civil law, but also a travesty. I wanted to share some of my experiences with you.
This week, NPR and The Marshall Project published a series of stories uncovering the harrowing use of torture at the Lewisburg federal penitentiary where incarcerated people are routinely forced to face double-celled solitary confinement in a 6×10 ft cell for nearly 24 hours a day with a cell mate they fear, or are shackled in restraints for refusing their cell assignment.
