Today I was honored to speak at the Together West Michigan Event.
This is what I said:
Today our nation is in the death grip of a massive and malignant pandemic, —it is not covid, not the measles. It is not a pandemic of the body, but of the soul — Today, we are dying of a pandemic of privilege.
This pandemic is the creeping blindness, the convenient deafness, the carefully cultivated ability to not see, not hear, and not care about people who are being crushed by the cruel, calculated, and craven White Christian Nationalism policies of the Trump administration.
–If you are not a person of color, you may not fear that your simple traffic stop will become a seizure and arrest. If you are not LGBTQIA+, you may not live with the constant threat of your dignity being debated and denied.
If you do not rely on food assistance, health care, or disability support,
you may never feel the terror of systems engineered to punish poverty.
And because these harms are not being shared equally by all peoples,
many of us have the profound privilege and the lazy luxury of choosing to not to pay attention.
We just turn off the bad news programs.
We scroll right past the stories.
We just change the channel of human suffering.
But while we are choosing to be cocooned and comfortable,
families are being fractured,
workers are being whisked away,
and children are losing their parents, their homes, and their hope.
And our silence becomes the only permission needed for this to continue.
Every religious and moral tradition warns us about this sickness —
about choosing our comfort over conscience, about the lure of
valuing order over justice, and stability over solidarity.
BUT today, we must all tell the truth about ourselves.
We are the lawyers and the legislators who write policies that wound.
We are the pious priests who pass by the broken and still call it faith.
We are the institutions that protect our own peace while allowing others to pay the price.
So hear this clearly:
TODAY we will no longer chase our own comforts while ignoring the cries of the crushed. We will no longer bow to the false gods of wealth, convenience, patriotism, and power while our neighbors are hunted, harmed, and held without warrants.
Because we will not be judged by what we claim that we believe;
We will be judged by what we are willing to risk!
By whom we are willing to stand beside.
And by what we are willing to give up so that others may live with dignity.
That means supporting all the families with detained breadwinners.
That means visiting and advocating for the people warehoused at North Lake Detention Center in Baldwin.
That means bringing food, coats, rides, legal help, and relentless solidarity with the oppressed.
That means refusing to sanction, sanitize and cooperate with the work of ICE.
And it means organizing until ALL of our communities become sanctuaries, and not surveillance zones.
Because if we do nothing, this pandemic of privilege will rot our moral core. Our candy-coated nostalgia churches will become the broken and hollowed-out shells of white steepled tombs — ignored in our sanctified silence, protecting no one, and empty of people, purpose and meaning.
So today, do not leave this place unchanged. Instead, join us and become bold:
–Disrupt the systems that depend on silence.
–Defy the policies that profit from pain.
–Demand dignity for every human being, for we are all made in the image of God.
Show up. Stand up. Speak out. TOGETHER.
For today we will choose NOT to continue to blaspheme our faith with silence.
Today, let us solemnly vow to become the people of action that our faith and these days require of us: Let us be bold, relentless, and unafraid. So be it. Amen.
