Dear Church,
The terror and violence unfolding in Minneapolis has been deeply disturbing to witness, and the horrific and tragic killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti have only multiplied our grief and anger over the past few weeks. Our Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said it well in a recent letter to the Episcopal Church when he said:
Carrying out the simple commands of Jesus—feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, visiting prisoners, making peace—now involves risks for the church and grave danger for those we serve… In the coming years, our church will continue to be tested in every conceivable way as we insist that death and despair do not have the last word, and as we stand with immigrants and the most vulnerable among us who reside at the heart of God.
I take it as given that we seek to stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us, but as we do so, another vital question loom large for most of us: How do we regulate our own nervous systems in proximity to all this threat? How do we stay resilient and persistent in resisting authoritarian injustice?
Someone in the church group chat captured the challenge well: “I’m either immersed so much that I’m drifting deep into a dark pit of despair or I’m disassociating from it so much I’m disconnected from myself and the people around me.” I know that many of us (me included) ping-pong back and forth between these two unhelpful options quite a bit, so I wanted to brief offer a few things I’ve found helpful to remind myself:
1. Remember that injustice bothers you for good reason. It’s not wrong to be angry and upset about what’s going on right now. The goal isn’t an emotionless response to injustice.
2. Dose your news consumption, and don’t get it from social media. Part of the authoritarian strategy is to occupy every last corner of your attention and make the actions of the state feel like the totality of reality. Also, the incentive structure of social media is designed to reward the most outrageous, fear-inducing “takes,” because that’s what hijacks our brains and holds our attention. There are better ways to stay informed, connect with people, and be entertained. It’s counterintuitive, but doom-scrolling not only harms your mental health, it actually benefits authoritarian interests. Instead, sign up for Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter. She condenses the most important events of the day into an article you can read in about five minutes.
3. Lean into prayer. Especially the Psalms (Just this morning Psalm 52 was prayed: “You tyrant, why do you boast of wickedness against the godly all day long?”). I’m also convinced that it’s crucial for activists to reclaim contemplative prayer as a crucial practice. As Richard Rohr said, “There is a deep relationship between the inner revolution of prayer and the transformation of social structures and social consciousness.” We do not pray instead of action. We pray to strengthen ourselves for the action we are called to.
4. Slow down. The news cycle (and our world in general) operate at an absolutely unsustainable pace. Resist this. Read poetry and novels. Watch birds. Bake bread. Make soup. Take walks. Learn the names and qualities of the flora and fauna of your neighborhood. Sit by the fire.
5. Give most of your attention to your actual life. Again, the authoritarian trick is to make you think that what your screen is showing you is the totality of reality. But, as Oliver Burkeman put it, the news is not your life. Your life is the people you live and work and worship with. Your life is the work you get to do, the problems you get to work on, the people you get to serve. Your actual life is the only place you really have any influence over what happens, anyway. I heard an activist put it like this recently: “It’s important to be in touch with the macro, but we find hope and change in the micro.”
6. Lament (and celebrate) with others. Don’t do this alone. Find and create spaces where you can share your anger and anguish with others who are able to hold it with you. Doing so is a kind of prayer that actually does make a difference in the world and in your life. Also celebrate with others. Rejoice together, pray together, weep together, laugh together.
7. Find your lane and focus your efforts. You can’t do everything that needs to be done, but you can make a meaningful contribution to justice and liberation. By all means, demonstrate and protest if you’re able to, but that’s just one way to participate in the kingdom of God that is active among us. It takes all kinds of people and all kinds of work.
It’s hard to predict what the future will bring, but I wanted to let you know that Bishop Jennifer and our Diocesan staff are actively resourcing us to help us respond faithfully and pastorally should there be increased ICE activity in our region.
Let’s stay connected to one another, and connected to God in prayer, and let’s continue to pray and work together to live out our baptismal covenant in these challenging days.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Ben
