Make good trouble

The night after Donald Trump was elected president the first time, in 2016, the First Methodist Church in the town where I lived then, opened their doors for a vigil.

The church offered a place for quiet reflection for anyone mulling over the election’s results. They held a communion service first, followed by quiet time in the church.

I did not go to the communion service, but decided to drop in later for some time spent in communal silence and prayer.

When I made my way to a pew, the pastor approached me. She gestured to the altar, where a loaf of bread sat broken and partially consumed.

“Feel free to partake of the communion bread,” she said.

I smiled, thanked her, and demurred, saying, “I’m not a Methodist.”

She answered quickly, “Neither is God.”

I have thought of that comment often in the years since. We pray for Christian unity, for tolerance, for interfaith dialogue. In that one sentence, that pastor made me feel very close to the others around me that night.

The times in which we live demand much reflection, but also unity and action.

In September, a young Presbyterian minister in Chicago, David Black, was shot from a roof with several pepper balls by ICE agents and then sprayed with pepper spray while engaged in a protest outside an ICE facility.

A video backs up Black’s claim that his arms were held in prayer when he was attacked, and witnesses claim the protest was peaceful. However, an official with DHS contends that the protestors were throwing things and “impeding operations.” It’s easy to Google the event and investigate for yourself.

A commentator on social media disparaged Black’s church by saying their website proclaims the church is “a spiritual home for all troublemakers, misfits, and mystics.”

I chuckled, remembering the words of the late, great congressman, John Lewis, who was nearly killed in 1965 at the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, marching to protest the blocking of Black Americans’ right to vote.

“Get in good trouble,” Lewis told us later.

And if you attend a church which blocks misfits, you’re in the wrong church. Jesus welcomed misfits — the Samaritan woman, the leper, the woman “caught in the very act” of adultery, the tax collector.

The website of David Black’s church asserts they are “a progressive church with traditional theology … unreservedly open to everyone, theologically rooted in a deep, serious tradition.”

And speaking of the marches in Selma, there were three that year. The first was met by violence by authorities, and resulted in the vicious beating of Lewis, fracturing his skull. The country, and indeed the world, was shocked. When a second march proceeded in a few days, clergy and religious from across the country responded with their presence.

My dear friend, Servant of Mary Sister Mary Hogan, was there that day. If you’ve seen pictures of Catholic nuns in their long black serge habits and starched white headdresses sitting in the grass near the bridge, you may have seen the young Sister Mary. It was part of an impressive Catholic response.

The courts will decide what happened in Chicago. Lately, lawsuits seem to be popping up like dandelions in spring. Questions should be asked about who trains ICE agents, how they are screened and if they should carry identification and discard those masks.

Meanwhile, Catholic priests and even bishops are offering Masses outside and, when allowed, inside ICE facilities. We must support them. October will see more demonstrations throughout the country. In the spirit of John Lewis, our actions should be united, reflective, and always peaceful and prayerful.

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