I know you; you’re an ally. You read the books, you listen to the podcasts, and you wear the pins. I get it. (Here’s a secret — I have all the pins, too.) Recently, I was quarantine cooking and listening to the Queerology podcast, “On Performative Allyship and Black Joy,” and guest Rev. Broderick Greer said, “Who says that someone is an ally?”[i] Rev. Greer goes on to say, “I would love to think that I’m an ally of trans people, but I’ve never been given that moniker… at best, I’m aspiring to be an ally or an accomplice. I’m giving myself over to that process.”[ii]I stopped what I was doing. “Wait, what? I can’t call myself an ally?” I said aloud to myself in my kitchen. Then I backed up the podcast and played it again. I pride myself on being an ally, you see, both in my anti-racism work, and in my work to help create safe and brave spaces for LGBTQIA+ teenagers in the church. It’s part of my identity.
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As the call for racial justice for our Black siblings echoes throughout the country, it has not only hit large cities, but also small communities. Local ministry leaders are calling out racism and white supremacy within their own contexts. Jeff Moles, a Christian educator in Owensboro, Kentucky, recently submitted this piece to the Messenger-Inquirer newspaper of Owensboro, Kentucky, in response to the community’s debate about a Confederate statue on the lawn of the Daviess County Courthouse lawn. It has, thus far, not been published by the paper. The office of Marcus Bosley is between my home and work. I have seen the invitation on a sign outside to come in, read the Bible, and pray. I take this to be a public declaration that the owner of this land and building, Mr. Bosley, is a committed Christian.
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“Don’t just do something, stand there.” The first thing to do in a crisis or even disaster is not to panic. This is not “fight, flight, or paralysis,” but steadiness, rooted in the inner security of faith. A national or international crisis is something that it helps to have a denomination to address, and an
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On March 23, 2020, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a global ceasefire because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war…That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put the armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.” Many nations responded while others did not. Not unlike the Olympic Truce, called for every two years before the Olympic Games, this ceasefire is necessary and hopeful for our world, but war and war business keep leaders fighting.
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