Hi Tab Family,
This past Sunday, Sana preached:
“We as a church will not stop working towards the kin’dom of God, the kin’dom of love, where we care for each other as Ruth did for Naomi, where we can say your people are my people, whatever happens to you happens to me too, because we understand that our liberation and lives are tied together. We will continue to resist systems of oppression, but not only in the ways we have done before, because just giving to charity and hoping things will change from the top down isn’t working. We must work on mutual aid, establishing grass roots abortion networks and other support systems in our continued mission to secure the lives of the living and love one another with the steadfast love and loyalty Ruth demonstrated.”
I believe that the church is one of God’s chosen vessels of love on this earth, but I don’t believe it’s the only one. With that in mind, I don’t believe that the church could possibly be the end all be all of our networks that protect the vulnerable, fight for the marginalized, and resist this country’s death-dealing ways. So this week I’m asking: how can you expand your network? Who can you link arms with in this continuous work?
The folks waiting to link up with you might not readily make perfect sense to you on the surface. When Ruth linked herself to Naomi, she did so against all logical nature, which isn’t easy.
It’s easy to pour money into a political party or a multi-million dollar non-profit in these times because their scare tactics are powerful, and the chokehold they have on well-meaning, middle class, white liberals is tight as all heck. The calls for donations swarm social media and because we want to feel like we’ve done something, we put twenty dollars here and 50 dollars there and act like we’ve really done it.
So here is my alternative suggestion: give the 20 dollars directly to the person who asks for change at the intersection near your favorite coffee spot. Learn that person’s name. See if sometime they want to grab a coffee and a pastry (maybe don’t suggest coffee for that very moment because, yes, they are working! My guess is you probably wouldn’t be able to drop everything at your job either to chat for an hour with a stranger, so, it might not be the most polite thing to ask them to leave their job to talk to you).
Take the 50 dollars and make dinner for your neighbors and actually get to know them while you enjoy it together. Figure out who you live amongst, meet them, know them, know who you can trust, and start building your actual community because as our government guts us of our rights, our communities must grow stronger.
Giving 50 dollars to Nancy Pelosi isn’t doing what you think it does. Giving 20 dollars to the Human Rights Campaign isn’t doing what you think it does. Neither the Democratic Party nor multi-million dollar non-profits are going to save you while the excrement continues to hit the fan. You will not vote your way or donate your way out of this mess, despite many of us wishing it were that easy, but neither of these things is going to save us. Our communities will save us. God’s love embodied will help us survive.
So go out and build your community. Get to know your neighbors.
With love,
Taylor