Prayer for America In the Midst of #Charlottesville
Spirit of Life and Love, God of Many Names Including None, and in this heightened, frightful moment in our nation’s life: Sweet Lord,
A cut diamond has many facets. An octagon has many sides. What happened this weekend in Charlottesville — the “hate, bigotry, and violence” did not. It was one-sided and it was deadly.
They hide behind many names — nationalist, supremacist, alt-right — but given our national leadership, they are now so brazen that they do not hide behind hoods and sheets as their forefathers and foremothers did in decades past. Instead of crosses on lawns, Friday night they carried torches, surrounding a church of multi-racial peaceful protestors, the police unable to do anything but lock those seeking peace in the church for their own safety. Instead of a noose, yesterday one used a car to kill a woman, to injure nearly a score of others, as they peacefully gathered to let the nation know, not in our name.
Let those who voted for the current president, proclaiming it was despite his racist and hate-filled rhetoric not because of it, let these people now rise up, speak up, and shout — with their words, their money, their bodies — NO. NO MORE. NOT EVER. NEVER AGAIN.
Let those of us who are racialized as white, who deplore the supremacist ideology, the nationalist intentions, and the racist vision they have for all of us, let us remember that even this extreme form of racism, of white supremacy, is ours. White people made this system and white people must unmake it. Let us not rely on our friends, neighbors, loved ones of color to take the risks, wade into danger, bear the brunt of this hatred, or even have remind us again that this is not theirs to make right, but ours.
And for those of us finding ourselves uttering, “not again,” let us remember that for many in our nation, those most vulnerable, for many communities of color, and for many marginalized queer communities, this is not an “again” but a “still.” For lives are being brutally cut short and have been, whether we have been paying attention or not.
An octagon may have many sides. White supremacy does not it. It has no claim on equal airtime. There is no one side’s legitimate perspective balanced with another side’s legitimate perspective. Not a single aspect of it stands on, or near, the side of love.
As people of conscience and of faith, in a world turned upside-down, and with this ever-rising scourge of racist violence, we must join the fray, we must sacrifice our comfort, else we continue to lose something much more dear: a land of true freedom, a nation of real liberty, and lives of integrity and compassion that we so dearly cherish.
