When You “CAN’T NOT” Speak Out – The Cost of Being Quiet
“Will they make us be slaves again? — I’m afraid they will take my mom and dad away from our family. — As a girl I don’t feel safe any longer. If sexual assault isn’t a big deal to them, guys think they can get away with it. — The president and politicians are such big liers. No one can trust them. — If this bill passes we’ll loose our funding to help 1,000 kids in our school district. — I’m hungry. Do you have any food I can have?”
Real statements, from real people (most of them kids), from my real world.
As a young pastor I learned the proper decorum for church business meetings was to be seen and not heard. Parishioners provided passionate input while the church staff sat politely and quietly. I later taught this dispassionate “best practice” to other young pastors. This I regret.
According to Wikipedia, ”First they came …” is a poem written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). It is about the cowardice of German intellectuals (including the church and clergy) following the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. Many variations and adaptations in the spirit of the original have been published in the English language. It deals with themes of persecution, guilt and responsibility. This is the poem written by Niemöller in its entirety. When he did finally speak out with others from the “Confessing Church” he too was sent away to a concentration camp for “re-education”.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Of recent days my social media feeds such as Facebook, Twitter and others are urging silence. Some go as far as warnings of de-friending or blocking those dabbling in what might be seen as political postings. And to these folks, many I call family members and true friends — respectfully this is about people. This is not political, this is personal!
If the proposed policies of our leaders tear at the fabric of our faith, if they blatantly cast aside the teachings of Jesus, if they defy all semblance of a nation that was founded on the principles of goodness and kindness and peacefulness and inclusion — than NO, I am sorry, I can not just post pictures of puppy dogs and personal updates on my family (though I love doing both)!
You see my real world involves real people who are in true peril. And to those who choose to, or somehow are not in “proximity” or relationship with the least and the lost and the lonely, I invite you into a world where kids and families are truly afraid about their future as reflected in the above true quotes.
And I confess — until these past few months I had rarely to never reached out to an elected official. I had never participated in a protest march. I had never been part of a grassroots activist organization. I had never stood on the steps of city hall and prayed. I had never truly sat and listened and felt the palatable fear of the disadvantaged. That has and is now changing.
And again, it’s not political, it’s personal. I feel like someone and some forces are intending to rock my world and the world of those I love — kids, the elderly, the poor, educators, social workers, those who love our one and only planet, and those outside the walls of the church hoping for people who embody the ways and teachings of Jesus.
Writer and journalist Gideon Litchfiled who is Jewish wrote this. “When I grew up in Britain, Martin Niemöller’s poem “First they came…” was a well-worn standard in any sort of Jewish education. It was plastered on posters issued by the Union of Jewish Students, printed in books and flyers, quoted at political meetings. I saw it so often that it became, for me, a secular version of the Shema, the prayer anyone with the slightest amount of Jewish upbringing knows by heart: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”
The Shema reminded the early Israelites that they were the people who, unlike their pagan neighbors, worshipped a single deity. Niemöller’s poem reminds modern Jews that, as a people who were almost wiped out, it’s our duty—as it is everyone’s duty—to speak up for other minorities under attack, lest we be next. The Shema sets us apart from other peoples; “First they came” binds us together again.
I love this imagery of “binding us together” for good. So how do we practically live out a faith and future that binds us together?
Here’s one way I might suggest and from my good friend Amber Shattuck at Communities in Schools of North Texas, our partner organization in schools. They do WONDERFUL work and yet have key funding on the chopping block for next year. This is an excerpt from an article describing the storm on the horizon.
The CEO of Communities In Schools (CIS), the national organization that works inside public district and charter schools, empowering at-risk students to achieve in school and succeed in life, today expressed his deep concern about the proposed budget released by President Trump and its potential effect on the nation’s most at-risk students. The spending blueprint released this morning includes $9.4 billion in cuts to the Department of Education.
“The President’s budget overlooks the fact that children in poverty require a network of support to overcome the adult-sized challenges they face,” said Communities In Schools President & CEO Dale Erquiaga. “Whether it’s after-school programs or programs that put all kids on the path to college, we owe it to our young people to demonstrate that we are all in this together for their future success.”
And so this day it is not political for me, it’s personal. This is an impacting organization who is doing right by kids who need our love and presence in their lives. THIS is what will make us a GREAT nation. This is a link on how to make your voice heard on this particular issue: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Communities-In-School-North-Texas/116664361692242?pnref=story
So friends, I hope you will understand. I “CAN’T NOT” speak. The least and the lost and the lonely often need others to be their voice. I am choosing to lend my voice to people. The cost of being silent is too great.
Live humbly and kind,
Jim
One Voice
