God’s Wall Of Protection

Chickadees, this is so important as a follow-up to my last post about the way we show up to challenge empire. I got permission to share this letter with you:

Dear Clergy,

The Latina immigrant women from —, —- and —- parishes met this past week to debrief and evaluate the action they imagined, planned, and executed at the ICE offices on Wednesday February 17th.

At the top of their list of what went really well was clergy participation. We had 21 clergy present!

The women spoke of feeling blessed by all of you. They said that your presence with them, at the very geographic center of the oppression and injustice they live with every day, was a symbol that God stood with them.

From the moment one of the women suggested we protest at ICE, they were afraid and every week as we met to prepare all the details, they started each meeting with a prayer for courage. They asked God to keep them and all the immigrants who attended safe.

In you, their prayers were answered. They saw you as God’s wall of protection surrounding them.

We thank you for standing with ECCO’s immigrant leaders.

With deep gratitude,

Alexandra and Rabbi Margie

After I read this, I sat in silence for a long time.
For me, attending that protest was another day in ministry. That is not to say that it didn’t impress me as being important or serious, but it was just another space I entered as a representative of the God of my faith tradition and the ethical commitments of my congregation.

That day, I got up, walked the dog, did some work at home, showered, dressed, did my hair and make-up, and clipped on my clericals. I made sure my phone was charged, entered the address of the Immigration Enforcement building into my GPS, and drove 40 or so minutes to join the action. I did not feel that I had contributed much, but I know how important it is to show up.

While there, I did keep my eye on the optics of the protest and helped a man holding an American flag to the front of the crowd so that his big, rippling stars and stripes would be visible to the cameras.

It certainly did not occur to me that my presence would feel like God’s wall of protection around women who live in fear that they or their loved ones who live and work in the county might be kidnapped at any time, detained or deported.

I saw the ICE security guys looking at us. I know how we looked to them. They are not demons, but they work for and protect the interests of empire.

Sometimes, when I think about dyeing my hair entirely robin’s egg blue because it’s so cool, I think about how often I am called upon to stand in the place of confronting empire, and I just know deep down that it is incredibly easy to write me off as “alternative” (artsy, naive, flaky, powerless) if I do that.

So I stick with pearl earrings and a chignon and a black suit and a pointy wedge shoe and a wool overcoat partly so I can look across the divide at those guys in uniform and fix them with a steady gaze and know that when they look back at me, the first thing they will see is my eyes, and my collar, and not my hair.

This is a choice I make. In these times, it seems more and more important that I dress in a way that indicates equal status with those in power. I can, so I do.
They’re in uniform, I’m in uniform.
They’re groomed and shined to military precision, so will I take the time to brush the dog hair off my wool coat and spray my hair.

If I want to be cute and creative, I can do that when I’m not confronting empire.
This may be why I recently bought a dress with a CANDY AND SNACKS pattern on it.