You guys, honestly, I have started half a dozen posts over the past couple of weeks but deleted or abandoned them all.
All I know is this:
We are the people who are supposed to be experts in spiritual practice, so let’s show forth as those people. If spiritual practice has any benefit to the attainment of wisdom and groundedness in times of trauma and grief, we should be evidence of that.
Are you evidence of deep spiritual practice or evidence of frantic opinionating?
Are you a purveyor of wisdom or are you competing in the #StayWoke Olympics?
People can tell the difference.
We are the people who have local ministries and contexts. Focus there.
When my president says, “I know America,” I believe him. When one of us says it, I say, “Please sit down.”
Stay in your lane, minor prophet.
If you do not have a relationship with your local law enforcement and public safety officials, why not? You guys are the ones who literally know where the bodies are buried. You should have a good working relationship. It is entirely possible to work toward the reforming of our criminal justice system and accountability in policing without making it personal.
Remember how defensive you felt when it became known that a significant number of clergy molest children and commit sexual misconduct with adults. You were embarrassed to be associated with the abusers and you worked within your churches and houses of worship to learn, to listen, to study, and to implement policies that would protect more people from becoming victims of ordained predators.
If your conscience compels you to preach the abolition of the police in America, I support your right to do that, but please be aware of the language that gets out from your section of the movement. I heard several people say over the past few weeks that they were horrified and alarmed by liberal clergy calls to “purge” the United States of police. I am glad that I was able to say that that was an unfortunate, inflammatory translation for what is, in fact, a support of radical reform of the criminal justice system and policing and that such people use the language of “abolition,” not “purging.” Neither the Black Lives Matter movement nor any reasonable people want any violence to come to anyone, with badge or without.
Congratulations to those of you who have been working together with the law enforcement and public safety leaders where you are. I know that this is often not easy. I think we need to collect more stories about where and how it works well. The Reverend Kathy Schmitz, a Unitarian Universalist minister in Orlando, Florida, made such an impression on me when she recently said that one of the reasons the community response to the Pulse murders was so strong and coordinated is because “none of us were meeting each other for the first time.”
I wish you strength, peace way down deep, wisdom and lots of iced tea.