Meeting in Philadelphia, birth city of the United States, scholars and ministers from across the United States gathered Feb. 27-28 to discuss “A Vision for Liberating Our Democracy.” The event hosted by United Lutheran Seminary specifically examined “the religious and racialized roots of American democracy.”
With explicit references to increasing impacts of gerrymandering and policies of what one speaker insisted be called the “Trump regime” rather than administration, speakers and attendees sought to address how to reverse the nation’s path into authoritarianism.
The second day of the event featured a panel discussion led by four Black scholars, titled “The Prophetic Witness of the Oppressed.”
Teresa Smallwood
Teresa Smallwood, vice president, dean and professor of public theology at ULS, established the tone with an assembly-rousing call: “If there is a frontline company of (the Jesus movement), we have to be foot soldiers. … After Jesus spent 40 days (in the wilderness), he came out full of the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you: That fulness can break down all the strongholds we fight!”
Mark Thompson, a minister, broadcaster, activist and a Ph.D. student at ULS, announced he and others would be forming a website to continue the conversation, citing the need to move such dialogues out of the classroom and to the public.
Mark Thompson
“Many people do not know what to do at this moment,” he said. “People are intimidated. I’m sure some of you even know people who you’ve worked with for years that you thought would know what to do. But they are holding out in this moment of fascism and authoritarianism, whatever this is, and distraction. And, so, it’s upon us to help.”
Raymond Winbush serves as research professor and director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. When he asks what percentage of the world population is classified as white, he typically gets an answer of 40%, he said. Once when addressing a group of Royal Canadian Mounted Police, an officer angrily insisted the answer was 80%.
Raymond Winbush
The correct answer, according to Worldmetrics, is 16%. Less than two in 10 people living in the world today are Caucasian.
Naomi Washington-Leapheart serves as an adjunct faculty member of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and has been faith outreach director at the National LGBTQ Task Force. She spoke to the group about the need to be prophetic.
“When we say prophetic, many of us picture bold speech, strong language, moral clarity. But the prophetic tradition is not merely about tone. It’s about location,” she said. “The prophets of Scripture were not commentators; they were people whose lives were entangled with the violence they were naming. Amos was a laborer. Jeremiah was weary and furious. Mary was a colonized teenager, announcing the toppling of thrones. Jesus was executed by the state. Prophetic speech does not descend from above, it erupts from beneath.”
She added: “Prophetic speech does not float above suffering, it erupts from within suffering. The oppressed are not the audience of prophecy, they are its authors.”
She told of recently being in a room with faith leaders preparing for the possibility of an ICE incursion. “They weren’t preparing right statements,” she said. “They weren’t preparing to host a panel — even as I sit here on a panel. They were preparing to refuse cooperation. They were strategizing about how to stop deportations in their neighborhood. They were mapping which city council members could be pressured. The were mapping which congregations could be sanctuary. They were planning a public action. Practicing what they would say if federal agents came to the door.
“There was fear in the room. And there was resolve in the room. Nobody used the word ‘prophetic.’ Nobody in the room would call themselves a prophet. But that was prophetic public witness. … It’s not moral commentary from a safe distance.”
Washington-Leaphart went on to speak of the “downward mobility of God” to meet people at the places of their pain and the responsibility of servants of God do likewise.
“The communities most vulnerable to ICE are already organizing (and training). … They’re not waiting for permission. They’re not waiting for the grant to come in. They’re not waiting for tenure. So the question for institutions like ours is not whether prophetic witness exists. It does. The question is whether we are going to continue to admire it or materially align ourselves with it.”