To everything there is a season, Ecclesiastes says, including a time to be silent and a time to speak.
That’s sage advice in our present moment, as recent conversations with two friends illustrate.
I’m one of the lucky ones who has a platform to speak my mind and to speak truth amid the lies of both the MAGA movement and fundamentalism. Not everyone is so fortunate — and sometimes for good reason.
A heartfelt conversation with a former colleague in denominational journalism jarred me into awareness first. This colleague spent more than a few years in a job he hated with an organization that didn’t appreciate his gifts. He endured because he had nowhere else to go and had two children to get through college.
Mark Wingfield
He did what he could where he was, and he did make a difference. He managed to keep things from being worse than they would have been. No doubt that’s the sentiment of many a federal employee right now too.
Not all of us have the luxury of boldly confronting the powers that be. Some of us, instead, have to work inside the system to hold the line and protect others from harm.
That’s the sentiment of an email received this morning from a pastor friend in North Carolina who had read my piece about what’s going on in Charlotte with ICE and Customs and Border Patrol swooping brown-skinned people off the street without warrants.
In that article I quoted activist John Pavlovitz, who advised anyone in North Carolina in a church not protesting ICE to leave that church and find one that really follows Jesus.
“What people like John Pavlovitz need to understand is that some of us need to stay quiet,” the pastor wrote. “I have a large Spanish-speaking contingency within my congregation. Many are undocumented. They are terrified, I am terrified, and I spent all yesterday morning ‘manning’ the doors to the building in which they worship because I wanted to head off an ICE raid in case they attempted to carry one out. This seems a particular risk for us because we are already well-known for having a Latino ministry.
“I want to draw the least attention to my church as possible. So no, I am not protesting.”
“Today, I spent much of my day calling my Latino members to see if they needed someone to buy their family groceries because they were too afraid to leave their houses and calling a specially selected group of Anglo church members to see if they would help both run the errands and cover the cost of the groceries. I hope to do the shopping at Latino-owned grocery stores because I know their businesses are suffering.
“But because I know they are likely targets for ICE surveillance, I have decided I will not take the groceries directly from the store to the families who need them. I am worried I might be tailed and possibly lead ICE agents to the houses of the vulnerable. So, I plan to take the groceries first to my home, and then wait hours, probably until well after dark, in hopes of remaining under the radar.”
Then my pastor friend made this big point: “For these reasons and others, the LAST THING I need to do for my people is make myself a spectacle. I want to draw the least attention to my church as possible. So no, I am not protesting. I am not posting on social media. I am not going ‘public’ with my horror and disdain for the tragedy that is taking place. And that is how I am currently loving my brown neighbors.”
There’s nothing wrong with being loud, the pastor said. “For those who do not risk others harm by doing so, their loud voices are absolutely necessary. But my conscience is telling me to keep my voice quiet, at least on public platforms, so that I may better serve my church members who do not need me to draw attention to them.”
These are important words for us to acknowledge. Activism takes multiple forms — some loud and some quiet. What matters right now is that we all do something and don’t just sit at home lamenting the horrors.
The key part of “activism” is to be active — whether with words or with strategic silence.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of the book Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves.
Related article:
Former Charlotte mayor fears, ‘If you look brown, you’re going down’ | Analysis by Mark Wingfield