These have been days of dissonance highlighted by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday and the Presidential Inauguration falling on the same day. The holiday honors a man and a movment that engaged in a nonviolent struggle for racial justice with the goal of forming a Beloved Community that includes all people. The Presidential Inauguration and related events included rhetoric of division, fear, and retribution directed at members of the other major political party as well as the most vulnerable people in our society. This was followed by a flurry of Executive Orders including pardons for over a thousand people who were convicted of crimes related to the January 6 violent attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Other orders pave the way for mass deportations of undocumented people, attempt to end birth right citizenship, and end all federal programs of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The dissonance is deafening between the vision and work of Dr. King and the words and actions of this administration.
Amid all this dissonance, I was encouraged by clarity provided by two women leaders. On the King holiday, Dr. Bernice King, the daughter of Dr. King, spoke at the King Center in Atlanta. She made a clear and powerful connection between the nonviolent movement led by her father and the need to implement those same principles and practices in our current context – what she calls Nonviolence 365. Her “Call to Commemoration” is the first video posted below. Please take the time to hear and reflect on her words.
The second voice of clarity came the next day at the traditional Presidential Prayer Service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Bishop Mariann Budde preached a sermon that ended with a plea for the newly elected President to have mercy on the very people who are the ones most negatively impacted by his Executive Orders – immigrants, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. Her words were delivered in a calm, clear, nonjudgmental way. You can see the last part of her sermon in the second video posted below. In these difficult days of dissonance, I am grateful for the voices of clarity from these two women leaders. May we have the faith, courage, and persistance to be clear in our words and actions so that we truly live the way of Jesus in our time.