At the recent called gathering of hundreds of the military’s highest ranking officers, President Trump told them to be ready to engage in “the war within.” By this he meant deploying troops to some of our nation’s largest cities supposedly to address “out of control violent crime” and to assist federal agents with detaining and deporting “the worst of the worst” undocumented people. The reality is that violent crime in most of those cities was already down, and most of the undocumented people who are snatched away from their families and communities have no criminal record. A horrific example of the war within occurred in Chicago when hundreds of federal agents descended on an apartment building in the middle of the night in a military style raid. They ransacked many units and forced residents into the street for hours including children some of whom were naked and zip tied. Some 37 undocumented people were arrested, and all the residents were traumatized. As with other such raids in the “war within,” those attacked were brown and black people including both citizens and undocumented people. The first video posted below features both the raid on the Chicago apartment building and several other appalling examples of this heartless and unnecessary “war within.” I have yet to see an example of white people targeted in a similar way.
In the face of such brutality, leaders of local faith communities are standing up to resist this injustice. In Chicago, the historically black Trinity United Church of Christ is among them. The second video posted below features The Rev. Otis Moss III calling his congregation to “faith over fear.” His words apply not only to those communities being directly targeted. All of us who identify as followers of Jesus are called to choose faith over fear by nonviolently resisting the attacks against our sisters and brothers targeted by this misguided and unjust “war within.” As Dr. King said decades ago, “the only weapon we have in our hands is the weapon of protest.” By choosing faith over fear and using our voices and bodies to nonviolently resist, we will win “the war within” in a way that is good for all of us.