Looking for Justice

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

I am not one to stay glued to the news.  But last weekend I could not look away.

 

I had watched the unfolding events in Minnesota for the past month; with the death of Alex Pretti on Saturday, they gripped me.  I hit refresh see if something more had happened.  I followed the real time updates on the Post’s website.  Over the course of the day, I realized that my impulse was not curiosity as much as it was vigilance.

 

I, who never watch videos, watched the video.  I didn’t have much choice—the website had it on a loop.  I turned the sound down to make it more bearable.  But I couldn’t look away.

 

Like so many in our country, like so many of you, I was profoundly shaken by what I saw: a man walking with his hands in the air, then swarmed by ICE agents, then shot and killed.  Those moments became the capstone, the pinnacle of so much of the injustice around immigration enforcement in our country.

 

We Christians base our faith on the story of another man who died at the hands of the state.  We who would follow Christ must follow him to the cross, which means that we must reckon with colonization, unjust power, and the threat of violence.

 

What am I, as a Christian, to do?  What are we, as Christians, to do?

 

Our diocese has compiled resources for us.  We cannot give up on the ordinary work of discipleship.  We feed the poor.  We lift up our voices on behalf of others.  We give our resources to efforts for justice.

 

And yet this moment also demands more of us.  I believe that we have the particular work of witness.  Our task is to see and remember what is really happening.  It is to do as Alex Pettri did, as so many others around him did and still do.  Whether or not we have a phone in our hands, we record events.  We pay attention.  We watch.  We notice.  We cannot look away.  We refuse to look away.

 

There is a lot I don’t want to look at right now.  But I keep vigil—I believe we keep vigil together—in hope of justice.

 

Keep your eyes open.  It is our burden and our calling right now.

 

Yours in Christ,

Anne+