Lesson Eighteen: Be Calm When the Unthinkable Arrives
Minnesotans understood the assignment: do not be afraid.
What’s been happening in Minneapolis, and around the country, is not about immigration, it’s about power. We are witnessing a corrupt, authoritarian government use a crisis to consolidate power.
Throughout history, authoritarian regimes have taken advantage of the fear generated by a crisis, whether real or manufactured, to provoke the fight or flight response.
If the people fight, then the state may be justified in using violence to end violence. This has the effect of teaching a lesson to others that if they fight back, they will be hurt, thus preventing resistance. “Comply or die,” is the mantra of authoritarianism.
If the people retreat, then the state is emboldened to infringe upon more rights of more people. This teaches the people to obey in advance (see lesson one).
Remaining calm prevents us from being impulsive. It does not provoke retaliatory violence and it empowers others. It is slow; it is resistance without revolution.
This is what much of Jesus’s teaching was all about. His people were angry and on the verge of another insurrection.
Jesus knew that if they took arms against Rome, it would end badly (which is exactly what happened about 40 years later), so he offered an alternative path: love your enemies, turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, give the cloak off your back.
This wasn’t about submitting to abuse, it was a form of resistance to abusive power. It’s about revealing the truth about abuse by exposing the depravity for all to see.
It is showing up again, even after you got tear gassed the day before for asserting your rights.
Even if it changes nothing in the short term, truth is revealed, and that truth sets us free.
Authoritarian power is not derived by the consent of the governed, but through fear. When we refuse to live in fear, we disempower tyranny.
The Jesus way goes further. It offers an offensive strategy: love.
In Romans, Paul quoted Proverbs when he wrote, “‘…if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’”
Then he added, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
This parable came across my feed the other day written by Larry Powell and I think it captures this idea well for our times. He picks up the story of the sheriff from the movie Fargo and imagines what would happen if ICE showed up.
It’s called The Hotdish Uprising. As you can imagine, the sheriff leads the people of Fargo into overwhelming the ICE agents with hospitality.
Check it out here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0Bgio9QvFNJdtZKahSSBrW4Gr21VSQD3TFUVv8JQm5J4ea8eiqiahrc8Wd3trKpE7l&id=597898387
This is part 19 of a series inspired by my reading of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons Learned From the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder as part of my effort to offer Christian insight to those wondering what to do in this moment.