It should be simple enough to say,
"If you are in a church where it's not safe to preach,
'keeping people in concentration camps is wrong'
'threatening to feed immigrants to alligators is wrong'
'depriving impoverished people of food and healthcare is wrong'
'depriving transgender people of their civil rights is wrong'
(etc.),
then go find yourself another church."
And yet,
Even in the half-dozen most moderate, liberal, progressive denominations we have in this country,
I'm not sure a preacher could preach *any* of this plainly,
without finding themselves in hot water,
in most congregations.
And further, despite whatever social policies were held
by the national bodies of these denominations,
the response would likely be from whichever bishop,
executive presbyter, conference staff, or district superintendent:
'You've got to think of your job security, and family.'
'Remember you've got folks on both sides of the aisle here.'
'Try to say things without saying them quite so...outright.'
Nearly a century after the Church in Europe
fell in line with the Nazi regime,
and the vast majority of pastors and professors
traded the cost of discipleship to Jesus
for the relative comforts of loyalty to Empire,
I'm not sure our present denominational structures
are any more ready to meet the challenge of this age
in pulpit and pew.
We may indeed be too beholden to
position and pension,
salary and station,
properties and endowments,
to do otherwise.
--
We live in a moment where so many thousands
of brilliant, gifted, conscientious people--
academics, scientists, doctors,
social service agency and nonprofit employees,
government and administrative employees
of every imaginable department--
many of whom had dedicated their lives
to trying to do the right things,
to make the most ethical decisions possible,
to serve the agencies and programs they served--
now find themselves without employment.
This is also true of many in the military
who have been recently let go for similar reasons.
There are real economic costs
to maintaining individual integrity
when systemic integrity fails.
However, when compromised systems
attempt to shame those who will not be compromised,
there is no shame in resigning or being fired.
Sometimes, as I often reflect upon Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's 'Letter From A Birmingham Jail,' which was itself a response to a letter of concern or condemnation from his fellow clergy...
I wonder whatever happened to those other clergy,
who wanted him to tone it down and get back in line.
Stay strong, fellow clergy,
who speak up in real life and who get involved in real ways,
and persevere, even when you are in hot water.
These times are not so unprecedented.
We were here, nearly a century ago;
and about 75 years ago;
and about a half-century ago as well,
and in dozens of other less-well-known ways.
The path ahead may not be comfortable;
it may not be middle-class;
it may involve ridicule
and perhaps even jail cells or worse.
Some of us have seen the inside of jail cells before.
We are in a good company of saints, and a cloud of witnesses.
