ADOPT AN ACTIVIST

from Gregory Wilson

 Helen and I are resting the day after our involvement of the two day Second Annual “Our Children, Climate, Faith” Symposium. This year our theme was activism and connecting to others while building a network of groups and people that are working together, moving in the direction of a more just and sustainable society and culture. I include culture, as our guiding stories are shifting in our direction. Two of the speakers, Hannah Morgan and Tim DeChristopher, who are both young front line activists who have been arrested for pushing our society in the direction we are also moving toward. However most of us are working toward this direction for cultural transformation from more comfortable seats than jail or 60 feet up in a tree. One of the messages I gleaned from being with both Hannah and Tim (they did not say this directly) was that they have given up the traditional pattern of young adults moving into the work force, establishing an economic level which provides stability, comfort, identity and then protesting. They have put their life and lives at times in direct confrontation with the forces that work against a just and peaceful society; and this is their way of life. They are serving the cause that most of us support. In other words they are moving our culture in the direction we want it to go. And they are doing this at times without funds and alone. They are present and accounted for where the culture of violence, war, poverty, wealth accumulation, and environmental destruction is advancing. They're working to hold that line, just as Joanna Macy, Starhawk, and Vandana Shiva call us to hold that line in defense of the earth.

As a people steeped in the teachings of Henry David Thoreau, following his teachings on Civil Disobedience, we know that by paying taxes we are part of the machine that implements injustice and economic patterns that are oppressive and destructive to the planet; so I quote our ancestor Elder, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.”

The question; do we as members of a religious community and non-religious communities have a moral obligation to support those on the front lines of moving our culture in the direction we also are working to move? This is central to our social justice work. Actualizing this moral obligation requires our local communities to be part of the supply line to support our communities' front line members as they confront the injustices of our time, and to reinforce them when needed. At the Symposium, I suggested that local groups in this struggle need to “adopt an activist”. I look forward to furthering our work to transform our society and our selves to a more just and kinder culture.