The Gospel Shows How We Can Oppose Musk-Trump's Shock And Scare

I DON'T HAVE THE TIME to write any commentary on it but this article, again from the NCR, is too important to miss:

Among the apparent aims of this barrage of action is the instillation of fear and the resultant panoptic effect on these populations. In time, those in power do not need to issue specific threats or deploy explicit coercive techniques, because the oppressed will self-censor and preemptively behave in a manner they believe is desired by the powerful. This is to let fear prevail over justice and moral fortitude.

We are seeing this increase in fear in many sectors today from leadership in higher education and religious congregations to major corporations and media outlets. There is a chilling effect that haunts many institutions and organizations across all corners of our society today, which has led to preemptive policy and title changes, website scrubbing, program cancelation and the laying off of personnel. 

So, what can be done?

Drawing on the biblical witness of Jesus Christ in the gospels, Thurman emphasizes the importance of facing fear directly and developing an authentically Christian spirituality. The proposal is simple, but the cost may be great. It starts, Thurman says, with embracing one's identity as a beloved child of God. This is the beginning of rightly ordering one's perspective and relationship to other people, especially those deploying power in harmful ways.

Thurman explains that if a person reorients themselves to reflect the gospel call to trust God and embrace justice and peace, then one "recognizes at once that to fear a man, whatever may be that man's power over him, is a basic denial of the integrity of his very life. It lifts that mere man to a place of pre-eminence that belongs to God and to God alone."

In other words, to give these bad faith actors this much power is to commit a form of spiritual idolatry by giving to them what ought to be reserved for God alone. As true as this is, it does not mean it is easy or without cost. Thurman continues:

    To the child of God, a scale of values becomes available by which men are measured and their true significance is determined. Even the threat of violence, with the possibility of death that it carries is recognized for what it is — merely the threat of violence with a death potential. Such a man recognizes that death cannot possibly be the worst thing in the world. There are some things that are worse than death. To deny one's integrity of personality in the presence of the human challenge is one of those things.

Indeed, there are many people who are tempted to surrender their integrity out of fear for what the consequences might be for standing up, speaking out and doing what is right and just. 

Read the whole thing, it's always better to act than it is to just wring our hands.   Realizing that you are eventually left with nothing to lose except your soul is the first step to finding it.