Soul Care for Weary Activists

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A potent word for this particular moment from Rev. Dr. Edgar Rivera Colón (above). The intro is re-posted here from Sojourners.

LIKE THE AUTHOR of the First Letter of John, we are living in a time for “testing the spirits.” That is, we must discern the forms of freedom, or unfreedom, offered to us as we read the signs of our historical moment — a time in which the catastrophic is often our daily bread.

Many of us have made homes in religious traditions where we have found collective love, care, community-building, and resilience. But so much of what passes as spiritual in the United States — churches who only see their work as therapeutic, prosperity gospel proponents, white evangelical nationalists, New Age movements — is commodification by other means. John warns us against false prophets who, through quick fixes and distorted spiritual comforts, foster division and confusion in the service of lucrative self-aggrandizement.

I am an ordained minister in the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and I work as a movement chaplain in Los Angeles. I was trained as a spiritual director, and I have been doing ministry with faith-rooted activists since 2016. My work is informed by my primary training as a medical anthropologist and community researcher. I know that Jesus said that we humans are of more value than many sparrows, but I’ve found that we are a lot like them. We need refuge and sustenance. We need shelter. We need to nest somewhere. But with whom shall we do this for the short and long haul? And where shall we build our nests?

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Edgar Rivera Colón, a movement chaplain, spiritual director, and medical anthropologist, teaches health justice and the history of racism in U.S. medical institutions at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.

I Live on the Launching End of the Bombs

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Another excerpt from Chris Hedges’ interview with Omar El-Akkad, the author of the newly released One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This (2025). Really, you must listen to the entire interview here.

I describe myself as a pacifist, as a fairly committed proponent of nonviolence. But I have the privilege of saying those words in a relative vacuum, a vacuum created by the fact that I live on the launching end of the bombs. I live within the heart of the empire. And so two things come into clarity that I wish hadn’t, but being as though they have, I need to address them.

The first is my right to tell anybody under a state of occupation how to resist that occupation, which is no right at all. I have zero right to tell anybody anywhere who lives under occupation and injustice how to resist that occupation and that injustice. Particularly when there is no acceptable form of resistance in the view of the institutions doing the oppressing. You engage in boycotts, that’s economic terrorism. You try to march peacefully, you are shot with the intent to kill and or maimed. You boycott cultural institutions, you are being illiberal. You take up arms, you are a terrorist, and you will be wiped out. All you can do is die. That is your only acceptable form of resistance. So first of all, I have absolutely no right to tell anybody how to resist their occupation or a state of injustice.

But second, I can sit here and I can tell you how committed I am to nonviolence. And I can believe that fully. But by virtue of the society I live in, by virtue of what my tax dollars are being used to do, I am one of the most violent human beings on earth. And I can’t simply brush that away and say, hey, I haven’t thrown a punch since I was 15 years old, I’m fully committed to non-violence. I am part of a society that exercises great industrial violence. And at the very least, I should acknowledge that. And that makes it much, much more difficult to then go around parading my views about how violence as a whole. Sure, it does, but I am actively engaged in it right now. That has been a very difficult thing to contend with and I wish I had a sort of easy wraparound answer for it, but I don’t.

Predicated on Endless Taking

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This is an excerpt from Chris Hedges’ interview with Omar El-Akkad, the author of the newly released One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This (2025).

A long time ago I was at a literary festival up in Canada and literary festivals in Canada started with land acknowledgements well before US festivals started doing the same. And we were sitting there, we were about to start our event and one of the organizers gets up and says, just before we begin, you know, I just want to take this time to acknowledge the really important acknowledgement that we are on unceded indigenous territory and to also thank the hedge fund that is sponsoring this event. And I was like, this is the most honest land acknowledgement I’ve ever heard.

I think of it, particularly this idea of after the fact acknowledgement as, and maybe this is particularly cynical of me, but I think of it as a continuation of theft. You steal land, you steal lives, and what’s left to steal at the end but a narrative? The narrative that absolves all that came before. You know, when I wrote the title of this book when I was first thinking about it, I wasn’t thinking in terms of weeks or even years. I was thinking if I’m fortunate enough to live the average lifespan in this part of the world, maybe by the end of my life, I’ll be watching a poetry reading in Tel Aviv that begins with a land acknowledgement. I think it’s a fundamental part of any system of endless taking, which, you know, colonialism and whatever stage of capitalism we’re in are fundamentally part of. There are very few systems as well-versed in after-the-fact shame and after-the-fact guilt as the ones that are predicated on endless taking.

And you see it all over the place. I mean, there’s an incredible poetry collection by a Layli Long Soldier called “Whereas,” which is all about sort of repurposing and undermining a U.S. government declaration that basically said, sorry about all that genocide, indigenous people, sorry about the theft. And it was passed in the most sort of bland manner hundreds of years after the fact. And that is such an important part of the entire project. We can all be sorry afterwards. The taking happens now and the apology comes later. It’s a hallmark of every colonial society.

The thing that makes it so dangerous to acknowledge right now is that we’re not after the fact. We’re in the middle of the fact. And so the people who disagree with the content of this book or with the assertion of that title are going to disagree vehemently until one day they don’t have to. And then they’re going to acknowledge it and there will be no repercussions and we can sit around and listen to a very flowery land acknowledgement when it’s too late to do anything about it.

The Spiritual Property of the People

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Today is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. This is a piece by Ajamu Baraka, re-posted from Black Agenda Report.

Every year, people around the world honor Malcolm X. Though he was taken from us prematurely, his memory and impact remain. With that memory, there is a mandate that we accept and carry on the legacy of his politics and the others who are the heart of the Black Radical Tradition. 

“The price to make others respect your human rights is death. You have to be ready to die… it’s time for you and me now to let the world know how peaceful we are, how well-meaning we are, how law-abiding we wish to be. But at the same time, we have to let the same world know we’ll blow their world sky-high if we’re not respected and recognized and treated the same as other human beings are treated.”  (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X) 

“…to be committed to justice we must believe that ethics matter, that it is vital to have a system of shared morality.” (Bell Hooks)  

On a cold New York afternoon in Harlem February 21, 1965, “Don’t Do it,” were the last words that the world heard from the voice of El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, before the assassins opened fire with a barrage of bullets that would take Malcolm away from us physically.  

So we come every year to commemorate February 21, the day Malcolm was added to the long list of the great African anti-colonial fighters our struggle produced in the ongoing battle against the slavers and colonizers that spilled out of Europe in 1492 to stain human history with their unprecedented savagery. 

Continue reading “The Spiritual Property of the People” →

Level Ground

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

By Ched Myers, a reflection on Luke 6:17-26, re-posted from Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries. We are eagerly awaiting the release of Ched’s newest book on Luke’s Gospel Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy (above) in early April. Pre-Order it here.

In the gospel text for the Sixth Sunday in Epiphany, Luke brings Matthew’s Sermon on the  Mount down to “level ground.” Its rhetorical fire “raises up” the poor and “brings down” the rich, just as the Magnificat promised.  

David King’s 2022 Reclaiming the Radical Economic Message of Luke is one of the few other contemporary studies of Luke’s radical economics out there. He points out that Jesus’ opening lines to the Sermon on the Plain contains curses which parallel the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Plain. “Damn you rich! You already have your consolation. Damn you who are well-fed now! You will know hunger”… It is part of the standard theme of reversal, but it is also an acknowledgement of God’s disdain for wealth.

As such, it is truly a text of terror for contemporary middle class readers. (For a recent sermon that faces squarely the “discomfort” this text brings to middle class ears, see here).

Continue reading “Level Ground” →

Declining Empire

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire1 Comment

By Dr. Shea Howell, re-posted from the Boggs Center (above)

Relationships around the globe are shifting rapidly. These shifts are not because of Donald Trump.  Although his policies are likely to make things worse for everyone, the reality is that the American Empire is declining.  All the bluster over tariffs  and territorial expansion from Greenland to Gaza will not restore it. The ability of the U.S.A. to dominate others has been diminished by economic and political realities far beyond this current administration.  Whatever moral influence we represented was lost long ago. The cruel ending of humanitarian aid is the latest act of a country that has given up all sense of compassion.

The US Empire emerged out of the devastation of WWII. With the industries of Europe and Japan destroyed, US manufacturing, strengthened by war, dominated the production of consumer goods. People drove US cars, listened to US radios, watched US TVs, depended on US refrigerators, washing machines, lamps and gadgets of all sorts. Movies made in the USA entertained audiences everywhere. But gradually, industries in Europe and Japan rebuilt. And more importantly, manufacturing industries left the USA. Following the logic of capitalist production, companies pursued lower wages and weak environmental controls. And nations began to organize in their own interests.

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White Supremacy’s Epigenetic Survival Response

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By Dr. Stacey Patton, re-posted from social media with permission. Dr. Patton is research associate professor at Morgan State University and teaches journalism at Howard University. She is posting these brilliant Black History Month mini-lectures on her Facebook account. Follow her here.

Black History Month 2025 Mini-Lecture #3

I really need Y’all to stop getting upset over the dismantling of DEI initiatives. I need Y’all to shift your thinking about what’s really behind the backlash.

The dismantling isn’t just a political move. Hold your drink . . . The dismantling of DEI is a BIOLOGICAL, EPIGENETICALLY-DRIVEN response to a perceived existential threat among conservatives and rabid white supremacists. This is why DEI isn’t just being resisted, it’s being attacked with a SURVIVAL-LEVEL intensity.

First, let’s start with Donald Trump, how he embodies this moment, and why the MAJORITY of white people in America voted for him.

Trump is the living embodiment of white supremacy’s epigenetic survival response. He is a man whose every action reflects the deep, inherited panic of a system that senses its own decline. His obsession with dominance, his pathological need for control, his paranoia about “replacement,” and his compulsive, irrational aggression are not just deviant personality traits. No, they are the INSTINCTIVE BEHAVIORS of a power structure in BIOLOGICAL DISTRESS.

Let the church say, BIOLOGICAL DISTRESS.

Continue reading “White Supremacy’s Epigenetic Survival Response” →

The Bipartisan Imperialism that led to this Moment

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By Rev. Redeem G. Robinson (above), re-posted with permission from his Substack newsletter. Read more about his work at holytrouble.com.

Donald Trump has openly declared that the U.S. will take over Gaza, a proposal that amounts to nothing short of ethnic cleansing. Yet, rather than directing their outrage at the bipartisan imperialism that led to this moment, many Democrats have instead chosen to lash out at Jill Stein and third-party voters on social media. Their response is not a condemnation of Trump’s genocidal plans, nor is it an admission of how the Biden administration or previous administrations paved the way for this atrocity. Instead, their first reaction is a smug “We told you Trump was worse.”

This is the defining feature of neoliberal politics: a refusal to take responsibility for their complicity in imperialism, and then guilt those who refuse to “fall in line.” But let’s be real—Trump’s plan to take over Gaza didn’t just pop up out of no where. It is an extension of the genocidal policies already in place under Biden, who has armed Israel as it massacres hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. To act as though Trump’s rhetoric is some shocking departure from the status quo is pure gaslighting.

For months, the Biden administration has supplied Israel with weapons, and unwavering support as it bombs Gaza to clear it out for “development.” The U.S. vetoed multiple ceasefire resolutions, ensured that humanitarian aid was blocked or delayed, and rewarded Netanyahu’s war crimes with more military funding and even welcomed him with applause in Congress. Even as videos of starving children, children with missing limbs, and mass graves circulated globally, Biden stood firm in his defense of Israel’s so-called right to defend itself. Kamala Harris’ pathetic attempt to call for “pauses” in the genocide while continuing to arm the perpetrators should be a clear indication that this administration has never cared about Palestinian lives. Also, let’s not act like we forgot that the Palestinian voices were blocked and excluded at the Democratic National Convention. 

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RIP Kiah Duggins

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RIP Kiah Duggins (above), civil rights lawyer, legal scholar and professor at Howard University. She was on the plane that crashed in DC last week. Sumayya Saleh tweeted that Duggins was “an unapologetic radical, abolitionist, anti-Zionist movement lawyer whose North Star was Black liberation and prosperity.”

You can soak up the brilliance of Duggins debating bail reform here. To honor her, we are re-posting a piece she wrote with Bina Ahmad below. It was originally posted in The Appeal. Ahmad and Duggins argue for the abolition of police dogs, digging into the history of how they were used to hunt those who ran away from slavery.

The Thirteenth Amendment purported to abolish chattel slavery, along with what an 1883 Supreme Court decision called its “badges and incidents.” But the amendment left some infamous carve-outs: Namely, it remains legal to enslave people who have been convicted of a crime. But there is another remaining “badge and incident” of slavery that we must uproot: the police’s use of K9 units. The police’s practice of using dogs to attack human beings derives from enslavers’ practice of using slave hounds to attack enslaved people. This coercive history harms human beings and animals in order to perpetuate the racial and economic interests of people in power. One way we can honor the Thirteenth Amendment’s promise to rid our society of slavery—all of its badges and incidents—is by getting dogs out of policing.

State-sanctioned canine attacks–like those implemented by modern police canine units–were common in chattel slavery. Legal scholar Madalyn Wasilczuk speaks of how white enslavers “conceived of an enslaved person’s attempt to obtain freedom as a type of high-value property theft, appropriately recaptured with brute force.” The use of dog attacks to preserve enslavers’ economic interests was legal, and thus not a rare act committed by a few bigots. Wasilczuk explains that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 federally legalized slave patrols’ ability to seize slaves in free states, often accompanied by hunting dogs—and the act was later nicknamed “the Bloodhound Bill” as a result. Legal scholar Michael Swistara stresses that these dog attacks were intentionally gruesome. Swistara explains how, as early as the 1700s, records show enslavers “bred Cuban bloodhounds with the explicit purpose of raising them to enact violence against Black people” and “the scars of dog bites were so common that they” were physical badges of slavery, becoming “marks used to identify [Black] escapees in advertisements for rewards.”

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