At the 1963 March on Washington, standing at the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. emphasized the stark choice before the American people. “It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment,” King said. He meant it literally. In 1964 and 1965 when the SCLC, SNCC and CORE launched major voter registration campaigns throughout the south, activists were terrorized by violence, and many were murdered. Dr. King called them “the sacred martyrs”. They died to secure the right to vote for all of us.
As we vote, the urgency of the moment requires that we honestly and clearly assess the stakes, and that we do what we can to prepare for various scenarios in which our nation might face a grave crisis.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last book, published in 1967 — Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? — warns us that we must be vigilant against what he called “the white backlash” against the legislative, social and economic achievements of the civil rights and welfare rights movements. The MAGA movement and its leader, and the millions of Americans who will vote for him and fiercely defend him, no matter what happens tomorrow, represent this reactionary backlash in the most radical and vicious form since Dr. King’s death.
Remaining upright through the chaos ahead
At this moment of American history, we stand at the precipice. Whatever happens tomorrow, we must harness our moral strength to weather the chaos that appears likely to ensue.
If Trump loses he will declare himself the victor and mobilize efforts to undermine and reverse confirmation of his opponent’s victory in the electoral college in a coup attempt waged in the courts, the state electoral commissions, social media, and in the streets. This might be the best we can hope for — a period of short-term chaos, likely to include violence from Trump’s allies. If we are strong enough to stand upright through this chaos, we will not be blindsided. If there is another coup attempt, as our nation experienced on January 6, 2021, we must come together across all sectors of American society to defeat it again through the application of organized, disciplined nonviolence. With vigilance, and adherence to rule of law, we will get through this crisis. There will be further crises ahead no matter what. But Kamala Harris will be inaugurated as President of the United States on January 20, 2025.
If Trump wins, he will wield chaos as executive policy throughout his second term in office by dismantling the civil service, incapacitating administrative agencies, prosecuting political enemies, repressing opposition, initiating mass deportations, removing the U.S. from international institutions and treaties, ending climate regulation and investment, protecting the fossil fuel industry, and deploying military units in American cities against those who protest or stand in the way. Violence is the core of the Trump/MAGA movement, and we cannot allow that violence to destroy all that is good in our society. A Trump victory would require all of us who care about democracy, human rights and rule of law to do join and support nonviolent resistance on a mass scale as best we can according to the reality of our personal strength, circumstances and responsibilities.
I pray that it does not come to that. I pray that Martin Luther King, Jr. was right in his faith that the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. Dr. King was citing the abolitionist Unitarian minister Theodore Parker — and slavery was indeed abolished, after four centuries of struggle and blood. But history does not bend on its own accord. We must bend it, with steadfast courage, so that our children and our children’s children can keep bending it more.
Gustavo Gutiérrez, ¡presente!
The Peruvian Dominican priest Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez died on October 22. Perhaps his legacy can buoy us, and help keep us steady, through the turbulent period ahead.
Alongside Archbishop Óscar Romero, Fr. Gutiérrez (affectionately known as Fr. Gustavo) was arguably the most important Latin American priest of the past century, with the exception of Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio who as Pope Francis elevated Fr. Gustavo’s “teología de la liberación,” initially dismissed as revolutionary, into the core doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Fr. Gustavo spent his life among the poorest of his neighbors, including tens of thousands struggling to survive and provide for their families in the Lima’s impoverished Rímac barrio of Lima without access to decent shelter, clean water or basic security. He founded and led the Bartolemé de Las Casas Institute to address the needs of community members in Rimac and adjacent barrios. Gustavo’s theology insisted upon “a preferential option for the poor” as a fundamental moral obligation and public policy imperative. The poor and marginalized cannot wait to be rewarded in heaven, he insisted, and thus any form of Christianity that defers justice to the afterlife is a moral betrayal. Poverty is an evil institution resulting from structural injustice, and embedded in violence, like slavery. And like slavery we can and must abolish it. All people must have houses to live in, healthy food to eat, medical care, and all other human rights. On the path to poverty eradication, Fr. Gustavo called for solidarity with the poor and marginalized in our lives every day, solidarity that is meaningless without a life together with our poorest brothers and sisters in close proximity, true accompaniment and mutual friendship. “We love God by loving our neighbor,” Fr. Gutiérrez said. “Only then will God be with us.”
I keep by my desk an inspiring book, In the Company of the Poor: Conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, edited by Michael Griffin and Jennie Weiss Block (Orbis, 2013). Readers of this blog know of my deep admiration for Dr. Farmer, who died in February 2022. See “To save one person is to save the world: in memory of Paul Farmer, ” February 22, 2022.
Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo lived with dedication to love of neighbor in action every day.
“If I define my neighbor as the one I must go out to look for, on the highways and the byways, in the factories and the slums, on the farms and in the mines – then my world changes, Fr. Gustavo wrote.
But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different world.”
Gustavo Gutiérrez, The Power of the Poor in History.
I recently saw a wonderful performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In the penultimate scene, Prince Tamino must endure trials in which he can survive only by walking a narrow path through immense danger: on one side of the path he is threatened by death by fire, on one side, death by drowning. Tamino is able to walk calmly, with upright steadiness, unscathed by fire or water, protected by the music of the flute he plays as he takes each step. Perhaps Gustavo’s legacy can remind us that love of neighbor and faith in human liberation can be the magic flute that can help us walk calmly, with steady faith, through the trials that await us.
I close with the concluding prayer from Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical letter Laudato si’ which suggests Fr. Gustavo’s deep influence:
“God of love, show us our place in this world
as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth,
for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money
that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
and care for this world in which we live.
The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life,
to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom
of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!
Amen.
Jonathan D. Greenberg
