What do we do with the homophobes, the race-baiters, the people passing legislation to literally White-wash the Black history taught in our schools, keep transgender people from getting the surgery they need, and even bAn drag shows?
Former First Lady Michelle Obama gets a lot of criticism for saying, “When they go low, we go high.” That principle, however, is rooted in one of Jesus’ core teachings: “I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-31)
Jesus often comes off as hyperbolic. (Think of when he says that if your eye should cause you to sin, pull it out.) But this serves to underscore the importance of the principle. He’s not saying that people who demean us, disrespect us, and rob us of both our material well-being and our emotional and spiritual well-being should be let off the hook. What he’s saying is don’t be like them. Don’t perpetuate the cycle. Break it. There is power in responding to inhumanity with the kind of love that Jesus showed by, as a human, going to the extreme of giving his life on the cross for the rest of humanity. That principle not only applies to our interpersonal relationships but also to systems and structures that govern or support us.
This is hard. The natural impulse of hurt people is to hurt back. If someone takes something from us, we don’t simply want to take back what is being stolen; we want to inflict punishment. That’s what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. found so challenging in being a leader of a nonviolent civil rights movement. The anger—even rage—at racism is justified. But King believed that redemption and reconciliation is impossible if anger is the primary response. On the other hand, love is the only thing that makes healing possible. It is the pathway from revenge to accountability and true reparative justice.
When I hear about the wave of legislation that aims to move the country back to the era when Black people “stayed in their place,” women stayed subservient to men and gay people stayed in the closet, my response is that we need a new wave of demonstrations, more Stonewalls, more demands that our humanity be acknowledged, respected and embraced. I also believe that this must all be done in a way that frees not only the oppressed but also the oppressor, who is also bound in chains that keep them from experiencing the full joy of being a child of God.