I'm not saying I have the perfect answers. I wish I did. I'm a floundering and often clueless mix of #privilege and #marginalization. I'm trying to figure out how to use what I've got to join with others to give the next generation something better to inherit.
A good step is to find people who are #marginalized based on factors including #race, #gender, #sexuality, #ability, or #class. Let's talk together. But don't let it stay in the "listening and learning" stage. We must find a way to create #justice coming out of a situation like this.
The world is not going back to the illusion of normalcy. #Capitalism grinds on. #ClimateChange is exacerbating inequity. #COVID is not the last challenge we face; it's not the "big boss" where we win the game once we've defeated it. It's just the mini-boss that let's us know what we're up against.
Can you unlearn the knowledge that your #neighbors wouldn't #WearAMask to save your life?
Can you unsee the fact that #capitalists will happily cram your children into plague-infested #schools and deny you leave so you can make them a little more obscene profit?
Can you forget that going out to #brunch is more important to many people than having a relationship with #HighRisk friends and family?
No. You've seen behind the curtain. If #COVID disappears tomorrow, you're left with a decision: Do you head back to brunch yourself, or do you take what you've learned and use it to fight back against the #system that will continue to destroy lives until and unless we defeat it through #solidarity?
You've seen people with their heads in the sand. Once the immediate personal pressure is off of you, don't stick your head in there, too. Don't forget this. Remember. Act.
For me, #HolyAnarchy is recognizing that sometimes the priest and and the Levite (the "good" religious people) walk on past the stranger lying in the ditch, but the Samaritan (the outsider, unbeliever, or heretic) stops to be a neighbor to the one in need.
It's about choosing to be in #solidarity with people, not because they believe the right #Christian things or because the law says we have to, but because it's the right thing to do -- dare I say, the #Jesus thing to do?
My purportedly "Christian" nation won't make laws or elect leaders who will ensure #equity and #justice to "the least of these." It's not going to come from the top down. If the #church is going to be what the church is called to be, rather than an imperial institution, we need to join in on God's work -- and I suspect we'll learn more of God in the process.
I intended #HolyAnarchy to be a thought-provoking hashtag, rather than a prescriptive one.
Instead of a new religious-political "system," I think of it more as an ethos of mutuality arising from the Spirit.
When I put the two terms together, it's "holy" as in "of or in service to God" and "anarchy" as in "voluntary cooperation for the common good, without top-down authority." A bit loose with those definitions, because, again, it's an ethos, not a method or prescription. More precise definitions might work better in other contexts.
So what I would say is that #HolyAnarchy is mutuality, solidarity, and community care which is intimately connected to our spirituality and religious service. It's an evolving idea, and I'd love to see others bring their own thoughts, but that's the gist.
From the Magnificat:
"He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty."
(Luke 1:51-53, NRSV updated)
"There is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need."
-- Justin Martyr, First Apology, translation here: http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html
Hey, #Christians on the #left: Can the hashtag #HolyAnarchy be a thing?
Here's what I mean: I look at the first-century #church, and I see an #egalitarian community which cared deeply about #equity, #inclusion, #MutualAid, and #CommunityCare.
Now, they had trouble figuring out how to do it, but what they were working towards looks like what I see a lot of #leftists working towards today, including those who choose the label #anarchism. If #anarchy basically means coming together as a #community without hierarchy, neighbor caring for neighbor, then I think there's a place for us to join in with the work.
I know many people have concerns about identifying as #Christian because at least since Constantine, #Christianity has been entwined with #empire and #power. If you want to #decolonize the faith, you have to go way back.
But for those of us who do so identify, who do see the importance of coming together without #nationalism, with an eye towards #antiracism and #disability equity, of building the common good through #solidarity -- for those of us who live out our #faith in that way, might that be called #HolyAnarchy?
Note: I wrote this from a Christian perspective, but if you are of another faith and find this resonates with you, I would welcome your thoughts. I find the intersection of #spirituality and #leftist action very compelling.
Persephone
Lucus Levy Keppel