Protest, Dissent, and the Gospel, Part Two

Protests take many shapes and sizes and names.  Some are loud with hundreds or even thousands of people.  Some are community driven. Some are a solo walk.  Some take the form of refusing to buy products from various companies, or to shop in certain stores. All are principle-driven, and those principles are as varied as are our people.

As for me, I want there to be principles and an over-arching principle.  I want to be able to look in the Creator’s face and explain why I will protest some things and not others. Because of that, I lean toward a social justice orientation. That’s what the prophets did when they shouted from the mountaintops about the rich getting richer at the expense of the poor and a variety of other things. 

Along with saving us from ourselves, Jesus was the Divine Provocateur.  He could not bring His message to the world without upsetting the social and religious order of things. Sometimes he did his provoking in quieter surroundings like speaking to the woman at the well who was most likely marginalized by the other women in the community given her serial marriage situation.  Sometimes he spoke in more public settings like with the woman caught in the act of adultery when she was dragged before him but not the man with whom she was having sexual intercourse. Then there is the most public scene when he cleared the Temple of those who were polluting it.  The story is told twice, once in John 2 and the other in Mark 11. Did it happen twice or just get written into the text at two places? Either way, he made a serious public scene, driving the buyers and the sellers out, turning over the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and he “would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts” (Mark 11: 16).  The disturbance was so profound that the chief priests and the teachers of the law heard about it and began to look for ways to take Him out.  They realized that the crowd was mesmerized by Him and they had to go slow.

Look at where it got Him. For some of us, our protests lead to “unintended consequences.” For Jesus of Nazareth, He knew where it was leading. He told His followers several times until it finally sunk it, afterwards. I do not pay with my life when I voice opinions and beliefs. I may lose friends or wind up being avoided in certain settings, but I do not die for what I believe. Maybe I do not protest loudly enough.

At my house, we are not terribly rowdy.  We generally are mindful of our speech, tone, and words. We have friends and family who are much more vitriolic than we are. We do, however, care very deeply about things.  We protest in our own ways with our votes and our words. At the most basic of levels, we desire for our attitudes about protest and things we protest to matter to the one who protested at the highest levels and paid the most significant cost.

Protest, march, speak up, hold your coins, and other matters and let your decisions voice your principles. That way, we honor those who have come before us and we remain true to our convictions. That is the American way. That is the human way.