Prayer • Study • Action

Week 1, February 22-28

Greetings!

The founders of our nation began their first official statement 250 years ago acknowledging equality of all as a foundational right given by God to God’s creation –life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (though, of course, almost all of the founders were enslavers who also subjugated women.) They wrote in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ... That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government … [W]hen a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is [the people’s] right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Today, our country finds itself led by an administration that has become destructive to these ends. In fact one might say that, as the Declaration describes it, it seems as if our democracy is moving to despotism. What I find most important in all of this is that we have the right and duty to throw off such a government in hopes of securing a future that continues to support people’s ability to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

As Pax Christi USA members, I know you are actively responding to the authoritarianism and political violence that is encroaching upon us. You are stepping up, as followers of the rebel from Galilee, to protect those who are vulnerable. We are exercising the power of our discipleship to do our part. It is important that we invite our friends, family members, coworkers and neighbors who are afraid, uninformed, apathetic or confused to join us in this work.

Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth’s research on regime change has taught us that nonviolent protests are twice as successful as armed resistance – and success has always occurred when 3.5 percent of the population has participated in resistance. Even more inspiring is that “faith communities have a critical role to play in advancing democracy and freedom. Empowered by a sense of Divine leading, presence or activity, faith leaders have a unique footing to speak to abuses of state power… they are well-positioned to bridge divides, foster a shared commitment to democratic ideals, and function as key institutional infrastructure for pro-democracy movements.” (From the Horizons Project.)

This is our time, people of faith! God is calling us to do all that we can in any way that we can as often as we can involving as many people as we can to stand in nonviolent resistance to the hate mongering by offering love, forgiveness, patience and listening. We must continue to be influencers who counter the prolific altering of facts by relentlessly uplifting and distributing truth and evidence of the atrocities that are occurring all around us along with the successful resistance campaigns being waged in Minnesota, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other cities by faith-filled people who are standing up to corrupt powers.

I urge you to prayerfully reflect on what God is calling you to do. Encourage people of faith in your sphere to hear God calling them to be witnesses by using the gift of faith to stand for what is decent, just, and moral. How do we do that? We pray, we study and we act!

• PRAY •

In recent weeks, the president has demanded that voting processes – always managed at a state level – be “nationalized,” an overt effort to control the outcome of the November elections. The recent FBI raids in Fulton County, GA presumably were intended to bully local election officials across the country. Presidential adviser Steve Bannon has threatened that ICE agents – clearly seen as a politicized and aggressive force – will monitor election sites, an illegal attempt at intimidation. With the push to enact the SAVE Act, the most restrictive voting legislation ever passed, our democracy is in its most fragile state.

A prayer to safeguard our democracy 

The following prayer is a slight adaptation of one written by Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, National Council of Negro Women National Chaplain and president of the Skinner Leadership Institute.

Almighty God, your word calls us to be subject for your sake to every human institution, so we thank you for the precious institution for voting in our American democracy as a right of citizenship.

We thank you, O Creator God, for breathing life into every human and shaping each person in your divine image with the inherent dignity and right to vote in free, fair, and safe elections. By your mighty power and amazing grace, you raised trailblazers like Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, and others whose life sacrifices helped secure our citizenship right to vote our convictions and values in the democratic voting process. But, Lord, we now face brazen attempts to deny that right for citizens of color, those who are elderly, those who are disabled, and those who are poor, for the sake of sustaining white minority rule in an increasingly majority brown country.

So now, O God, we lean in and on your everlasting arms for the spiritual strength and divinely guided strategies to secure voting rights. Sustain us, O Lord, that we do not give up, give in, or give out against the rising tide of racially motivated plots to reverse over five decades of civil and human rights progress in our nation.

Remind us in our weariness today that no devil in hell nor evil power on earth can withstand your unshakable and immovable power and might. Give us new eyes to see and new ears to hear your divine guidance for defeating every mean-spirited plot to destroy our democracy. And, when the earthly Supreme Court fails to render justice, we look to you, Lord God, the Chief Justice of Heaven's High Court, to “let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5:24)

In your powerful name we pray, Lord Jesus,

Amen.

Monday night prayer services during Lent

Join Pax Christi USA for a 30-minute prayer service each Monday in Lent -- February 23, March 2, March 9, March 16, March 23, and March 30, 8:30-9 PM Eastern. Use this link to register with Zoom -- you will be automatically registered for each session.

• STUDY •

• ACT •

• Sign the Call to Christians in a Crisis of Faith and Democracy.
• Use this link to check out the Season of Faithful Witness, an invitation for the Catholic community to step forward; sign up to connect with others in your area to organize local actions.
• Tell Congress: Reject the SAVE Act, from the Brennan Center for Justice.
• Visit Pax Christi USA’s STAND (Solidarity to advocate for neighbors’ dignity) webpage for resources to respond to the violence against immigrants; please share new resources with us so we can expand our offerings!

> Click here to find additional resources for prayer, study and action throughout Lent.

And thanks to Little Friends for Peace for the beautiful photo of our beloved 2008 Teacher of Peace MJ Park, seen here at our Ash Wednesday prayer service on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.