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Poem by chaplain, Matt Moburg:
If you’re a church posting
prayers for peace and unity today
while my city bleeds in the street,
miss me with that softness you only wear
when it costs you nothing.
Don’t dress avoidance up as holiness.
Don’t call silence “peacemaking.”
Don’t light a candle and think it substitutes
for showing up.
Tonight an ICE agent took a photo of me
next to my car, looked me in the eye and told me,
“We’ll be seeing you soon.”
Not metaphor.
Not hyperbole.
A threat dressed up in
a badge and a paycheck.
Peace isn’t what you ask for
when the boot is already
on someone’s neck.
Peace is what the powerful ask for
when they don’t want to be interrupted.
Unity isn’t neutral.
Unity that refuses to name violence
is just loyalty to the ones holding the weapons.
Stop using scripture like chloroform.
Stop calling your fear “wisdom.”
Stop pretending Jesus was crucified
because he preached good vibes
and personal growth.
You don’t get to quote scripture like a lullaby
while injustice stays wide awake.
You don’t get to ask God to
“heal the land”
if you won’t even look at the wound.
There is a kind of peace
that only exists
because it refuses to tell the truth.
That peace is a lie.
And lies don’t grow
anything worth saving.
The scriptures you love weren’t
written to keep things calm.
They were written to set things right.
And sometimes the most faithful thing
you can do is stop praying around the pain
and start standing inside it.
If that makes you uncomfortable – good.
Growth always is.
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