By now we may have run out of ways to describe what happened on January 6th, the day the U.S. Capitol Building was breached by rioters. Insurrection, sedition, coup – the struggle to put those events to words continues long after the campus was secured.
But whatever words best conveys that event, they can’t capture the chilling effect on our beliefs in democracy, rule of law and yes, our very souls. Too much hatred was on display. People were threatened. People died.
Yet as one historian-pundit described earlier this month, while we’re still way too close to January 6th to begin looking for the silver linings, at least we know the scale of the hatred itself. If denial was an option before, it surely is no longer.
Given what I read and hear about religious liberals, across traditions, is outrage and calls to action. Peaceful protests have been going on since the day after. Songs, sermons and rituals have taken shape. Money is being raised to support organizations dedicated to stemming further violence. Representatives’ staffs are being inundated with demands for accountability.
We do these things and more because hatred is corrosive and contagious. Because we own the hatred of which we are each capable, and want to work on ourselves as we work on the broken world around us.
Dislodging hatred is for me the core of progressive religion – our high calling across the centuries from the ancestors, be they the Buddha, Gaia, Ruth, Jesus, Mohammed or any of a thousand others, is to hate less, and care more.
What we can say for sure about January 6th is this: it was hatred on display in the heart of the nation’s capital, not just random, one-off haters. And that’s really what we on the religious left are up against.
The antidote begins with righting, over and over, our own hearts and minds. (What an easy thing for a preacher to write in a column…) From there we can find that issue or two that become our “burdens” – the people or conditions that tug at our consciences. Then stay the course.
So, if you’re overwhelmed or scared or outraged, you’ve reason. One of hatred’s ugly masks was removed on January 6th, and every friend of democracy is still reeling. But
our mission has been painfully clarified: to dislodge hatred. Say it again with me: to dislodge hatred.