<\/p>\n
May these sacred words be a blessing to you and orient your practice this week.\n<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: This post was originally posted on Andrew DeCort\u2019s Facebook page on January 21, 2026, 3:16 a.m.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Here is a reminder from MARCH about what this is all about:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Nationwide Day of Truth & Freedom on Friday, January 23\u2026is a nationwide day of non-violent moral action \u2014 calling on people across the country to participate through work stoppage, public witness, community action, and solidarity in response to escalating harm and violence tied to federal immigration enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n This day will be remembered as a spiritual turning point in American history. Please be part of it.<\/p>\n *** Jesus<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou have heard that it was said, \u2018Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.\u2019 But I tell you, do not violently resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.<\/p>\n You have heard that it was said, \u2018Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.\u2019 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.\u201d Jesus (Matthew 5:38-48<\/p>\n *** Bonhoeffer<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cDecisive: Church defending itself. No risk taking for others.\u201d Bonhoeffer from prison (8:500)<\/p>\n \u201cOur relationship to God is no \u2018religious\u2019 relationship to some highest, most powerful, and best being imaginable\u2026 Instead, our relationship to God is a new life in \u2018being there for others,\u2019 through participation in the being of Jesus. The transcendent is not the infinite, unattainable tasks, but the neighbor within reach in any given situation.\u201d Bonhoeffer from prison (8:501)<\/p>\n \u201cChristianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power and with its apologia for the weak. . . . So Christianity means a devaluation of all human values and the establishment of a new order of values in the sight of Christ.\u201d Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1934 (13:402)<\/p>\n *** Baldwin<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cPeople who cannot suffer can never grow up.\u201d James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time<\/p>\n \u201cThe revolution which was begun two thousand years ago by a disreputable Hebrew criminal [Jesus] may now have to be begun again by people equally disreputable and equally improbable.\u201d James Baldwin, speech to the World Council of Churches<\/p>\n *** Romero<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe church considers this its ministry: to defend God\u2019s image in human beings.\u201d Oscar Romero, January 21, 1979<\/p>\n *** King<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. So we had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community\u2026 \u2018Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?\u2019 \u2018Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?\u2019 \u2026<\/p>\n You may well ask, \u2018Why direct action?\u2019 Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn\u2019t negotiation the better path?\u2019 You are exactly right in your call for negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such a creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored\u2026 there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth\u2026 [W]e must see the need of having nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help [people] to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood\u2026<\/p>\n A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law\u2026 One who breaks an unjust law must do it *openly*, *lovingly*\u2026and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law\u2026<\/p>\n We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured as long as it is covered up but must be opened with all of its pus-flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must likewise be exposed, with all of the tension its exposing creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured\u2026<\/p>\n I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love \u2013 \u2018Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.\u2019\u201d Martin Luther King Jr., \u201cLetter from Birmingham Jail\u201d (291293, 294, 295, 297)<\/p>\n *** Hillesum<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cGive your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate. But if you do instead reserve most of the space inside you for hatred and thoughts of revenge-from which new sorrows will be born for others-then sorrow will never cease in this world. And if you have given sorrow the space it demands, then you may truly say: life is beautiful and so rich.\u201d Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life<\/p>\n *** Lorde<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAnger is loaded with information and energy\u2026 When we turn from anger, we turn from insight.\u201d Audre Lorde, \u201cThe Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRecognizing the power of [love] within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within the world, rather than merely settling for a shift of characters in the same weary drama.\u201d Audre Lorde, The Master\u2019s Tools Cannot Dismantle the Master\u2019s House<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May these sacred words be a blessing to you and orient your practice this week. Editor\u2019s Note: This post was originally posted on Andrew DeCort\u2019s Facebook page on January 21, 2026, 3:16 a.m. Here is a reminder from MARCH about what this is all about: \u201cThe Nationwide Day of Truth & Freedom on Friday, January<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[47,92,3529,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-16990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-day","9":"tag-freedom","10":"tag-nationwide","11":"tag-truth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}