I was born on the island of Okinawa, Japan, on the East China Sea, when my dad was serving as a captain in the US army. In our postcolonial hybrid world, I guess you could say, I’m Japanese-American.

As I paused to remember all the saints yesterday, my spirit was drawn especially to the martyrs of Japan. Shusaku Endo’s 1966 novel Silence introduced the Kakure Kirishitan–“hidden Christians”–in Japan who were driven underground after the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion in the 17th century. The narrator, a Jesuit missionary, describes the brutal martyrdom of two Japanese Christians, Mokichi and Ichizo. As they were being burned at the stake Mokichi sang:

We’re on our way, we’re on our way,

We’re on our way to the temple of Paradise,

To the temple of Paradise. . . .

To the great Temple. . . .

Writes Endo: “I have heard from the people of Tomogi that many Christians, when dragged off to the place of execution, sang this hymn—a melody filled with dark sadness. Life in this world is too painful for these Japanese peasants. Only by relying on ‘the temple of Paradise’ have they been able to go on living. Such is the sadness which fills this song.

“What do I want to say? I myself do not quite understand. Only that today, when for the glory of God Mokichi and Ichizo moaned, suffered and died, I cannot bear the monotonous sounds of the dark sea gnawing at the shore. Behind the depressing silence of the sea, the silence of God. . . . the feeling that while men raise their voices so in anguish God remains with folded arms, silent, ” says the missionary who was sent later to evaluate the Jesuit mission there.

The martyrs Mokichi and Ichizo were burned at the stake and have gone on to heaven, but a feeling of profound grief remains in the hearts of those left behind. The melancholy of the martyrs is compared to “the dark sea gnawing at the shore.” As the silence of the sea, God, too, is silent.

The silence of God in light of human suffering remains an open question for Christians today. Where is God amid the suffering and oppressed who are crying out for help?

Japanese American artist Mako Fujimura says that American culture does not allow time for us to grieve the loss of tragedies and traumas in our own lives, as well as in our collective life. Since unprocessed mourning can metastasize into melancholia, Fujimura encourages us to care for each other’s souls through being attentive to the broken beauty unveiled in the arts. Music, poetry and art can help heal our sin-sick souls, if we are attentive to its comforting spirit and deeper truth. In his book Culture Care, Fujimura writes, “Culture is not a territory to win, but a garden to tend to, an ecosystem to steward.”

As a diligent farmer tends to the soil in the field to insure a healthy havest, we are called to tend the cultural soil that nourishes the creative Spirit and human flourishing. When we care for the artists, actors, musicians, dancers and creative catalysts as pollinators of the good, true and beautiful, we ensure the possibility of healing and hope during our difficult days. As a shepherd guides his flock to the “springs of the water of life, ” so too does God bring water to the thirsty, food to the hungry, and “wipe every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:16-17; 21:4).

As we prepare to vote, let’s remember the martyrs who died in the Civil Rights movement so we could have the right to vote. Having grown up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, I also remember the three civil rights workers who were killed in Neshoba County, Mississippi during the summer of 1964: James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner. We are grateful for their sacrifice through lives of heroic courage in struggle for justice. In moments of solitude and silence, let us commit ourselves to continue the struggle for justice, for culture care and expectantly pray for a baptism by a sea of grace, restoring shalom to the community of creation, so there is no more destruction, no more tears.

As the US presidential election slouches toward its conclusion, women are tired.

Rape culture has been justified as “locker room talk.” The first female nominee of a major party has been Interrupted and insulted because she doesn’t “look presidential.” We’ve listened to men talk about menstrual cycles, beauty pageants, and double-standards about cheating.

We’re tired. We’re disillusioned as faith leaders dismiss the sin of sexism. We can’t wait until election day so we don’t have to choose between social media and sanity.

Where’s the hope in this country?

Sure, our hope is not built on who wins the election. But our hope is not in escapism either.

Being a Christian means I believe in the good news. It’s not plastic optimism. I am convinced my God is big enough to redeem any mess for a good purpose.

I even see Jesus at work in this election.

I’m not going to say God supports any candidate, but when it comes to gender, God is using the fact that a woman is running against a sexist for a leadership position to raise awareness about gender equality. Women are sharing their stories of sexual assault on Twitter. The US is waking up to the political power of people of color and women. Evangelicals are banding together to proclaim the Bible’s true convictions about justice. Faith leaders are calling each other to account, and some are repenting for endorsing Trump. People are learning from this object lesson that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45), learning that the inevitable consequence of misogyny is violence against women and minors. We’ve tamed patriarchy and kept it around the house for too long. Now we’re reminded that the cute lizard was really a baby crocodile.

Right now, as the national conversation is unusually attuned to gender, Christians have the chance to speak life, to show the world that the church is not a backward institution on the wrong side of history.

God’s message to the world is good news – even about gender.

Jesus didn’t condemn the adulterous woman “caught in the act” when the man was nowhere to be found. Jesus knew a foreign woman’s past, yet he empowered her to become the first evangelist. A teen mom gave birth to Jesus, and women proclaimed his return to life.

But it’s not just Jesus who empowered women in our story. The apostle Paul publicly praised his female coworkers. He flipped the household structure on its head (pun intended) by proclaiming that a man should act like his family servant!

And it’s not just the New Testament. God delivered Israel from slavery using Moses – who was delivered by midwives, his mom, his big sister, and a princess who saw a darling in distress. An orphan girl prevented a superpower from committing genocide against her people. And someone recorded all their stories!

Right now, God wants to remind us that women and girls play a pivotal role in the direction of nations. Educating girls, empowering women economically, and ensuring the safety of God’s image-bearers is not peripheral to the gospel. It is how we proclaim to the world: there really is good news for you.

God doesn’t just pronounce this view of women over the noise of our world. Actions speak louder. God is advancing a global gender agenda.

The church is kicking out the crocodile. In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, rape is a weapon of war. Many consider raped women too unclean for communion in their churches. But a group of local Christians who teach workshops about the Bible’s view of women are seeing leaders repent, marriages restored, and communities healed.

God is at work. In South Africa, public defender Adv. Thuli Madonsela points to high domestic violence rates and says “a society that harms women poisons life at its source.” In India, a pastor’s nonprofit sparked the viral “Dark is Beautiful” campaign to give stigmatized women self-esteem. In Kenya, a priest annually mobilizes his entire region for a conference affirming women in ministry.

Yes, the world is a mess. Americans are noticing it a lot more this election season. But the Spirit is on the move. I’m hopeful that, whatever the election results, gender equality can win in 2016.

Somebody’s hurting my brother
and it’s gone on far too long,
and it’s gone on far too long,
yes it’s gone on far too long.

Somebody’s hurting my brother
and it’s gone on far too long,
and we won’t be silent anymore.

Yara Allen is powerfully singing lead, and I’m among the spontaneous back-up singers, echoing her lament. “Somebody’s hurting my sister . . ., ” we sing. “Somebody’s hurting our children . . .” Black and white, old and young, rich and poor, singing, clapping, and committing together, “We won’t be silent anymore.”

This Moral Revival movement, which kicked off in April of this year, will stop in over 20 states before finishing its first leg Nov. 2 in Milwaukee, WI. Led by the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, the Rev. Dr. James Forbes Jr., the Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon, Sister Simone Campbell, and local leaders each host city, the Moral Revival is a call to action on social justice issues from economic freedom and education access to healthcare and equal protection under the law. It is a cry for the heart of the message of Jesus, to care for the poor and oppressed among us. It is a call neither to charitable giving nor to political loyalties, but to systemic repair–to changing the underlying systems of oppression and inequality.

I’m not sure how host cities were chosen, but as I looked at the list, I saw that many had been historic battlegrounds in the struggle for social justice. I drove almost four hours to the Charleston, SC event, the closest for me, and arrived early so I could visit some of the sacred sites in our nation’s history of oppression: The Hanging Tree on Ashley Ave., the Old Slave Mart, Mother Emanuel AME Church. I learned that Charleston was the largest and most active slave port in North America for over 100 years. I also learned that Charleston had one of the largest free black populations of any southern city prior to the Civil War.

The first shot of the Civil War was fired at Charleston ‘s Fort Sumter. Several Southern plantations are preserved and open to the public, some including slave tours. I learned that the real “Porgy” of Porgy and Bess fame was a Charlestonian. I had a delicious Southern lunch at Jestine’s Kitchen, named for beloved Charleston housekeeper Jestine Matthews, born in 1885, who lived to age 112. And I learned that Charleston was the city where leaders first gathered to plan the Moral Revival movement.

The Revival gathering was lively and welcoming. Despite wide diversity, there was no division, political, racial, or otherwise. We shared a desire to work together for a better nation. We were family. The three-hour service included clapping and foot-stomping songs, heart-grappling sermons by Dr. Forbes and Dr. Barber, and personal testimonies from local residents (including a member of the Fight for 15, an undocumented immigrant college student, a young trans man, a breast cancer survivor, and 2 others I’ll tell you about later). A few highlights that especially touched my soul:

• The family love. The extended arms and smiles and those who organized and led, the Asheville NC man seated behind me, and Lori who sat beside me. I’m pretty sure God chose my seat.

• Yara Allen’s powerful Micah 6:8 solo: “What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” This was indeed the question of the evening.

• Dr. Forbes challenged all of our self-righteous indignation, our attitudes toward those who think or vote differently from us. “God’s association, ” he said, “is a cosmic association. God doesn’t care for you any more than for them . . . This revival is not our party against theirs or theirs against ours, but a recruitment to join the Cosmic Association for the Elimination of Injustice Everywhere.”

• Danielle’s testimony of surviving a childhood where she and her siblings witnessed the constant physical abuse of their mother, and ultimately her murder, and how the system has failed them as they have spent the rest of their lives flailing in the trauma. All abused alcohol and drugs. Her brothers have flashbacks they cannot control. Her younger brother killed his roommate, and her older brother, a pastor, tried to commit suicide. These children and so many like them are lost in our systems, needing someone to come to their rescue and stand up on their behalf.

• Dr. Millicent Brown’s testimony of being among the first black students in 1963 to bring about desegregation in SC public schools, and the guilt she has carried with her since that time. She explained what she perceives as naivete in believing that changing the law could change the hearts. Until we are committed to love all children, we have not made progress from 53 years ago, says Dr. Brown.

• Dr. Barber’s reading of Ezekiels’ prophecy (22:27-30) “(Your politicians) say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says, ’ when the Lord has not spoken, ” and  “I looked for a man who would stand in the gap, but I found none.”  State officials, in response to the 2015 Mother Emanuel Church shooting that left nine worshipers dead, including senior pastor Rev. Clementa Pinckney, took down the confederate flag from the state house–a flag that should not have been there anyway, says Dr. Barber.  If they really wanted to honor the slain, why not make the changes they championed or further the mission for which they passionately fought?

• Dr. Barber likes to talk about hearts and defibrillators. “We don’t have a Democratic problem, ” he says, “We don’t have a Republican problem. We have a heart problem . . . nothing to do with left or right.” When someone’s heart stops, Dr. Barber says, there is hope if someone can get there in time with a defibrillator. The heart has to be shocked. We are called to be moral defibrillators–to shock the heart of the nation. Martin King had his day. Mother Teresa had her day. Dorothy Day and Mother Jones had their day. FDR and Abraham Lincoln had their day. God is calling for someone to stand in the gap now for your day and my day, to shock the heart of this nation with the power of grace and the power of mercy and the power of justice and the power of equality and the power of prayer. Will God say “I found no one”? 

The Revival organizers call those of the movement “Repairers of the Breach, ” (Isa. 58:12), the “gap standers” of Ezek. 22. Dr. Barber has called this moment in history the beginning of a Third Reconstruction. Indeed, while his movement has gained national attention, thousands of grassroots movements are emerging across the country, all focused on turning our national soul to a morality that looks like the heart of Jesus. Somebody’s hurting our brother, somebody’s hurting our sister, somebody’s hurting our children, and we won’t–we can’t–be silent anymore.

Most Americans are disgusted with the ways this year’s presidential election is unfolding. The name calling is horrible. But beyond the personal attacks, both candidates are gearing their remarks and policies primarily to middle class voters. This is understandable because the middle class has been hurt by the government in Washington. Our political leaders have done little-to-nothing about the fact that the real income of middle class workers has shown almost no improvement for the last three decades, while the cost of living has dramatically increased.

While I, along with most Americans, are concerned about the plight of the middle class, Red Letter Christians are especially disturbed about the lack of concern for the poor as revealed in the rhetoric of the candidates.

Trump tells us that he’s going to create millions of jobs for poor people, but he doesn’t tell us how. What he does say is that he is going to give big tax breaks to the very rich. He proposes this with the expectation that the rich will use their extra money to invest in new entrepreneurial ventures that, in turn, will decant high paying employment for poor people. Some of us, however, remember that this was exactly the plan set into place by George W. Bush, and it led to the greatest recession since the Great Depression. Why does Trump think this plan will work if we try it again?

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand seems to be proposing that America continues to embrace the policies of President Obama. That may be a good thing considering that the unemployment rate over the last nine years has dropped from 8% to close to 4%, which is the lowest it has been for close to 40 years. The problem is that of the millions of jobs that have been added to the work force during Obama’s administration, most have been low paying jobs – close to the minimum wage.

What Red Letter Christians are waiting to hear is if either of these candidates has a plan to address the economic needs of such African American young men as those we see hanging out on street corners in most of our cities, and those other people of color who seem to have been left behind as the wealthy of our country have cornered America’s wealth for themselves. Again I ask, “have the poor been forgotten in this election?”

II

Signs of A Dictatorship

Since the second debate Donald Trump has declared that if he is elected he will appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton regarding the way she handled her emails and how she used her influence while serving as Secretary of State. He has said that if he won the presidency he would see to it that she would be put in jail.

This is what political leaders in banana republics do. Once in power such dictators prosecute and arrest their political opponents. That there has been little attention given to this matter by T.V. and radio pundits is, for me, a source of dismay.

III

And then there’s the matter of Trump’s treating of women. When it comes to Trump complaining that his crude talk and obscene language that denigrated women was only “locker room talk, ” he needs to be reminded that he wasn’t in a locker room when he made them. Furthermore, I was pleased that several NFL players spoke up and said that this kind of talk does not go on in their locker rooms.

IV

Then there’s the matter of the possibility that Russia has hacked into the emails of the Democratic Party as well as into the private emails of the chair of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Whether or not Russia provided the emails of Mr. Podesta to the Trump people, there is no doubt that they were obtained illegally. That Trump would use this stolen property for his own advantage troubles me. That he willingly participates in the invasion of Mr. Podesta’s privacy is very sad.

V

On another matter, if Hillary wants to know why close to 80% of Evangelicals will vote against her, all she has to do is to read what the platform of her party says about abortion. Evangelicals, overwhelmingly are pro-life and view abortion as infanticide. Many of them are one issue voters and knowing that the next president will appoint Supreme Court justices who will vote on challenges to legalize abortion is enough to get many of them to vote for Donald Trump.

These are matters that concern Red Letter Christians.

EDITOR’S NOTE: RLC works to lift up the prophetic voices of true evangelicalism, amplifying the cry for Jesus and justice in the public square. Visit www.redletterchristians.org for original content from our contributors each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10am. We also post links to commentary from Red Letter Christians in the mainstream media, like this piece from Rev. Barber in TIME Magazine.

As early voting opened in my home state of North Carolina last week, Donald Trump continued to dominate headlines, despite Hillary Clinton’s six-point lead in a national poll. The third and final presidential debate covered several areas of substantive difference between the two candidates, and millions of Americans are already voting for the future they want. But Trump remains in the limelight because he refuses to promise that he will accept defeat on Nov. 8.

For months Trump has complained about media bias “rigging” the election against him. In recent weeks, however, a new boogeyman has emerged: voter fraud. Trump contends that the only way he will lose this election is if massive numbers of people who are not eligible to vote manage to subvert the democratic process.

Many want to dismiss Trump’s defiance as an entertainer’s move to keep the camera focused on him until the show ends. But Trump is not alone. Here in North Carolina, we’ve fought unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud for more than three years.

Read the complete article at TIME.com.

For the last year, Donald Trump has hovered over America like a Mickey Mouse balloon swelling over the Macy’s parade. Earlier this week, as the air continued to come out of the Trump campaign, Governor Pat McCrory faced his challengers for a second and final debate. Anyone put off by Trump-ism should pay close attention to McCrory’s extremism in North Carolina. Although he plays nice and smiles for the camera, McCrory has signed, executed and defended legislation that Trump can only envy.

Though Trump has proposed massive defunding of the federal government, McCrory and his state legislature have slashed taxes on the super-wealthy and corporations while at the same time raising taxes on the poor and middle class through hikes on gasoline, repairs and maintenance of automobiles.

While Trump has trumpeted his support for low wages, McCrory and his colleagues have quietly barred local municipalities from raising the minimum wage, regulating working conditions, or protecting the safety of children in the workplace. But unlike Trump’s open embrace of low wages, McCrory slid his opposition to higher wages into HB 2, better known as the “bathroom bill, ” which requires transgender citizens to use the restroom designated for the sex listed on their birth certificate.

Much to McCrory’s surprise, his appeal to bigotry and fear blew up in his face, as countless corporations withdrew their investments in the state. Most North Carolinians oppose HB 2, but it is still the law, and McCrory has not yet answered for his protection of low wages and oppressive employers.

The struggle for a living wage in North Carolina and across the nation has been led by sisters and brothers who say they cannot survive on $7.25. But despite his talk of trusting local government, McCrory and the state legislature acted to override movements in cities across this state, some of which had secured the promise of local living wage ordinances. HB 2 isn’t simply about the tournaments that the ACC and NCAA host here. It’s about the thousands of people who work in the hospitality industries in Charlotte and Greensboro. Refusing to meet with them, Pat McCrory has smiled while his policies attack them.

Many of these same poor, working people are among the more than 400, 000 citizens of North Carolina who have no health insurance under the Affordable Care Act because of McCrory’s refusal to expand Medicaid. Conservative estimates suggest that his decision has caused the unnecessary deaths of more than 3, 000 North Carolinians. In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, we need Medicaid Expansion more than ever. Trump has campaigned on a promise to repeal the ACA, but McCrory is way ahead of him; he has engaged in the policy violence of denying North Carolinians billions in federal health care benefits for which they have already been taxed. McCrory clings to myths at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens.

Before the Hollywood Access tape, Trump received the most criticism for his overt racism. He sang lead for the birther chorus against Obama. He called Mexicans “rapists” and claimed that a judge from Indiana could not do his job fairly because his parents were Mexicans. He refused to disavow endorsements from the Ku Klux Klan. He claimed that Obama only got into Columbia and Harvard because he was black and called the ACA “the biggest Affirmative Action in history, ” as if it was only for African Americans. Trump has legitimized an overt racism that America hasn’t witnessed since the days of black and white television.

McCrory, meanwhile, denied racial intent while passing a voter suppression act that the highest federal appeals court in the land struck down, ruling that it “targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision, ” and which the U.S. Supreme court refused to review. Donald Trump has been an openly bigoted candidate. But Pat McCrory has written racism into North Carolina’s law and made its assumptions the basis of everything from education to tax policy.

As the Trump balloon deflates and Republicans across America calculate whether to leave the parade, Americans would do well to pay attention to North Carolina. We have seen the damage extremists can do when they are given power. But we have also seen how people who’ve been pitted against one another by divide-and-conquer tactics can come together across dividing lines in a Moral Movement for the common good. Here in North Carolina, we know the Presidency is too much power for someone driven by greed, lust, and racial fear. But we also know that down ballot positions are far too much power for people who endorse the same policies as Trump, no matter how broad their smile. We must say no to extremism from the bottom of the ballot to the top. We must vote like never before for people who will lead us to higher ground.

In North Carolina basketball country, we know that when someone says he’s pulling for ABC, that means “Anybody But Carolina.” Why? Because the team most likely to win is also the team most targeted by the opposition. (Yes, I have a slight Carolina bias, inherited from my daddy.)

More than a year ago, long before the Republican Party could have predicted who their presidential candidate would be, Hillary was the Democratic standout and the obvious one to beat. The Republican strategists, long before you and I were interested in this election, were devising a costly plan to take her down. ABH, you might call it. “Anybody But Hillary.”

In searching for and testing how to most effectively attack Hillary, two targets came to the forefront, pertaining to arenas about which most of the general population would have little knowledge except what they were told: Benghazi and email servers. All the strategists would need to do is tell us over and over that what she did was criminal and she’s a liar, until that becomes our main perception of her.

In Benghazi: eexactly what did Hillary do? What should she have done? It’s hard for most of us to say. And it’s easy to forget that, during the George W Bush administration, there were 13 attacks on embassies and consulates, and 60 deaths. Or that in 2011 Hillary, then Secretary of State, warned Republicans that their proposed budget cuts to her State Department would be “detrimental to America’s national security.” But we have been told so many times that Hilary failed Benghazi that it sounds reasonable to us.

And then the emails. According to Newsweek Magazine, between the years of 2003 and 2009, the Bush administration “lost” 22 million emails, many likely pertaining to the controversial Iraq War. While not condoning “lost” emails in either case, I think I can understand  how this might happen, and how you and I might make that same choice.

Let’s bring this down to a level we can understand. What if someone hacked into your personal or work email server, and all of your emails were now accessible to the public? Would you go in and try to delete before others found them? I would. My emails have no government secrets, but they are my personal communications, some with personal identifying information that could threaten my security, some with private conversations with friends, some with highly confidential work communication. Yes, I would delete.

And the private email server – The Bush administration used one of those too, set up by the Republican National Convention. Yes, the same party that has set out to convince us that Hillary is unfit to be president for doing the same thing.

Hillary was investigated and found not guilty of any criminal wrong-doing. Members of the party that brought on the investigation in an attempt to discredit her in the eyes of the public, now wish us to believe the investigation was rigged.

Many other attempts to discredit her have been tried. Her husband’s infidelity. Her religion (Yes,  she’s Christian). That as a lawyer she defended a rapist (She was a lawyer, folks. It was her job. Not a chosen case, but assigned to her).  I even read once that she missed Chelsea’s first day of school, making her not only an unfit president but an unfit mother. By all indications, Chelsea is a well-adjusted, intelligent, and promising young woman whose relationship with her parents is admirable.

Hillary’s opponents have long been digging through her past looking for anything that will smear her name. And this is all they have. Now, to give credit where credit’s due: they have made the most of what they had. They have successfully planted doubt, fear, and even hatred, in the minds of millions of voters.

Hillary Clinton is not perfect. She is human. I’m sure she wishes she had not used the private email server; and yes, there should have been more US forces on hand in Benghazi. On a more personal side, she comes across as strong and tough, which has served her well as senator, first lady, and Secretary of State and will serve her well if elected President, but I do wish she were just a little more personable, more genuinely magnetic, like her husband or Kennedy or Obama. So no, perfect she is not. Nor is any past Republican or Democratic president. Nor am I. Nor you.

But I like Hilary because she’s tough and smart. She has proven she can stand up through public humiliation, through the tensest of partisan opposition. She understands foreign policy. She understands diplomacy and how to interact with world powers. She knows what the presidency entails. And as the Obamas have said repeatedly, she is more experienced and qualified for the presidency than any other candidate of either party in our lifetime.

And that she happens to be a woman – I like that too. After years of “Anybody But Hillary, ” it may be hard for Americans to take seriously the first female nominee of a major US party. But we who follow the red letters of Scripture should look at Jesus’ interactions with women and see that to him there was neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female (Gal. 3:28). May we approach the election prayerfully and in a Christlike spirit, remembering the second greatest commandment–to love your neighbor as yourself, no matter which team she’s on (Matt. 22:39).

The thing I like best about the apartments of my Somali friends are the colorful tapestries on the walls. The fabrics, draped everywhere, to give a little comfort and beauty in low-income spaces. Velvet posters and elaborate tea sets and woven mats and faux-persian carpets cover the walls. Low, luxurious couches line the walls. It smells of cooking oil and ginger and meat. There is probably a thermos full of chai, somewhere. There is most likely a TV in the corner, watching either PBS or Jerry Springer or a video of a relative getting married far away.

I have spent countless hours in such apartments. I sort of wrote an entire book about it. Sitting in awkward silence. Getting in the way of the day’s activities. Trying to decipher bills and school memos for people. Going over homework that will never be fully absorbed. Watching Disney channel movies. Eating goat liver while sitting on the floor. Talking about families and relatives and catching up on all the gossip. Calling electricity companies and being put on hold for hours. Trying to sort out problems with money transfers, or helping older folks get onto Facebook, or troubleshooting broken cell phones. I am good at none of these things, but these hours spent being lost and confused and intrigued and welcomed inside these sacred spaces of East African life in the U.S.—they are the hours that changed me. They are the hours that made me who I am today.

//
Three men plotted to blow up such a space. A 120 unit apartment in Kansas where many Somali families lived. They planned to park trucks at all four corners of the apartment complex, the day after the presidential elections, and kill every man woman and child that lived there. These men were crusaders, they called themselves. The hatred in their hearts seems unthinkable to me, except that is no longer the right word. For Somali refugees, for instance, it is probably within their realm of normal thought that someone would try and harm them, try and ruin their way of life and kill their babies, that someone would want to exert their dominance in such a violent, horrific way. After all, such situations are why so many had to flee Somalia in the first place, so they are not new to this situation. But I am. I have never known before what it feels like when friends of mine are targeted for death, for hatred, like they are bugs to be squashed. I have never known what is feels like to be acutely aware that it is my people, my culture, that wants to eradicate others. Or maybe, just maybe, I have known. I just never wanted to admit it out loud. That white males are one of the most likely terrorist group of our time. And yet they are the ones who I was taught to look up to, to learn theology from, to uphold as the bastions of family virtues and values. And now, all around me, I see the opposite. I see my culture being so vocal in their lust for power, the belittlement of women and immigrants and Muslims and people of color, I see a culture that has betrayed me and just about everyone I love.

//

Here’s how I move forward:

I think about a few weeks ago. Visiting a friend who is a refugee from Afghanistan. She brings out trays of food to her coffee table, smashed in-between two overstuffed couches. She gives us pistachios and cake and candies wrapped in cellophane paper, dates and large glasses filled to the brim with cranberry juice. My children are ecstatic, eating the sugary items with great joy as I try not mind the inevitable crash I will have to deal with later. My friend has her oldest daughter take a picture of me and her and my children. It’s for my mother, she says,  so she will know I have a friend who visited me for Eid. I felt very small in that moment; I hadn’t even remembered that it was the Eid-al-Adha holiday. Technically it was the next day, my friend told me, but she decided to celebrate a day early once I showed up, just so she wouldn’t have to celebrate it alone. I was happy to fellowship with her, to chat and laugh and eat the festive food. But I was also acutely aware that I had just happened to stop by on accident, a whim, to give a reminder about some school related item. What if I hadn’t stopped by? Would she be alone that day, like so many others? Would I be alone in my own house, unaware of the trials of others?

The great wells of cultural isolation, the ocean of loneliness we all swim in—it overwhelms me. So I keep doing the only thing I know how to do: I knock on doors and sit on couches. The apartments of refugees are where I am doing battle for the light. I am fighting for my neighborhood, my community, and ultimately, my country.

//

If I lived in Garden City Kansas, I might have resided in that very apartment complex. Those are the kinds of spaces I am obsessed with, that I love, that fill me up and open my eyes to so many new experiences. Here in Portland, I lived for years in what was considered to be our own Little Somalia. If these men had lived here, me and my children and my husband might have been blown up. This does not fill me with fear, because it is still just a theoretical. And yet it is turning out to be a much more plausible fear than one that any of my refugee neighbors would ever harm me.

My country was founded on white supremacy, the belief that the white western way of operating in the world is superior to all others. The results of this underlying assumption that undergirds nearly everything of our country ranges from benign naivety to micro-aggressions to men plotting to kill hundreds of people based on their race and religion. If this election season has shown us anything, it is that white supremacy is alive and well in our hearts and minds, and always has been. It’s been jarring and depressing for people like myself, but this season is not without its own silver lining. Only what is brought into the light can be dealt with. And here we are, a blazing light being shown on the ugliness within. It’s time to figure out how to be white in a society which elevates us and denigrates others. It’s time for radical hospitality, empathy, and action. It’s time to give up positions of power and influence and platforms and listen to the voices who have been saying all along that there is another way. It’s time to mourn how oppressive white supremacy is, how anti-gospel and anti-Jesus it is. It’s time to start fearing for our own souls. People say they are scared of refugees, scared of Muslims, scared of foreigners and protestors and immigrants and activists. But these are the ones who have shown me another way. They have taken my fear and my despair and turned it into something else: they have turned it into hope.

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Today a storm is hitting Oregon. It is wet and dark and rainy and the winds are starting to pick up. If the power goes out I will be worried about all of my friends in apartment complexes. Do they have water? Will they feel scared? And I realize they have survived so much more than me, they will survive a few days without power, a little bit of flooding, but still—I pick up a few extra gallons of water just in case. They would do the same for me, and more, in a heartbeat. They watch out for me and my family. As I grieve my own community—Christian men defending assault and xenophobia and outright racism—I find comfort in the safe spaces of the apartments of my friends and neighbors.

Survivors teach us. They teach us how to continue on, how to rebuild lives, how to exist in a world where people want you harmed, or worse. They are also the watchmen of our culture, and they are the first to suffer as leaders whip up aggression and fear.

Please keep our refugee and immigrant neighbors in your prayers. If you attend a church, or are a leader in a church, please consider contacting your local mosque and asking how you can support their community in this time of violent words and violent action. Contact your local refugee resettlement program and ask how you can volunteer or help with Muslim refugees, to let them know that we have a greater capacity for welcome than for hate.

Maybe someday, you too will find yourself in a similar apartment, a similar couch. This is the only strategy I have for these days and times, and in the end I think it is the only one that will work.

The death penalty is dying in America. We could be the generation to end it once and for all.

Death sentences are the lowest they have been in 40 years, and executions are the lowest they’ve been in 25. This year, nearly all the executions in the US have been in only two states. For the first time in decades, a majority of Americans are ready to find alternatives to the death penalty. Every year a new state abolishes it. Next month, the death penalty will  be on the ballot in three states: California, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The people in these states will decide if the death penalty has a future.

Today I’m joining two incredible advocates for alternatives to the death penalty for a webinar. I hope you’ll join us too.

These two men come from opposite “sides” of the issue. Both named Bill, one lost his grandmother to murder and initially supported the death penalty. The other Bill turned his brother over to police for help, knowing that he had severe mental health issues, only to watch the state execute his brother for a capital crime. The loved ones of victims and the loved ones of the accused don’t often get to talk with one another about their needs. But these two Bills have been part of the Journey of Hope–a journey toward healing that has moved beyond the personal to the healing that our society needs to recover from violence.

I believe we can end the death penalty in this generation. I believe it because I’ve had the chance to spend time with Bill and Bill and dozens of directly-affected people like them. I’m excited for you to meet them too. Please sign up now to join us today at 1pm Eastern.

Let’s work together to end the death penalty and celebrate the healing Jesus makes possible.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week, TIME Magazine reported that InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has established an “involuntary termination” policy for any staff who self-disclose that they disagree with IVCF’s position statement on sexuality. Several Red Letter Christians joined other InterVarsity Press authors is sending an open letter to IVCF. The full letter and a list of its signers is included below.

To Tom Lin, the InterVarity Christian Fellowship USA Cabinet and Board of Directors,

As authors who have published with InterVarsity Press (IVP), we are deeply troubled and concerned about your organization’s recent “involuntary termination” policy. Since our IVP books indirectly tether us to your organization, we feel it is necessary to make our feelings known to you and those with whom we have relationships. We understand that conversations related to marriage, sexuality, and gender are critical for Christians, but we also recognize that Christians of mutual goodwill can have those conversations and arrive at various conclusions. While we do not all share the same theological or political views, we are united in our concern for the dignity and care of our fellow Christians whose jobs are threatened by your policy.

Therefore, we urge you, for the sake our our collective integrity and the credibility of your organization to revoke the “involuntary termination” policy and replace it with one that allows your staff to conscientiously object. Allowing IVCF staff to remain in community despite not completely agreeing with a particular view of sexuality and marriage will demonstrate the inclusive and open-armed spirit of Christ. The Christian community is in desperate need of healing at this moment, and we believe you can help lead this effort.

For the sake of our friends,

Janell Anema, National Trainer with Sources of Strength, Director/Co-Director of IV’s Global Urban Trek to South Asia, and contributor to Letters to a Future Church: Words of Encouragement and Prophetic Appeals.

Kent Annan, author of Slow Kingdom Coming: Practices for Doing Justice, Loving Mercy and Walking Humble in the World and Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle: Living Fully, Loving Dangerously.

Jamie Arpin-Ricci, Pastor of Little Flowers Community, co-director of YWAM Urban Ministries Winnipeg and author of The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom.

Leroy Barber, Director of The Voices Project, author of Embrace: God’s Radical Shalom for a Divided World and Everyday Missions: How Ordinary People Can Change the World.

Ivy Beckwith, Faith Formation Minister and Team Leader United Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio and co-author of Children’s Ministry in the Way of Jesus.

Kristie Berglund, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Brookings, South Dakota, former IVP academic sales manager, and author of Resurrection: Living as People of the Risen Lord.

Brent Bill, Quaker minister and co-author of Finding God in the Verbs: Crafting a Fresh Language of Prayer­ and Awaken Your Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God.
 

Beth Booram, Co-founder and Director of Sustainable Faith and author of Starting Something New: Spiritual Direction for Your God-given Dream and Awaken your Senses.
 

Jared Patrick Boyd, Founder of The Order of Sustainable Faith, Pastor and Spiritual Director at Franklinton Abbey, and author of upcoming Imaginative Prayer: A Yearlong Guide for the Spiritual Formation of Your Child.

Shane Claiborne, co-founder of Red Letter Christians and The Simple Way and co-author of Becoming the Answer to our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals.

Rodney Clapp, editor, Cascade Books, and author of Families at the Crossroads: Beyond Tradition and Modern Options and A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society.

Julie Clawson, author of Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices.

Dr. Christena Cleveland, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Practice of Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School and author of Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart.

Rev. Ian Morgan Cron, Episcopal priest and co-author of The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery.

David M. Csinos, Assistant Professor of Practical Theology, Atlantic School of Theology and co-author of Children’s Ministry in the Way of Jesus.

Dr. David Dark, Ph.D., educator at the Tennessee Prison for Women and Belmont University, and author of Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious.

Dr. Megan K. DeFranza, Ph.D., contributing author to Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis, and author of Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female, and Intersex in the Image of God (which is listed under recommended reading in InterVarsity’s position paper on Human Sexuality).

Rev. John Flett Ph.D., DTheol.Habil., Associate Professor of Missiology and Intercultural Theology at Pilgrim College/ University of Divinity, and author of Apostolicity: The Ecumenical Question in World Christian Perspective.

Dr. Dwight J. Friesen, D.Min, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, and co-author of The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community.

Sean Gladding, author of The Story of God, the Story of Us & TEN: Words of Life for an Addicted, Compulsive, Cynical, Divided and Worn-out Culture

Dale Hanson Bourke, author, The Skeptic’s Guide to: Poverty, Responding to HIV/AIDS, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Immigration.

Rev. Peter Goodwin Heltzel, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology and Director of the Micah Institute at New York Theological Seminary and co-author of Faith-rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World.

Christopher L. Heuertz, Founding Partner of Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism and author of Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World, co-author of Friendship at the Margins: Discovering Mutuality in Service and Mission, and contributor to Living Mission: The Vision and Voices of New Friars.

Phileena Heuertz, Founding Partner of Gravity, a Center for Contemplative Activism and author of Pilgrimage of a Soul: Contemplative Spirituality for the Active Life and contributor to Living Mission: The Vision and Voices of New Friars.

Michael Hidalgo, Lead Pastor, Denver Community Church, Author of Unlost: Being Found by the One We Are Looking for and Changing Fait

Jon Huckins, Co-Founding Director of Global Immersion and co-author of unnamed, upcoming 2017 IVP book.

Logan (Mehl-Laituri) Isaac, Executive Officer of Centurions Guild and author of Reborn on the Fourth of July: The Challenge of Faith, Patriotism, & Conscience.

Dr. Amy Jacober, Ph.D., Professor and co-founder of Sonoran Theological Group and author of The Adolescent Journey: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Practical Youth Ministry.

Dr. Sylvia C. Keesmaat, Ph.D, Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at Toronto School of Theology and the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, and so-author of Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire.

Erin Lane, Assistant Program Director for Clergy and People of Faith at the Center for Courage & Renewal and author of Lessons in Belonging from a Church-Going Commitment Phobe.

Andrew Marin, President and Founder of The Marin Foundation and author of the award winning Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community.

Dr. Jennifer M. McBride Ph.D., Associate Dean of Doctor of Ministry Programs and Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary and contributor to Christian Political Witness.

Dr. W. Travis McMaken, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religion and Chair of the Interdisciplinary Studies department, Lindenwood University and author of upcoming Explorer’s Guide to T. F. Torrance.

Rev. Dr. Kai Mark Nilsen, D.Min., Lead Pastor of Peace Lutheran in Columbus, Ohio and author of Renew Your Life: Discovering the Wellspring of God’s Energy.

Mark Oestreicher, Partner, The Youth Cartel and author of Hopecasting: Finding, Keeping and Sharing the Things Unseen.

Dr. Margaret Kim Peterson Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology and Psychology at Eastern University (St. Davids, PA), co-author of Are You Waiting for “The One?” Cultivating Realistic, Positive Expectations for Christian Marriage, and member of the editorial advisory board for the IVP’s Strategic Initiatives in Evangelical Theology series.

Dr. John Phelan Jr. Ph.D., Senior Professor of Theological Studies, North Park Theological Seminary, former IVCF staff, and author of Essential Eschatology: Our Present and Future Hope.

Caryn Rivadeneira, author, Broke: What Financial Desperation Revealed About God’s Abundance.

Rev. Dr. Jason Brian Santos, Ph.D., Mission Coordinator for Christian Formation Presbyterian Mission Agency, National Director of UKirk, the PC(USA)’s Collegiate Ministry Network, and author of A Community Called Taizé: A Story of Prayer, Worship and Reconciliation, and the upcoming Sustaining the Pilgrimage.

Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, founder of Faith-rooted Organizing UnNetwork and co-author of Faith-rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World.

Hailey Scandrette, contributor to Belonging and Becoming: Creating a Thriving Family Culture and contributor to Free: Spending Your Time and Money on What Matters Most.

Lisa Scandrette, Teacher with ReImagine, co author of Belonging and Becoming: Creating a Thriving Family Culture and contributor to Free: Spending Your Time and Money on What Matters Most.

Mark Scandrette, Founding Director, ReIMAGINE, author of Practicing The Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdome of Love, author of Free: Spending Your Time and Money on What Matters Most, and coauthor of Belonging and Becoming: Creating a Thriving Family Culture.

Christopher Smith, Founding Editor of The Englewood Review of Books, co-author of Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus and author of Reading For The Common Good: How Books Help Our Churches and Neighborhoods Flourish.

Suzanne Stabile, Co-founder and Animator of Life in the Trinity Ministry and co-author of The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery.

Dr. Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Psychology at Eastern University, and author of Gender and Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World, and My Brother’s Keeper: What the Social Sciences Do (and Don’t) Tell Us About Masculinity.

Laura Sumner Truax, Senior Pastor at LaSalle Street Church and author of Undone: When Coming Apart Puts You Back Together. 

Jer Swigart,  Co-Founding Director of Global Immersion, a peacemaking training organization and co-author of unnamed, upcoming 2017 IVP book.

Mark Van Steenwyk, Director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination, Co-Founder of the Mennonite Worker and author of the UnKingdom of God: Embracing the Subversive Power of Repentance.

Brian Walsh, CRC Campus Pastor at University of Toronto, Adjunct Professor at Toronto School of Theology, author of Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian World View, co-author of Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, and co-author of Truth is Stranger Than It Used To Be.

Wendy VanderWal-Gritter Executive Director, New Direction Ministries contributor to Letters to a Future Church: Words of Encouragement and Prophetic Appeals.

Will Vaus, Pastor of Stowe Community Church in Stowe Vermont and author of Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C.S. Lewis.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, co-author of Becoming the Answer to our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals and Associate Editor for IVP’s Resources for Reconciliation Series.

Dan White Jr., Co-Planter of Axiom Church Syracuse, New York. Co-author of The Church as Movement: Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities.

Dr. Daniel White Hodge Ph.D., Director of The Center for Youth Ministry Studies & Associate Professor of Youth Ministry at North Park University and author of The Soul of Hip Hop: Rimbs, Timbs, and a Cultural Theology.

Adrianna Wright, former online publicist for InterVarsity Press.

Keri Wyatt Kent, author of God’s Whisper in a Mother’s Chaos: Bringing Peace Home and The Garden of the Soul: Cultivating Your Spiritual Life.

Mark Yaconelli, Executive Director of The Hearth, author of The Gift of Hard Things: Finding Grace in Unexpected Places.

*Please note that organizations and titles listed for identification purposes only and do not necessarily reflect the position of the institution.