Belafonte, the Forest Defenders, Fighting for Welfare
KTF Weekly Newsletter
Hi everyone,
The media world exploded this week with the news that Tucker Carlson is suddenly out of a job, but we’re not talking about that in this newsletter. His replacement will be the next in a long line of Fox personalities talented at whipping up the worst fears and instincts of white people in America, and they might be better at it than Carlson was. Better to focus on the things that help us move forward in ways that truly matter as we leave colonized faith for the kingdom of God. So here are this week’s highlights.
Jonathan’s Recommendations:
Sociologist Professor Ruth Braunstein writes for Religion News Service something that we at KTF have known for a long time: “The most recent rise of Christian nationalism has ignited a wave of resistance.” But she specifically highlights that this new resistance includes significant leadership and financial support from white Christians, even though Christians of color and non-Christians have traditionally dominated the space. There are growing numbers of White Christians walking away from the privileged position that those who pledge allegiance to Christian Nationalism enjoy. Praise God for that. But White Christians, just like anyone who holds social power because of oppression, must not only disavow the concept of Christian nationalism but also the system that upholds it. So, White Christians must also leave whiteness, or they risk perpetuating the same oppression they tried to leave while they are present in the resistance. Pray that those white Christians would walk all the way down the road on which they’ve started. Ask God that they would follow the BIPOC and non-Christian leaders who have resisted unholy fascism for much longer than Donald Trump has been a president. Jesus, may it be so.
Earth Week and police brutality intersected in a forest in Georgia as officials in the state released the autopsy reports of a man living among Atlanta’s “Forest Defenders.” Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies killed Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán by shooting him 57 times while he was seemingly unarmed and protesting the plans for Cop City, a police training center that would destroy a historic forest. Activists living in the protest encampment in the forest assert that the training center would perpetuate the very kind of militarized violence that killed Tortuguita. Natasha Lennard of The Intercept reports on the case and argues that police are doing everything they can to suppress this movement because it has been so successful. Violence against those that would dare practice nonviolent civil disobedience is not new; but our numbness to violence perpetrated against protesters is particularly dangerous in this country where police shootings are routine occurrences, guns outnumber people, and most mass shootings are not even newsworthy. We pray for justice, accountability, and powerful advocacy for both.
Last week, my 2nd-grade daughter reflected on the freedom for which she was most thankful as part of a school assignment. She wrote, “I’m thankful to be able to read about anything I want in history.” So, I was particularly sad to hear that the Republican majority in the Missouri state legislature passed a law completely defunding public libraries this week. This comes on the heels of a court ruling in Texas that the state’s book ban like the ones Republicans are proposing across the country is unconstitutional. And if Republicans can’t censor libraries, they are going to shut them down. It is difficult as an author and leader in a company that seeks to center and elevate marginalized voices to see legislators, often in the name of the Jesus I follow, leverage their powers to suppress all things different from their preferences. Jesus calls us to love Him with our minds and that is at odds with the movement in our country to resist critical thought.
Sy’s recommendations:
Last month, I wrote in this newsletter about the passing of disability rights icon Judy Heumann, and mentioned that she had a podcast which is very much worth your time. But Heumann’s team had five episodes of the show recorded before her death, which they are now releasing. Last week’s was a really interesting panel discussion Heumann hosted about disability and religion featuring disabled women from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian backgrounds (the Christian happened to be former Shake the Dust guest Dr. Amy Kenny). All four women speak passionately and insightfully about the power of disability inclusion in religious spaces and relate those thoughts beautifully to their traditions’ theologies. It was especially interesting to me to hear a legend like Heumann talk with uncharacteristic vulnerability about the pain of her own exclusion from religious activities as a child, a poignant reminder of the spiritual importance of disability justice in religious spaces.
The movement, largely of Black women, across the country to secure welfare for low-income communities is one of history’s lesser-known justice movements. This piece from Mother Jones profiles several women from the incredibly successful Clark County Welfare Rights Organization in Las Vegas. They spent decades securing money from federal programs to provide everything from food to housing to medical care in their communities before politicians demonized and stripped benefits from welfare recipients, defunding the federal programs. But the organization’s work is a great example of how the best way to meet community needs is to put funds in the hands of people in the communities themselves who are most aware of and attentive to those needs. This movement of mostly working-class mothers accomplished incredible things, including leading a protest that shut down the city’s famous Strip to protest welfare cuts that limited their children’s access to food. In many ways, it’s a story of profound injustice. But it also shows us what is possible when we empower the right people to fight poverty rather than funneling them into paternalistic programs designed by politicians with bigoted beliefs about poor people and BIPOC.
We lost a giant of both the entertainment industry and the civil rights movement this week in Harry Belafonte. This obituary chronicles the winding road that was his career and life in activism. He never shied away from speaking his mind, which sometimes made his allies uncomfortable, and often enraged his opponents. But he absolutely put his money where his mouth was, providing the lion’s share of the initial funding for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and consistently fundraising for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work. He bailed civil rights activists out of jail on many occasions, and used his influence to fight Apartheid in South Africa. It is worth stopping to reflect on the life of someone who, despite unprecedented success, did not seek the endless increase of his celebrity or wealth because he had other, more urgent priorities.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
The KTF team