Mindfulness and resistance
Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash
Hello readers,
In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I wanted to take a moment and write this short piece that I hope you will find some encouragement in. We live in a challenging and frightening time. It’s easy to believe that the world is coming apart at the seams and we are powerless to stop it.
What we are watching unfold in Ukraine feels especially dark: a tyrant swallowing up another country whole. The images of bombings, children seeking shelter, and fathers separated from fleeing families to fight the invasion is as heartbreaking as it is angering. As someone who works on issues related to armed conflict, some of the images I’ve seen online present strong evidence of Russian war crimes.
Vladimir Putin may believe he knows how this ends, but history shows us that men who start wars rarely get to end them on their terms. War is hell and chaos. Some of us feel like we can’t bear to look at another crisis. But bear witness we must. It is the most human thing we can do, both for the Ukrainian people and ourselves.
Searching for wisdom and hope
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Sometimes it feels like those words have been repeated and misused so often that they’ve lost their meaning. But they remain as true today as they were when Dr. King said them, especially when we seek to understand his context.
Dr. King once said those words near the end of a remarkable speech he gave not about civil rights, but against the Vietnam War. It’s worth your time to read the whole speech, but here is a larger snippet:
“I have spoken in recent years before hundreds of thousands of young people in their colleges, in the slums, in churches and synagogues. Their comments and questions reflect a sharply rising body of opinion that the inability to influence government to adopt urgent reforms is not a consequence of any superficial ignorance, lethargy or prejudice, but is systemic. There is more serious discussion today about basic structural change in our society, that I can recall, over a decade…
It is worth remembering that there is a strong strain of dissent in the American tradition even in time of war. During the Mexican War, the intellectual elite of the nation, Emerson, Thoreau and many others were withering critics of our national policy. In the Congress, a relatively unknown first term congressman made a scathing address on the floor denouncing that war. The young congressman was Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. At the same time a young army lieutenant, almost decided to resign his commission to protest the war. His name was Ulysses Grant. So we must keep dissent alive and not allow it to become another casualty of the war in Vietnam.
As I move to my conclusion, let me ask you to indulge a personal reference. When I first decided to take a firm stand against the war in Vietnam, I was subjected to the most bitter criticism, by the press, by individuals, and even by some fellow civil rights leaders. There were those who said that I should stay in my place, that these two issues did not mix and I should stick with civil rights. Well I had only one answer for that and it was simply the fact that I have struggled too long and too hard now to get rid of segregation in public accommodations to end up at this point in my life segregating my moral concerns.
And I made it very clear that I recognized that justice was indivisible. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., November 1967 at The National Labor Leadership Assembly for Peace
I’ve read a lot of Dr. King over the past 15 years, but this particular speech is one I keep coming back to for two reasons. First, it showcases the powerful gift he had for seeing the world around him for what it was and the people around him for who they were. Second, it highlights how he refused to look away from the pain and suffering that a mass injustice inflicts on everyone, even when others tried to shove him in a single lane and keep him there. It’s this part of the speech that we see the two come together:
..I have struggled too long and too hard now to get rid of segregation in public accommodations to end up at this point in my life segregating my moral concerns.
I wish I had even half of that level of moral conviction. My fear is that I do not. I segregate my moral concerns daily. The white American in me whispers that I need to strike a balance. My human brain tempts me to anger that can easily give way to cause for inertia. The Christian part of me says I need to love.
Love is a strange thing. The kind of love that Dr. King practiced is a love I admit I do not fully understand. It’s a love that internalizes the brokenness of the world and still extends peace back into it. It’s a love that forces one to see the deep connections between various forms of oppression, wrongdoing, and the harm caused by both. It’s a love that speaks truth about those realities, even when it is incredibly painful and frustrating. The world gave Dr. King every reason to struggle for people who only looked like him, but he didn’t stop there. He couldn’t stop there. Christlike love made him keep going.
Internalizing our moment
Dr. King was able to see the world around him for what it was and love did not allow him to walk away. He was constantly bearing witness, constantly internalizing what he was seeing and hearing before pushing back out into the world, not to control it, but to do what he could to try to change it.
Our world today is both very different and very much the same as it was in Dr. King’s time. It is tempting to look away, not to bear witness to what very well may be the end of an entire country against the will of her people. It is tempting to look away not only because it is horrifying, but because oppression is complex and so exhausting.
And, if we’re honest, it is tempting to look away because what is being inflicted on Ukraine we have our own echoes of here in the United States. This feels like it hits close to home because it does. Bearing witness helps us understand how and why and informs our response.
If you haven’t yet understood how the toxic swirl of authoritarianism, nationalism, misuse of history, and disinformation leads to political aggression and false justifications for mass violence, that’s understandable. These are complex, ever-evolving problems that even experts never stop studying. Dr. King didn’t just speak. He also listened. He also watched. He was a student just as much as he was a teacher. I’ve been studying the above problems within a narrow context via my day job for well over a decade now. Most days I feel like I’ve still only scratched the surface.
Like Dr. King, we should always be growing in our mindfulness of how these oppressions and dangers interact with the broader culture and our lives. Doing so can help us become less susceptible to fear-mongering, hate, and othering and more in tune with truth, justice, and discernment. With regards to how these dangers intersect in Ukraine, here are a few places to start:
It’d be delusional to read any of this and fail to see parallels in our own country. We’re not immune from these dark tendencies in the United States, although they certainly have their own flavor here. Authoritarianism exists in both our major political parties (albeit much more dangerously on the political right). Nationalism is embedded so deeply in many of our churches that some genuinely believe it is authentic Christianity. We misuse, twist beyond recognition, and outright hide our country’s own history for the comfort of the powerful. And misinformation and disinformation swirl around us like toxic fumes, poisoning our minds and pushing us deeper into ideological bubbles.
These realities have been a part of who we are since before our country was even born. We saw all four on full display during the January 6 insurrection. It’s why the American far-right has an affinity for Vladimir Putin. There’s nothing odd about it. It’s always been there. If you have eyes to see it, it is impossible not to see it.
But somehow, through it all, we’re still here. I can only prayerfully hope our growing knowledge of the deep challenges we face and the oppressors lurking behind them prepares us to resist any authoritarian that demands blind loyalty in the pursuit of treating fellow human beings as threats to be destroyed. We live in challenging times, but we all face the same choice: pursuing justice, or living without it. Justice anywhere can help bring justice everywhere.
We may not be able to stop the crimes being unleashed upon Ukraine and her people right now; however, if we are to take Dr. King seriously, then we will see the same types of aggressions and oppressions in our own country and our own communities. We can see how they connect to injustice elsewhere. And we can see that it is the marginalized and vulnerable who suffer the most, be they in the United States or in Ukraine or in Russia.
Like Dr. King, we must bear witness to our times so we are capable of finding a path through to something better. I am more certain than ever before that this decade is going to be rough, but the end that the oppressors of our world seek is not inevitable. In our own lives, we must speak against and seek to end oppression as far as it is found. When we do, we help create space for others to do the same.
And we must find hope in the truth that, as we participate in the best humanity has to offer, what appears to be dark, powerful, and unchangeable are shown to be none of those things when they finally collapse upon themselves.
I explore faith and American church culture from Memphis, TN. Never miss an article by signing up for my free newsletter or becoming a member. You can also subscribe to my podcast.
