In the aftermath of Renee Good’s killing, Episcopal Bishop Rob Hirschfeld participated in a prayer vigil honoring the victim of an ICE agent’s unjustified aggression. He sent a clear message to his clergy. The time has come to act against a state that excuses the homicide of an American mother by blaming the victim. To act, no matter the cost.
This is how NBC Boston reported Hirshfield’s exhortation to his audience. Their report starts:
A New Hampshire Episcopal bishop is attracting national attention after warning his clergy to finalize their wills and get their affairs in order to prepare for a “new era of martyrdom.”
The report continues with the outspoken Bishop providing historical context for his message to fellow diocesans.
Hirschfeld's speech cited several historical clergy members who had risked their lives to protect others, including mentioning New Hampshire seminary student Jonathan Daniels, who was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy in Alabama while shielding a young Black civil rights activist in 1965.
“I have told the clergy of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness,” Hirschfeld said. “And I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written, because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies, to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”
This is the church at its best. When it has shelved its lectures. Quashed its moralizing. And stood up for “the most vulnerable.” In this case, the unarmed and mistreated victims of a marauding and anonymous horde of ill-trained and poorly-supervised agents of an imperious and autocratic government.
Hirschfeld stayed true to the philosophy of nonviolent resistance. A strategy practiced by the 20th-century titans of the fight against oppression: Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. NBC added:
Hirschfeld did not call for violence, but instead said people of Christian faith should not fear death.
“Those of us who are ready to build a new world, we also have to be prepared,” he said. “If we truly want to live without fear, we cannot fear even death itself, my friends.”
Protestant church management is divided into two camps. One, conservative Christians, who obsess about sex. And sublimate social activism to moral crusades and the congregation’s personal relationship with Jesus. Two, liberal Christians who focus on social justice, defending the powerless, and protecting the downtrodden from the excesses of an autocratic state.
Hirschfeld is in the second camp. His Christianity is that of the Sermon on the Mount. In that discourse, Jesus criticized the self-righteous for their sadistic piety and maltreatment of the unfortunate. Matthew 25:43 (NIV) reports he said, “I was a stranger and you did not invite me in.”
The Bishop is not alone. The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, reacted to the administration’s policies on immigration in general, and Good’s killing specifically, by saying during a prayer last week:
“We keep resisting, advocating, bearing witness, and repairing the breach. We keep sheltering and caring for those among us who are immigrants and refugees because they are beloved by God, and without them, we cannot fully be the church.”
In Minnesota, Rt. Rev. Craig Loya urged people not to meet “hatred with hatred.” But instead, focus on love in “a world obviously not fine.” Adding:
“We are going to make like our ancient ancestors, and turn the world upside down by mobilizing for love. We are going to disrupt with Jesus’ hope. We are going agitate with Jesus’ love.”
That reference to “our ancient ancestors” calls to mind another Bible verse, Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV): "What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.”
That ancient observation has stood the test of time. It remains germane across history, geography, and culture. There will always be the opportunists looking to impose their dystopian ambition on decent people. But society will always be enriched by those who see humanity as a cause greater than their own self-interest.
Some people gird their loins for the struggle by thinking they are doing God’s work. Others get their courage from an innate sense of right. Either way, they are comrades-in-arms in the fight against a predatory state unbounded by morality.
