Here we go
on a mission to export neighborism
Welcome to the New Moon, where we close the old lunation and begin anew.
This past weekend I attended a candidate meet and greet during a blizzard. The snow was still falling, but the busses were running (on a reduced schedule) and, luckily, I live right on a bus line. There I met a young person, a fellow people’s delegate to Congressional District 61, who was one of the clergy who was arrested at MSP. He told us that he works in hospice. And it seemed to me all of my lives are crisscrossing into one here.
Likewise the spring holidays of the three Abrahamic religions are converging. Eid al-Fitr begins tomorrow night, a celebration for Muslims which marks the end of Ramadan’s month of fasting. Passover for the Jews begins in 2 weeks with the full moon. And the Christian’s Easter happens on the Sunday during that week of Passover.
All these holidays are connected to the lunar cycle. Both the Hebrew calendar and the Islamic calendar are based on the moon. The Hebrew keeps in sync with the solar by adding a leap month every 3 years or so, while the Islamic calendar keeps strictly lunar, causing Ramadan to shift around in the solar. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. Therefore the more lunary tracking ones float around Easter.
Historically, Easter is tied to Passover as Jesus celebrated it with his disciples at the last supper. Breaking the matzo and drinking wine and honoring all the symbols of past slavery and the path to liberation. Jesus kneeled and washed their feet before the night was over, and taught that they should follow his example of servant leadership rather than striving for worldly power.
Back in December, I wrote to you about The Light in the Storm training I attended with ISAIAH. It was there that they shown a light on a path to a Palm Sunday action which is coming right up on March 29th, 10 days from the posting of this letter. If history and spirituality interests you as much as it does me, this action will be a meaningful one. Read more about it below.
This path they set us out upon has been very full. Of trainings, caucuses, conversations, bus rides, zooms, and meeting new people. And because they could not have anticipated metro surge. It made our posture all the more powerful and ready as we pivoted to protect each other. We learned much about the 1st and 4th amendment, sent many letters to businesses and representatives, and attended a Hennepin County Board meeting. The movement has blossomed to diverse actions happening all over and as they shown us last December, each leader is rising from their own grounding in this experience.
That post back in December also shared this YouTube conversation that Heather Cox Richardson had with Diana Butler Bass, a Christian-thinker and historian who is one of the people reworking the face of Christianity. I continue to return to it as it shifted my perspective on many things. As a historian of Christianity, Bass spoke about how its early foundation in time came from the kinder Jewish model of alternating rest and work, but ultimately moved away from it into the more imperial model of linear time where stories have beginnings, middles and ends, with winners and losers. She suggests a more cyclical, or even spiraling, narrative that would help believers resist the narratives of capitalism, imperialism, and consumerism. If I had had her as a model when I was raising my kids, perhaps we would have taken more from a Christian calendar.
As an interfaith family, we tended to put more emphasis on Jewish holidays than the Christian ones, including the weekly one of the Sabbath meal on Fridays. We made that choice partly because the Christian experience is so centered here in the U.S., we wanted to make sure they felt connected to their Jewish heritage. But also because I had been turned off by the Imperial Christian Nationalism that has become the main face of Christianity for many years now.
We made a point of regularly eating a sabbath meal with family and once a month with a DIY group we called Chavurah, created with the spiritual education of our kids in mind. Our commitment to monthly gatherings was foundational to our group and mirrored Judaism's lunar calendar, which I hadn’t realized I had taken to heart until I heard Bass speak about it. Now, the monopoly on our public discourse has become even more blatant with the morally repugnant Christian Nationalism of Pete Hegseth and the like taking their beliefs to an unconstitutional war in Iran.
This time of moral reckoning calls for a display a Christianity rooted around its central command to love thy neighbor. In the fight against authoritarianism it’s best to prioritize defections and so many of us grew up with lessons of Jesus. This overtly Christian action asks us to take a stand for healing the sick, for feeding the hungry, and welcoming the stranger, just as Jesus described in Matthew 25. The procession to the capital is modeled after Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem upon a donkey.
The historical Palm Sunday is extremely relevant to our current times. Not unlike Trump, Herod, king at the time of Jesus’ birth, was known for his summer homes and ballrooms, extracting from everyday people in order to pay for his wars and luxuries. Sounds very familiar. Many rebellions brewed throughout Jesus’ lifetime, villages rising up in revolt against Roman taxes and extraction. Soldiers would arrive to burn the villages to the ground and take any survivors as slaves. Jesus was radicalized by Rome’s taxation and extraction system and the temple had become the center of it. Every year as Passover approached, Jewish pilgrims filled the streets of Jerusalem. And every year Roman rulers marched their soldiers into Jerusalem during the season to tamp down the freedom that naturally brewed with such festivities. The show of military might was meant to strike fear and remind the celebrants to behave. So when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, it was occupied by Roman forces. He rode in on a donkey as an act of resistance. Instead of a warhorse, he rode a symbol of humility and peace, in stark contrast to Pontius Pilate’s war procession. The crowd yelled “Hosanna,” challenging Roman authority and the wealthy aristocratic party that dominated the temple and worked closely with Pontius Pilate to maintain order. Jesus’ direct resistance was a planned act of political theater and the event happened just days before he was put to death.
Join in to draw a contrast to the current administrations actions and proclaim a faith that centers love for our neighbors and rejects a politics rooted in greed and cruelty.
There will be Palm Sunday Faith Actions in at least 10 states on Palm Sunday, March 29th. Here is a copy of the flier, including other locations if you are interested. Sign up to get more updates!
Details for Metro Action:
-Gather around 1:30pm at a set of churches right near University and Dale Street (St. James AME, LCR, Camphor, Pilgrim Baptist).
-Then meet at University and Dale at 2pm.
-Process for a mile to the Capitol for about 45 minutes.
-Gather on the MN State Capitol lawn at 2:30pm.
-Worship together 2:30pm till around 4:30pm with sermonets, activities for kids, singing.
One of the things I am most excited about this action in Minneapolis is the involvement of the Black Power Churches and their choirs. They will be at the front of the procession and have invited people to their churches to learn the songs with them in the week leading up to Palm Sunday. The Black Church Power Project will be leading music throughout. Before Palm Sunday, we can learn songs at community choir rehearsals. Sign up or let me know if you want more info.
Yes, Indivisible has planned a NO KINGS event for the day before, which is sure to be big and wonderful, and no shade if you prefer that one. I may go to that as well, but I am prioritizing this Palm Sunday action and I wanted you to know about it and consider joining me.
Updates below:
Authoritarianism looks different in Memphis- States at the Core has this post about how a different state response has affected how the ICE rollout looks in Memphis. States at the Core was where I got observer training and now I get post updates from them.
Department of Homeland Security’s funding shutdown(as written about here and here)- The White House has told 2 Senate Republicans it may be open to rolling back some (not many) of its aggressive enforcement efforts. Small airports are in tough shape and this traveling season is proving to be tough with all that is going on.
Eviction Crisis- The city has an approved 1 million from the affordable housing fund. Not enough but a first step.
HCMC Crisis (same recap as last post)- As mentioned above JD Vance announces the withholding of Medicaid funds and that plus the cuts in the BBB, specifically medicaid and in addition Minnesots Republicans repealed a Minnesota Care eligibility for immigrants that all led to higher uncompensated emergency room costs for hospitals, especially HCMC, because it is a safety-net hospital which by mission and legal obligation treats low income, uninsured and vulnerable populations. The loss of HCMC would be huge, for those populations and because it is our premier trauma hospital. It provides specialized and comprehensive care as the best trauma hospital in the state. The kids from Annunciation were sent there and survived as a result of the care they received. It holds much of our state-of-the-art equipment. Our doctors are trained there. The closing of HCMC cannot happen, that would be a travesty for our state. What can we do to save it?
Save the BWCA(same recap as last post)- during the height of the ICE occupation of Minneapolis, Representative Stauber brought forth a novel use of the Congressional Review Act which to undo 20 year mining ban. It hasn’t been used in this way before but the House passed a bill that would allow TwinMetals, a Chilean mining company, to mine for copper in the BWCA watershed. There is a high occurrence of pollution from copper mines. This bill is not the last stop gap to the company but it would open the way for the rule to be used against other public lands where greedy companies, whether foreign or national, and allows a reckless president for other public lands to be opened up in this way. It has yet to come up on the senate floor, but it is thought that it could come up at any moment. Call your Senators and tell them to vote no on HJ Res 140 or delay, delay so that the 60 day window runs out for it to come out on the floor.
I went to the Hennepin County Board Meeting on March 10- the first part of the meeting was open for public comments. People spoke out about ICE, HCMC, and the largest concern people seemed to have was about election security. It is local governments across the country that will most clearly see the consequence’s of the billionaire tax cuts in the so called “Big Beautiful Bill” (BBB). Our Hennepin County budget is the biggest one after the state budget. Where our local government agencies will come up against the fiscal shortfalls of the cuts and will have to cut services or figure out how to raise funds. See above with HCMC. See also the costs associated with the mess that ICE leaves in its wake. We need our boards to speak up about the consequences of extending those billionaire tax cuts and consider where we go from here. We should work to repeal or significantly amend HR1 or the BBB.
I head to my Convention this Saturday. The People’s Agenda. That means it is time for me to engage fellow delegates about the issues. Walking sub-caucuses are a mystery to me. Apparently you walk around and join groups that support the same issues as you do. Groups with the largest amount of delegates, get the highest number of delegates to move on to the next convention. The People’s Delegates remain uncommitted to a candidate to retain their power. Here are some issue thoughts that I have “SAVE HCMC,” “repeal the BBB,” or “protect free and fair elections.” These are just off the cuff.
Song for the New Moon
I have shared my Playlist “the citizens’ mixtape” a few times before, but I have been thinking lately to include individual songs at the end of each post that somehow are related to the content, or how I feel at the moment, or who knows how I will choose. Most likely it will come up in the writing. If I remember, I would like to do this as a regular feature. So this New Moon’s song is one that really pulled me in on my walk yesterday and I wanted to share with you.