A SOFT WORD IN AN ANGRY HOUR

 

 

 

The first MLS tournament game, in the wake of lockdowns, was broadcast from the ESPN Wide World of Sports Center just after LFS (Live From Seattle) yesterday.  Without fans and without fanfare; the teams took to the pitch.  The starting 11 from each team kneeled around the center circle; as has been the practice of European matches, prior to our MLS restart, this year.  One by one; teammates along the sideline raised a fist, in solidarity with the BLM movement.  The announcer voiced the players cry for systemic change.  Team members, on the sidelines, sported t-shirts that, in part, read, “Silence is violence.”

 

I speak the language of civil dissent fluently.  I hail from a politically active family.  My mother pushed me in my stroller through my fair share of protests down I-5 and elsewhere, as a child.  We boycotted everything from tuna (for the killing of dolphins in tuna nets), grapes (due to treatment of migrant workers) and Nestles chocolate (for pushing baby formula to women in 3^rd world nations).  I grew up socially aware and I am thankful for that. 

 

However; It was so ingrained in me that at the age of 5.  When school bus drivers were delayed in taking children home from classes; I quickly organized a protest.  I wrangled together, with passion and misguided purpose, a large group of young children.  Little children, from kindergarten to age seven, marched away from the safety of the elementary school and down a busy highway.  All the while we chanted, “He**, no! We won’t go.”  I had no idea what I was doing but I was passionate in my cause.  

 

Christian stateman Edmund Burke is credited for this famous saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  I was reminded of that when I read the, now very popular phrase, on the soccer player’s t-shirts, “Silence is violence.”  People are enraged and frustrated often for legitimate reasons and are looking for relief.  But Proverbs 15:1 tells us that, “A soft word turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

 

Yusra Khogali, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto argued that white people are “recessive genetic defects” and purportedly mused about how the race could be “wiped out,” according to a, later deleted, post on what appears to be her Facebook page. (as reported in the Toronto Sun)

Fighting injustice with emotionally driven harsh words and actions stir up anger.”  And, are we not angry enough? 

 

The best known, most quoted phrase of St. Francis of Assisi is this, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”  There are a lot of voices in this hurting world.  There are an endless parade of victims and a growing army of the distraught.   There is injustice and there is bigotry but without real answers we have only protests, politics, policy and rage to relieve us.  Even, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13)

Voicing discontent may bring awareness, which is important.  But, much like my childhood protest, blindly leading children through danger to nowhere; our voices alone are not truly solving the heart of the problem. 

 

Romans 10:14 does call us to speak out, "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"  But there is also truth in that a picture, a living picture is worth a thousand words.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

 

My hope today is that I not be bogged down in the hurt and confusion, the strife and striving of the day.  I do not wish to contribute to the angry cacophony.  I want to sing out, through the quiet actions of my life and through soft words of truth that there are real answers and a real hope…that is the God story today.