Vol 5. Iss. 1: Protest as Sermon

by Hannah Giffen

Walking down the streets crowded with protesters at the United for Peace and Justice march at the Republican National Convention in August, I longed for publicity. With each camera that turned towards our “Hey, hey…Ho, Ho...Bad theology’s got to go!,” I envisioned a clip on a national TV news show. It would be a break from all the hours of publicity devoted to a Christianity whose loudest messages are messages of hate: a few seconds of footage of those crazy Union students, who believe that Jesus was an anti-poverty activist, a pacifist, and more than anything, a bearer of radical love.

And so, I got up early on that Sunday, and went to march. I like marching because it’s a way of speaking with your body. Just being at a march makes a statement; it’s a sermon that the rest of the world can see. Like voting, many people think that it won’t matter if you do it or not – and yet, if enough people do it, it can have a large impact. Instead of a single-bodied sermon, it’s hundreds or thousands or millions of bodies coming together to make a huge, collaborative, banner-sized statement. It matters for the people who are there, who gain courage to do something about their common beliefs. It also matters for the people who aren’t there, who may have more reason to think about why they agree or disagree with the message powerfully demonstrated by the movement of masses of bodies.

For me, this is a clearly a time in which huge bannersized messages are needed: a time in which the decisions that are made will change tthis is a clearly a time in which huge banner-sized messages are needed:this is a clearly a time in which huge banner-sized messages are needed: the course of our history for good or for evil. America and Christianity are both very much in need of the messages that will help them gain humility, generosity, and a willingness to be in true community with others. To get there, we have to bear witness to our beliefs, spreading our message to those who are of a different mindset, and imprinting the message more firmly on our own minds, on our own lives. I hope that here, at Union, we will continue to empower each other, with our mouths and with our bodies, to bring about the Reign of God on earth. Together, we can turn the cameras towards a different Christianity.