ybvdadminuser(RNS) — This year, the first of an American autocracy, is not one to make typical resolutions. The incoming president’s first term showed him to be a wannabe autocrat, but there were some guardrails in place — even from some of the people around him. This time there are no internal guardrails. It remains to be seen how resilient to an autocrat American society will be. Will Congress rein him in? Civil society? Churches? And how far will the autocrat want to go? Only time will tell.
Without knowing what is ahead, here are my suggested five aspirations.
Take some time for a devotional. After you wake each morning, even before reading or listening to the news — even before your word games — start the day with some silence, prayer, Scripture, mindfulness, then see what is happening in the country and the world. I have found the prayer app Lectio 365 helpful to begin the day. With my sons, I am also reading “A Year With C.S. Lewis,” and given the time we are in, I am also reading “A Year With Dietrich Bonhoeffer.”
Be attentive to when, where and how you can stand up for those who will need protection. Autocrats always go after racial minorities first, then other “enemies within” as this newly elected president has also threatened to do. We need to prepare for the threats of mass deportation of up to 11 million undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers. White Christians and their churches especially must be ready to defend nonwhite immigrants, and Black and brown parents and pastors, who are very fearful of racialized policing. If and when those in government try to take away hard-earned civil rights, everyone must speak out and stand up in opposition.
A quote for this new year comes from German resistance pastor Martin Niemöller in the 1930s:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
Learn how to tell the truth and oppose the lies going on all around us. Teach your children not to lie, then model truth-telling in big and little ways. In your small family and friend circles, be diligent and vigilant in being forthright. In Bible study and prayer groups, keep pointing to truth when the society is losing the truth to lies. Be personally and financially supportive of journalists and media that do try to tell the truth against political propaganda. Give courage to pastors to be truth-tellers in their pulpits when autocratic government tries to undermine the very idea of truth itself. People of faith must insist on being truthful in this world and make their best effort to live by truth.
Act. Don’t just talk. Don’t be content to use your words and share your complaints with your circle of friends and your own social bubbles and silos. Taking action is the best antidote and alternative to the cynicism and despair that comes from just talking to those who are the same as you. And take action for the common good of your neighborhoods and cities — practical good that your fellow neighbors also see as good and necessary for everyone’s sake, not just your own self-interest.
Remember the core of all our faith traditions: Love your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. Recall the parable of the good Samaritan, which teaches that the neighbor we must love is the one different from us. There are no “others,” no “us and them,” if we are followers of Jesus.
That is true faith, which must be separated from the false and idolatrous religion that is nationalist, prosperous and most concerned with power. Confessing Christ across color lines is the real future of faith. A remnant church of minorities can only save us on national and global scales. And in a time of great polarization, we must remember Jesus’ hardest teaching of all — to love our enemies — not by submitting to their agendas, but by winning them over instead of winning over them, and even by nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience.
I am going to try to live by these aspirations in the year of our Lord 2025. If you think they might be helpful to you, let’s try them together.
May God bless us in this new year.
(The Rev. Jim Wallis is director of Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice and the author, most recently, of “The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)
