Protest Today
I was on the streets twice today, once this morning to pray with MICAH Holy Ground Prayer Vigils at the site of homicide victims, four deaths remembered this morning. The second time was in a nearby suburb to protest one of the Republican assembly persons who voted against collective bargaining for state workers today. The first one was quiet and prayerful with people praying as they may and afterward hugs for the family of the victims. The political protest was orderly but noisy with signs, chants and marching.
Prayer and protest both work. In prayer we put ourselves in the hands of God, his mercy and power. In protest, we take a nonviolent stand for what we believe, today for the collective bargaining rights of state workers.
Yesterday at Marquette we combined protest and prayer as we stood together in the Marquette University Library lobby to pray for and protest Marquette’s participation in the killing of the war in Afghanistan as we stood and said We Are Marquette.
In prayer and protest God is neither a Republican nor Democrat, although political parties and prayer groups do try to make God on their side. As Jim Wallis of Sojourners magazine says there is God’s Politics which is about “seeking God’s will on earth as it is in heaven
In political battles, like we are now experiencing in Wisconsin, Republicans say this is what voters voted for and the Democrats say vote the Republicans out. Both parties seek power. In God’s politics, which is neither Republican nor Democrat the nonviolent struggle for justice for all prevails; prayer and protest are aligned and seek the same thing.
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