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In his book, Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote:
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
I was reminded of the reality of this statement on a recent, transformative trip I took.
I joined the Telos Group for their ReStory US trip—it’s a tour, pilgrimage really, of historic sites of racial justice and injustice in the southern United States.
We journeyed to the Whitney Plantation near New Orleans, went to the Medgar and Myrlie Evers family home in Jackson, walked the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and visited MLK’s parsonage in Montgomery.
But what was most important was not where we went, but who we went with.
Among others, this particular journeyed included four Palestinian Christians.
They were gracious enough to share their stories of pain and resistance amid a genocide happening right now in their homeland.
Their most frequent refrain was: Why aren’t more Christians in the United States speaking up for us? Why aren’t they publicly joining in solidarity with us?
I felt convicted.
I was also reminded of that quote by King: We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality…Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
At the same time I was learning more about the plight of the Palestinians, I heard of the unlawful detention of Mahmoud Khalil, himself a Palestinian. Then I heard about the deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans to a super-max prison (essentially a torture camp) in El Salvador.
These events are neither isolated nor unrelated. Whatever affects one affects all.
The same illegal, anti-democratic and authoritarian tactics they are now using on Palestinians and immigrants is coming for you, too.
This is an attack not only on democracy, but on solidarity as well.
Links and References
A Call for Repentance: An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians
What other current events seem disconnected from most people in the U.S. but are actually pat of the “inescapable network of mutuality”? How should people of conscience respond when injustice in one place signals a broader threat to us all? Let us know in the comments.
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