CalChurches 
Today we saw the violent unfolding of the first active attack on our nation’s Capitol since 1812. How do we process this attack on our democracy and our most cherished national symbol – our Capitol?
The riots today that have caused our elected leaders in Congress to go into lockdown were impelled by not just a false narrative about a “stolen” election. They were impelled by the fear of a multi-racial and diverse society. That includes all of us, people who should be part of the large body of Christianity but are considered massively dangerous because we are largely justice seekers not fundamentalists. It includes everyone of color, every immigrant, every medical person fighting COVID that the rioters dismiss as a hoax, everyone not in a small set of white revolutionaries who wish to see America not what it is.
We who bear witness to justice for all, who live for peace and inclusion, who love our fellow humans whoever they may be, WE have been called to stand clearly for our nation’s ethos of justice, of inclusion, of fairness, of democratic process. I don’t have to tell you all any of this. It’s why we know one another. But we now have to be more outspoken, more present about affirming those values publicly and actively. We are ignored too often by the media which is our means of contemporary information sharing. We must raise our voices to be heard loudly proclaiming our devotion to our Christian principles and to the work of democracy unimpeded.
We learned early this afternoon that the attack on our nation’s Capitol was duplicated here in Sacramento. The Calfornia Highway Patrol and Sacramento Police Department had to shut down streets around our Capitol Park to tangle with insurrectionist rioters intent on breeching the building which, ironically, is empty due to COVID. Arrests were made, the building is safe. But where will this happen next? Who is safe?
Please begin some serious teaching moments in your congregations and communities. Please speak up for the entire process of democracy regardless of electoral outcomes. Our nation as a whole is more important than a specific election outcome. Respecting the truth, respecting the process, respecting the Constitution are far more important than that. Please bear witness as is safe to do for what we believe and for those we value. We had hoped always that it would never come to this. It has come. We can be passive adn quiet no more.
Please stay safe and keep the faith in both our beliefs and in our nation’s commitments to a democratic republic. We have everything to gain. We also have everything to lose. We must count on your voices to protect what we all value. Democracy is about all of us, together. Keep that in your hearts and in your actions.
Thank you.
