Five Reasons Why

The upcoming MLK holiday will mark the 100th day of a full-fledged genocide in Gaza. Here are five reasons why I believe that white progressive Christians in the US should break our painful collective silence and publicly advocate for a permanent ceasefire – and the full protection and liberation of Palestinian people going forward: 

1. Jesus told his disciples that God is partial to the poor, the persecuted and those who mourn. 11 Palestinians have been murdered every hour since October 7. Every single one of these lives was created in the image of God – an image that literally looks a lot more like Jesus than the white savior that American churches have stamped into our imaginations. 

2. Jesus told his disciples to stop focusing on the splinter in other people’s eyes and to take the plank out of our own. Remember how we felt for four years when Trump lied every time he opened his mouth? We were horrified by our white cousins and co-workers who justified it all. Well, that’s what’s happening now with Biden and most Democrats in Congress. For 100 days, they've repeated Israel’s lies – while tens of thousands of Palestinians have died. 

3. Jesus told his disciples to stop celebrating the deeds of their ancestors who killed prophetic movements. Many of our ancestors refused to join Black-led movements to abolish slavery and end segregation. They stayed silent in those historic moments - for the same reason that many white progressive Christians stay silent in this historic moment. They said the situation was “complicated.” It was not complicated back then – and it’s not complicated now. It's amazing how moral courage can clarify matters. 

4. Jesus told his disciples to be the light of the world and to get up on the lampstand and expose what darkness is hiding. For decades, white Christians have hidden under a bushel basket what Israel and the US have done to the Palestinian people. When we expose this truth, privileged and powerful white people will want to crucify us. This is what Jesus meant when he told us to deny ourselves and take up the cross. 

5. This weekend, we will celebrate the life of one of the most compelling US Christians in recent memory. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took up the cross. He also lamented the lack of white Christians participating in the Black freedom struggle. In an attempt to recruit them to the cause, he told white Christians that everyone is caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects someone directly, affects all of us indirectly. Plain and simple: our souls suffer when we seek to compartmentalize the suffering of others.