Creating (Online) Community Support for Action in Faith & Justice
Monday nuggets & action steps: a reflection + an experiment I'm trying.
1. The reflection: Sometimes I feel isolated in my varied endeavors to take action around advocacy & justice in my everyday life, in my community, and in my ministry. Can you relate?
I heard a video from the brilliant Sonya Renee Taylor recently about how a focus on individualism (which is different than individuality, which I think is important & healthy) not only "abdicates our ability to make choices as individuals in support of the collective," but it also can make it easy for "terf wars"/comparison and a sense of isolation to creep into the ways many of us want to be about doing good and living justly.
This isn't the only factor that makes this work feel hard and lonely at times, but it's one I've noticed especially so in within myself recent months. I’m in ongoing discernment about how my digital life can merge with my activist life, and this experiment may very likely reveal that much more refining needs to occur. But with as much time as so many of us are spending on these platforms, we might as well use them for good & for bold love, right?
2. The what: I'm going to try something every other Monday evening, inspired in part by Rev. William Barber's Moral Monday movement, for the next 2 months (August 9-October 4) and see how it goes.
The how: I’m going to share on Facebook & Instagram (which might evolve into a different platform depending on response) 1-2 nuggets of inspiration (meaning interesting perspectives/quotes/frameworks) related to justice/social action (often with a faith lens), and 1-2 connected justice/mercy-related actions inspired by emails and articles from excellent organizations/communities (with links to support them).
1. The reflection: Sometimes I feel isolated in my varied endeavors to take action around advocacy & justice in my everyday life, in my community, and in my ministry. Can you relate?
I heard a video from the brilliant Sonya Renee Taylor recently about how a focus on individualism (which is different than individuality, which I think is important & healthy) not only "abdicates our ability to make choices as individuals in support of the collective," but it also can make it easy for "terf wars"/comparison and a sense of isolation to creep into the ways many of us want to be about doing good and living justly.
This isn't the only factor that makes this work feel hard and lonely at times, but it's one I've noticed especially so in within myself recent months. I’m in ongoing discernment about how my digital life can merge with my activist life, and this experiment may very likely reveal that much more refining needs to occur. But with as much time as so many of us are spending on these platforms, we might as well use them for good & for bold love, right?
2. The what: I'm going to try something every other Monday evening, inspired in part by Rev. William Barber's Moral Monday movement, for the next 2 months (August 9-October 4) and see how it goes.
The how: I’m going to share on Facebook & Instagram (which might evolve into a different platform depending on response) 1-2 nuggets of inspiration (meaning interesting perspectives/quotes/frameworks) related to justice/social action (often with a faith lens), and 1-2 connected justice/mercy-related actions inspired by emails and articles from excellent organizations/communities (with links to support them).
As I’m sure is true for many of you, I get emails from lots of organizations asking me to take action in different areas. I often read the emails and then want to immediately send or share them with lots of individual folks I know— so why not share them here? Perhaps this is where some sort of Facebook group/group text/other group platform could be helpful.
The why #1: The hope of sharing these nuggets & action steps in this space is to not only remind myself to take consistent action, but to also do so in community and to hear about the ways you are taking action and the communities you are supporting, so that I can continue learning.
The why #2: Maybe you’re overwhelmed with all the emails and all the possibilities and want something small, consistent, and tangible, too. Maybe you sometimes feel lonely as you sign petitions or make calls, or want to learn more about how to live out justice & collective care values in a multitude of ways- but maybe don’t have a core community (online or otherwise) to share & have mutual conversation/encouragement.
To be super clear: I am not the educator or the facilitator. I want to share things that are challenging & inspiring me, point folks to organizations that need collective support, and hear about who you’re supporting and learning from that I can also learn more about.
Three things I’ll own upfront: I will be imperfect at this. I will have blinders that need removing or correcting, and I’m open to that. The line between sharing information to inspire action vs. to perform is very blurry sometimes- and I’ll need to be in constant discernment & accountable relationship about this.
I’m a “space creator,” and thrive on creating spaces & containers for people to dig deep, learn together, and hold one another in mutual love & accountability. This is a tiny why I’m attempting to offer that- even on an imperfect platform.
If any of this is resonating or you’re scratching your head or have specific thoughts/ideas/questions— I’d really love to hear them.
The why #1: The hope of sharing these nuggets & action steps in this space is to not only remind myself to take consistent action, but to also do so in community and to hear about the ways you are taking action and the communities you are supporting, so that I can continue learning.
The why #2: Maybe you’re overwhelmed with all the emails and all the possibilities and want something small, consistent, and tangible, too. Maybe you sometimes feel lonely as you sign petitions or make calls, or want to learn more about how to live out justice & collective care values in a multitude of ways- but maybe don’t have a core community (online or otherwise) to share & have mutual conversation/encouragement.
To be super clear: I am not the educator or the facilitator. I want to share things that are challenging & inspiring me, point folks to organizations that need collective support, and hear about who you’re supporting and learning from that I can also learn more about.
Three things I’ll own upfront: I will be imperfect at this. I will have blinders that need removing or correcting, and I’m open to that. The line between sharing information to inspire action vs. to perform is very blurry sometimes- and I’ll need to be in constant discernment & accountable relationship about this.
I’m a “space creator,” and thrive on creating spaces & containers for people to dig deep, learn together, and hold one another in mutual love & accountability. This is a tiny why I’m attempting to offer that- even on an imperfect platform.
If any of this is resonating or you’re scratching your head or have specific thoughts/ideas/questions— I’d really love to hear them.
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