faith-rooted organizing

This is a blog post I wrote for my Mobilizing for Justice class. I attended a Faith-rooted Organizing conference this February, and this is my reflection on it. Enjoy:)

“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Matt. 10:16

Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Alexia Salvatierra, facilitator of the 2-day Faith-Rooted Organizing conference I attended at South Loop Community Church in February, continually referenced this scripture throughout our time together. Community organizing can be a handful; trying to connect all sorts of diverse people in a community to advocate for change in an organized fashion is quite a feat. Alexia has been involved with faith-rooted community organizing (specifically the Christian faith, just to clarify) in many different facets over the years. Over just a couple days, she managed to lay out a solid foundation regarding how the faith component is so essential and valuable in efforts to organize. Some people argue that approaching organizing from a faith perspective can compromise the effort, as Christian values (of loving your enemies, of doing all things with righteousness and integrity) can make it tricky when choosing to attack an unjust system or structure. How do you lovingly confront someone who is perpetrating an injustice? However, her constant reminder to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves serves as a model for how Christians can boldly, wisely, strategically – yet still lovingly – live out our biblical mandate to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

As someone who wants to work in faith-based nonprofit organizations, the material and strategies I learned from this conference were exceptionally relevant. The talks and discussions insightfully demonstrated how faith-rooted organizing has much to offer in the struggle against the unjust systems and structure we face today. I learned the basic components of organizing [goals, analysis, strategies, recruitment, leadership development and leadership sustaining] in addition to the essential components the faith factor brings to the table.

Instead of inhibiting the organizing effort, faith-rootedness ultimately enhances it in huge ways. The faith perspective has a lot to offer a group of people who are working together against an organization, corporation, or system that has markedly more financial resources and hard power than the community organizers will ever have. Faith offers an entirely different understanding of the situation when the odds seem stacked against you. For starters, its definitions of wealth and power differ from the standard definitions of those words in our culture. In the Christian context, wealth does not have to do with just money, and power is not exclusively in the hands of those at the top. Faith-rootedness helps community organizers see the potential power that exists in the hands of the poor and the oppressed. The voices of those who have been systematically wronged and abused hold much power, as they have the right to call out those who have oppressed and harmed them. Those at the top of unjust systems and structures (who appear to be the primary power-brokers) in reality have some severe vulnerabilities, as they reached their position through the exploitation of the weak and the poor. People of faith within the community not only value the oppressed and the marginalized in society, but are called by God to actively stand up for them and empower them to rise up. The rich do not hold a monopoly on power; the people of God bring this understanding to all organizing efforts they engage in.

Overall, the values and visions that spring from faith are pivotal in any community organizing setting. Christians can bring hope, power, love, strength, vision, fearlessness, righteousness – as well as faith itself – to the coalition. In fact, they have already begun to do this. The most memorable parts of the conference were undoubtedly when Alexia revealed what an impact faith-rooted organizing has already made in various campaigns against injustice. She brought the principles she was teaching to life by weaving in and out of rich narratives throughout the conference, giving us inspiration and reminders that God is very much alive and well in our efforts to break down corrupt systems and structures. He does not just command us to go out and do the impossible; He comes alongside us and helps us achieve these ‘impossibilities’. Community organizing may seem to be an overwhelming task in light of all the obstacles in its way, but in the light of faith, it is a very different story.