SHANNON CRAIGO-SNELL

PRAYING RESISTANCE

John Bercow

I pray God's peace upon John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons, who has stated that someone who embraces racism and sexism should not be invited to address parliament. I don't know anything about this man except this: he is refusing to acquiesce. He is resisting the temptation to pretend things are normal, or to normalize them with pomp and ceremony. God grant him a steadfast spirit, a loud voice, and increasing company. #racism #resist

What?

Holy God, I am bewildered. I keep blinking at the screens that show large companies declaring their support for immigrants, refugees, and the value of inclusivity. I am unaccustomed to the idea that multinational brands could take moral leadership. Questions come: yes, but how do they treat their workers? Yes, but what is their impact on the environment? Yes, but are they just trying to manipulate our emotions for financial gain? As the questions bounce around, I sense an und

Lawyers

I pray for all the lawyers who are working on behalf of vulnerable populations. The legal system in the US is terribly flawed, but it also marks our aspirations for justice and equity. Many lawyers enter the field to uphold these values and spend their days pursuing them. God, please grant stamina and energy to these servants of the public good. Help them to be clear-headed, quick-thinking, and creative in their use of legal measures to protect our society's highest goals. Gu

Humor

I thank God for humor tonight, and pray God's blessing on every comedian and satirist who is resisting with wit and laughter. Like parents passing out snacks and juice to exhausted children, they give us a bit of sustenance and cajole us back onto the field of play. When it seems like staying sane and being politically engaged are mutually exclusive choices, humorists demonstrate that this is a false dichotomy. We can be sane, informed, and engaged, but it requires levity. Go

Dissent

I ask God to bless those people--over 1,000--who signed the State Department dissent cable. DT makes it a point of pride to harm those whom he perceives to have slighted him in some way. These Foreign Service officers and other employees of the State Department are taking a stand that has significant risks. God, please smooth the paths before them, protect them from meanness, and give them perseverance in this tumultuous time. I also thank God for the many people who have wor

Historians

Tonight I give thanks for rigorous historians, who offer us facts, perspective, and a sense of how different scenarios have unfolded in the past. Historians teach us about great figures from other centuries, models of courage and fierce intelligence to emulate in our own lives. They also teach us about danger signs and patterns of predictable misuse of power. I pray stamina for every historian who spends long hours in the library, persistence for the scholars who check the so

BlackLivesMatter

This evening I am praying for the Black Lives Matter activists who brought the venerable American tradition of protest into the forefront of our collective imagination. Labor unions and peacemakers and others have kept the tradition alive, but the BLM activists taught a new generation, and reminded some of the rest of us, how to stand up together. When news of this Muslim ban came out, people all over the country made signs and went to the nearest international airport. We kn

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