We must learn to live together as sisters & brothers or we will all perish together as fools” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
I recall attending a speech given by a prominent human rights and refugee advocate in Australia a few years ago. On this occasion he was speaking about workers’ rights to a somewhat unruly, mostly enthusiastic, high-vis-shirt wearing, boot shod crowd.
His remarks were well received. However, I couldn’t help wondering if he had strayed from the topic onto refugee rights—which he didn’t—whether the enthusiasm would have been so ardent? The short answer is probably not. These folks were certainly very keen on their own rights, but I strongly suspect that for many of them, that’s where the buck stops.
Solidarity, however, is a whole different ball game, not least, because it is a must do in any serious spiritual practice. It goes much deeper and wider than mere self-interest and the current cause of this or that affiliation. It is a totally other-centered, active doing thing.
The feminist theologian—now there’s a cause worthy of affiliation—Elizabeth Johnson says:
Solidarity is a type of communion in which deep connection with others is forged in such a way that their sufferings and joys become part of one’s own personal concern and a spur to transformative action. It entails a movement out of a selfish seclusion and into relationship where people bear one another up in mutual giving and receiving.
Unsurprisingly, this quote bears all the hallmarks of serious spiritual practice. It is the kind of other-centered agape love and compassion that the God with skin on man from Galilee proclaimed back in the day, as the first order of business. It is “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31; Matt 22:37-39, Luke 10:27; Deut. 6:5; Lev 19: 18, 34).
This means change, radical change, and yes, we are talking here about a bottom-up revolution. A solidarity revolution led by none other than the living God, where not only is the bottom raised, but the top gets dismantled entirely! Consider these words from the wacky misfit mystic Ezekiel:
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the rich and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice (Ezek 34: 15-16).
This kind of revolutionized world is of course welcome news if you’re struggling for the bare essentials of life, out on the endless margins, poor as a church mouse. Or, one of the millions of God’s children who are refugees, ravaged by war and devoid of home or safety. People who are shamefully turned back from the borders of countries like Australia, through political bastardry, brutal self-interest, and tragically, majority support from those safe inside. In modern parlance, this bears all the traits of “Othering,” and none of solidarity. For solidarity at its core means the embrace of the other, every other!
We are one and all God’s children (Gen 1:27). There is no ‘who’s in and who’s out,’ ‘who deserving of plenty and who’s not,’ no place for Othering. No tops or bottoms, no man-made inhumane excluding borders.
The Hebrews have a “Holiness Code,” and its central pillar is the welcoming of strangers in your midst and loving them as yourself (Lev 19:34). This radically inclusive ethical code permeates Jewish tradition and is echoed 35 times in the Torah—the most repeated of any commandment. If we aspire to live spiritual lives, welcoming all God’s children, it is a non-negotiable must do.
Solidarity forever, comrades. What do we want? Radical inclusion. When do we want it? Now.
– Cormac Stagg, author of The Quest for a Humble Heart