‘Sacred Resistance’ Seeks to Energize United Methodist Social Action

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Local Church

A United Methodist Insight Exclusive

Resistance, to an electrician, measures how much a material will reduce the power of electricity that flows through it. To the people of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., resistance doesn’t reduce power, it multiplies it.

“Sacred Resistance” is the name of a movement that sprang up a little over a year ago at the church whose 200-plus-year history rests firmly on social justice traditions. Now Foundry’s Sacred Resistance team wants to connect with other United Methodist congregations across the United States to amplify Christians’ voices to shape American society around more compassionate values.

Compassion and “an obstinate, intentional dissent” sparked the beginning of Sacred Resistance shortly before the inauguration of President Donald Trump in 2017, said church members and pastoral staff in a series of telephone interviews with United Methodist Insight. Even with its many existing social justice ministries – feeding hungry people, sheltering homeless people, supporting LGBTQ people, and advocating for immigrants, among others – the idea of Sacred Resistance was something that claimed the hearts and imaginations of Foundry folks.

Sacred Resistance’s to Foundry UMC roots firmly in the congregation’s tradition. According to Foundry’s online history, the church’s first building was dedicated in 1815 to fulfill a promise made by ironmonger Henry Foxall, a Methodist layman and influential businessman who donated the land and building after his Georgetown iron foundry survived the British attack on Washington in the War of 1812. Now situated at 16th and P Streets in Washington, one mile from the White House, 1,000-member Foundry has been a spiritual home “to presidents, members of Congress, and others in public service,” its history says. The church has been at the forefront of most major social issues in America over its two centuries, including the abolition of slavery, attainment of women’s rights, and now LGBTQ rights.

With this kind of history, Sacred Resistance was a natural next step. The team’s page on Foundry UMC’s website describes its mission: “We exist because we are commanded to love one another, and love is an active verb. Our resistance is rooted in the concept of strength and endurance, in the Methodist baptismal vow ‘to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever form they present themselves,’ and in the Biblical admonition to people of faith to seek justice and speak on behalf of the powerless.”

A natural progression

For church member Andrew Lee, Sacred Resistance seemed a natural progression from his ministries around hunger and immigration.

“I have a lot of undocumented friends so I knew all the fear the community was facing,” Mr. Lee said. “Also, I knew the Sanctuary Movement was growing again (because of rhetoric around immigration crackdown).

“[The Rev.] Ben Roberts, our social justice minister, set up a meeting with the people who were saying, ‘what do we do?’ [The Rev.] Ginger [Gaines-Cirelli] came up with the idea for a team to channel our collective energy, and we said, ‘let’s put it all together.’

“There wasn’t a model we could follow, so we’re doing this from ground zero,” added Mr. Lee.

Church member Emily Wirzba works for a national religious advocacy organization, so the idea of social action was familiar to her.

“I often think about how our church isn’t in a bubble – it exists in a city, a country, the world,” said Ms. Wirzba. “Problems and concerns affect all those spheres we operate in, so as a church we can’t isolate ourselves from problems. How do we as people of faith pursue justice for our communities and communities under threat? I think about the light of God in each person, and what does that mean to stand as an active person of faith in solidarity with others?”

Church member Mary Small, who also works with an independent, nonprofit national watchdog organization, spoke of similar motivations.

“The Sacred Resistance team didn’t come out of nothingness,” she said. “Foundry had a dedicated social justice ministry, but the teams were in silos [not interacting with one another].

“We don’t mean to be a people of ‘no’ whose only work is to reject harmful proposals,” Ms. Small continued. “By sacred resistance we mean a collective of people grounded by their faith to move against the current having a positive vision of a just society where all people can thrive as children of God. At the moment there’s an awfully strong current to move against.”

Firmly grounded in spirituality

While Sacred Resistance may sound like other public policy lobbying, Foundry members stressed that its actions are firmly grounded in Christian scripture and spirituality, Ms. Small said.

“I was raised Southern Baptist, but they were pursuing policies I couldn’t reconcile with my understanding of the gospel and God,” Ms. Small said. “Faith isn’t just right relationship with God, it’s also right relationship with the community at large.

“I desperately wanted a faith-grounded way to think about and act out what it means to be a force of sacred resistance against a growing tide of hate and exclusion. I felt like it was a really important spiritual practice.”

Initially, Sacred Resistance offered an action each week, said Mr. Lee, because “there were so many crises right after the inauguration.” The team began to worry about the potential for burnout among Sacred Resistance organizers and participants. Mr. Lee acknowledged that some people have drifted away from Sacred Resistance, but that others have joined the team.

“Stuff pops up last-minute,” said Mr. Lee. “We find out there’s a vote on health care Wednesday at 1 a.m. – do we send out an emergency email? We wanted to get out of reaction mode and more in planning mode.”

Regrouped in September

By the end of July 2017, Foundry’s Sacred Resistance was recommending a social justice action weekly. Then the team decided to take off the month of August, when most of Washington, especially Congress, typically shuts down for summer vacations. Assessing its first six months, Foundry’s Sacred Resistance team decided last September to cut back its public actions to one per month and to hold one teaching session per month.

“We’ve actually done more actions per month but that’s what we’ve committed to,” Mr. Lee said

Ms. Wirzba concurred. “Overall Sacred Resistance has gone really well, but it has been a learning experience,” she said. “We weren’t sure what the team would look like in a year. We really want to direct our members to where they could have an impact, so we chose to give them a mixture of things. We chose actions for attending, and also times to send emails and make phone calls.”

To achieve better direct influence, the Sacred Resistance team has embraced an idea of networking with congregations around the United States to encourage community involvement in local, regional and national settings. They’re calling the new effort Advocacy Exchange.

The Rev. Ben Roberts, Foundry’s minister for social justice, explained the idea.

“Over the past year, Sacred Resistance has been a heavy focus on federal policy, but with our congregation situated in the District of Columbia, most of our membership doesn’t have voting representation in Congress,” said Rev. Roberts. “We can complain to Delegate [Eleanor Holmes] Norton, but she can’t vote except in committee. If we go to other congressional offices on our own, they don’t care about our views because we’re not their constituents. You can’t even comment on their websites if you don’t have the appropriate ZIP code.

“So, we were trying to think of ways to leverage our people and our location and to engage with other congregations that feel passionate about issues. We thought that if we could find the right partners, we could contact them in person about what matters to them. Then, because we’re right here in Washington, we can go and speak with congressional representatives on behalf of somebody in North Carolina or California or wherever.”

Mutual advocacy

Foundry UMC members and staff also hope their new partners will advocate for them as well.

“There are D.C.-specific issues that Congress has oversight on, but we have no voice,” Rev. Roberts said. “So, we’re looking for partners who can be a voice for us and can engage with congressional representatives in their home districts.”

Rev. Roberts said Foundry has located a potential partner in Los Angeles, but wanted to wait to name it until the two congregations completed their negotiations. “We’ve struggled to get a congregation not here in D.C. to kick off engagement with their members. We’re noticing it’s difficult if they live in a district where their House member agrees with them, so we’re trying to find partners in more competitive districts where there’s more energy to engage in advocacy.”

After its first year of experience, Sacred Resistance finds it’s better to focus its efforts than to attempt responding to every crisis, Rev. Roberts added.

“We’re not looking to take on every issue, but [to share in] issues of common purpose,” he explained. “We’re basing our issues on the United Methodist Social Principles. To the extent that we can do those things without compromising who Foundry is – we stress living wages, low-income health care, a just and appropriate immigration system, a moral budget document that prioritizes people and peacebuilding over war and warmongering – that’s what we want.”

“Sacred Resistance’s Advocacy Exchange wasn’t started to get people involved in Foundry’s efforts, but to help people get their energy for their own focus,” Rev. Roberts said. “It’s not so much about coming to Washington or (getting involved in) national policymaking, but directing your energy to the best use for your local context, whatever that ends up being.”

Challenge and blessing

The Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, Foundry UMC’s first female senior pastor, said the first year of Sacred Resistance has proven to be a challenge and yet a blessing, even as the congregation moves through significant restructure and pastoral changes.

“When it all began, there was a sense of being grounded in the [Christian social justice] tradition as well as an obstinate, intentional dissent [from the national political atmosphere],” said. Rev. Gaines-Cirelli.

“The words ‘sacred resistance’ held together this beauty and hopefulness and groundedness of our faith and the work of standing against empire and injustice. All those things needed to be really clear in our minds, especially in moments of great distress and tension. Otherwise it’s easy to get distracted and pulled into negative things and spinning wheels – in fact doing harm.”

Sacred Resistance’s use of social media to alert people to actions brought the movement to the attention of Abingdon Press, the United Methodist publishing concern, which asked Rev. Gaines-Cirelli to write a book about the concept. She said the book is due out in May, with written contributions from team members Andrew Lee and Tracy Content.

“It was a really wonderful challenge to try to flesh out the concept of sacred resistance,” Rev. Gaines-Cirelli said. “It’s more than showing up at a rally or taking a stand on something. It’s about a whole way of life in relationship with God and neighbor – bringing resources to share with the whole body of Christ.

“Foundry uses its particular location to serve the church and the world,” Rev. Gaines-Cirelli said. “But you don’t have to be in Washington to engage with the community. We’re trying to live in the kin-dom of God’s justice, mercy, compassion, and peace, to be truly Christian in a world that wants to convince us that empire is better than the kin-dom of God. That’s the encouragement I want others to hear.

“People might say, ‘Foundry can do that because they’re in the capital city,’ but you can practice sacred resistance anywhere.”

Connect with Foundry United Methodist Church’s Sacred Resistance Team at http://foundryumc.org/resist

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.