Special to United Methodist Insight | Oct 06, 2025
Photo by Tripp Hudgins
This morning, I find myself contemplating resistance and the way of Jesus.
Thinkers like Walter Wink rattle around in my brain. I think about how MLK had to go all the way to India to find somebody to help him understand nonviolent resistance.
That’s not to say that others in his orbit weren’t thinking about it. We know plenty were. All manner of black leadership was contemplating nonviolent resistance. But how do you overthrow a government through nonviolent resistance? That’s what Gandhi did.
We believe ourselves too small to matter.
We believe ourselves to be unimportant.
We say to ourselves, “I am not an agent of change.“
This could not be farther from the truth. All of us are agents of change. That’s what our major religions tell us. That’s what every social movement is ever exemplified. Hell, that’s what we’re saying right now in the form of right wing government. These are people who believe they can be agents of change. Look what they’ve done. They’ve changed everything. So, why aren’t we also agents of change?
Perhaps we just want to live our lives without being in danger. Change feels dangerous. And sometimes it is. We have evidence for that too.
We don’t want the responsibility. What if we’re wrong? What if the change we imagine actually makes things worse?
I believe that this trepidation is entirely normal and part of the process of becoming a change agent. If you are asking these questions, you are contemplating what it means to be a change agent. You are one step away from making change happen.
Change happens in small and local ways. That’s where we need to focus our energy. What can you do today? What can you do for your neighbor? How do you raise your child? Where do you put your money? These are all questions that change agents could answer.
Jesus exemplified nonviolent resistance. The changes he made were local and small. Feed these people. Heal those people. Preach the word of peace and justice. Now, this is also how you build a movement. And movements can sometimes get in trouble. We see this in Jesus too.
And yet, I am still compelled by Christ’s example of how to live in such a way as to be a change agent.
I turn to Matthew‘s Gospel.Matthew has several chapters that are the summation of Jesus is preaching. It’s called “the sermon on the mount.” You know how it goes.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
As I’ve offered in the past, you can listen to it sung here.
Again, the voices of Black activists inspire me.
It is important to join their chorus. We can look to the protest movements of the 1960s as well. But it hits differently when a privileged white person sings about revolution than when the underprivileged or marginalized sing of revolution.
I love me some Woody Guthrie. I love the songwriting of Bob Dylan. Peter, Paul and Mary did wonderful work. Buffalo Springfield? You bet! And you should know that Pete Seeger is one of my heroes. And yet…
When a trans activist chooses the path of non-violence or when a black activist chooses the path of non-violence or when any number of people who have been the subject of systematized violence still chooses non-violence as a response, that is when I really start to listen.
if you come from a place of privilege, how might you follow the marginalized? Rather than getting out in front as so many of us are want to do, how might you follow?
What if White leadership is itself a kind of violence?
What if White leadership simply reinstates the very thing we’re trying to overthrow?
White folk should be speaking to White folk on behalf of the marginalized. White folk can absolutely make small changes in their communities. White folk should absolutely be speaking truth to power, especially when that power is also White.
But leadership… We White Christians follow a marginalized Lord. Jesus was one of the marginalized. To follow Jesus, one must follow the marginalized.
We must follow their example. And we must follow their leadership in public spaces.
It’s Monday morning, and the sun is not even up yet. But here I am trying to make a difference. The vast majority of my readership is White. The space I work in is White space.
So I have to speak truth to the power that we embody.
We must be meek. We must embrace our poverty of spirit. We must mourn.
The White church in America must embrace the Beatitudes again. If we wish to make a difference in this world, it has to start with our own poverty.
Y’all be excellent to each other.
Banjo message
Writer Tripp Hudgins displays messages on his banjo. (Courtesy Photo)
The Rev. Tripp Hudgins is pastoral director of Richmond Hll Retreat Center in Richmond, Va. This post is republished with permission from his Substack blog, The Lo-Fi Gospel Minute. Subscribe.