The NC Council of Churches is proud to publish a brand new e-book collection of testimonies from Moral Mondays. With 32 short vignettes from North Carolinians across the state, Voices of Moral Mondays tells the story of everyday folks being motivated to speak out on account of their faith. Many, though not all, of the accounts describe what it was like to engage in civil disobedience and be arrested by the authorities. Click here to download the free e-book.
By Rev. Susan Steinberg, United Church of Chapel Hill
“Let the little children come to me, do not hinder them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” As a pastor whose ministry has focused on children and their families for the past decade, these words of Jesus guide me, challenge me, and inspire me. They are words I strive to live by each day, words that shape my pastoral identity and inform my responses to events in the public sphere.
Thus, I grew increasingly dismayed, alarmed, and yes, outraged when the current North Carolina Legislature began passing bills that cut funding for major programs that impact families, like Medicaid and unemployment benefits, for education across the spectrum, from early childhood programs like More at Four through the entire state university system, for health and safety provisions like school bus replacement regulations, and dental hygiene programs for children. This was followed by the relaxing of gun control laws such that guns could be carried in all kinds of public places, including playgrounds. Rather than welcoming children into a life of security and promise, it seemed to me that our state was intent on hindering them at every turn, poisoning the very earth on which they will grow into adulthood, and leaving them vulnerable to the kind of violence that has claimed the lives of too many young people across our country.
The Moral Monday rallies provided the gift of a constructive means for me to come out of isolation and voice my opposition to this sweeping legislation. Rather than burn with fury, frustration, and fear as I read the news in my own kitchen, I joined a community of hundreds of others who shared similar concerns.
From the moment of the first rally I attended, through the evening of my arrest, through the last rally, I felt the assurance of God’s faithfulness come alive like never before: “You are not alone.”
Yes, much of the newly passed legislation is disturbing, cruel and damaging. But it is not the final word. The final word belongs to God, who continues to say even now, “Come to me.”
It was such assurance that led me to trust the deepening sense of call to commit civil disobedience by “creating a disturbance through singing and prayer” on June 17. Having witnessed and reflected on the example of others in my own congregation, of other citizens from around our state, and of the rich testimony of protest movements in our country’s history — including the 1963 Children’s Crusade in Birmingham — I was emboldened to act, for the first time in my life, in a way that led to direct conflict with law enforcement officials.
In my twenty years of ordained ministry, I have rarely felt so sustained by the presence of the God’s Spirit, so moved by the vitality of God’s people, and so hopeful about the possibilities for God’s future as I did that evening.
Yes, much of the newly passed legislation is disturbing, cruel and damaging. But it is not the final word. The final word belongs to God, who continues to say even now, “Come to me.”
