Two barely remembered things, part 2

"Marching ill-becomes a saint."

That's what I think I remember. Or marching is not becoming of a saint. It ill-behooves a saint. Something like that.

Searching on this phrase is even more futile, because no matter what configuration you put them in, when "marching" and "saints" are both part of it, you get the song, "When the saints go marching in."

I asked one friend, and she initially understood it as "Marching - even if you are ill - (or maybe until it makes you ill) is very becoming of a saint." I don't know if I have ever had any kind of church teacher who would say that.

I don't march that often anyway. I have marched once this year. I do have concerns about it.

I have concerns that when you get a bunch of people together, some people will start being stupid and destructive, which for many observers ends up overshadowing the message.That goes back to the front window on Eugene City Hall being broken out at the end of a march protesting the Rodney King verdict, which no Eugene city officials had any part in (as far as I know).

I also have concerns that it needs to be part of a larger effort. During the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, there were marches and protests and sit-ins, but they were also combined with boycotts and other forms of economic pressure, with clear demands being made.

(For what it's worth, they also practiced an incredible amount of discipline, work-shopping and drilling on how to respond to different situations. Militancy isn't always about guns.)

I have those concerns, but I also remember the mental boost and the sense of community that came with the March for Equality and Justice, and I know many people felt that way about the Women's March.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/01/my-first-march.html

I remember that a massive Boston Protest led to the cancellation of at least 67 rallies supporting white supremacy:

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/23/headlines/white_nationalists_right_wing_groups_cancel_67_planned_rallies

I can't necessarily tell you the best way forward, especially as we are moving toward a world where anyone who will see the need of protest will be too tired to march and too poor to exert any kind of economic pressure.

I still feel very clearly that what that teacher was saying was wrong. The people who reject your protest because it is loud or inconvenient or feels scary to them are the same people that will tell you that taking a knee is too disruptive, generally speaking.

And I think that for someone who was a teacher of mind back then, the protests they would have seen would have been for the equality of Black people, and of women, and that farm workers have a right to reasonable pay and treatment. Those causes should resonate with people trying to follow Christ, regardless of denomination.

Instead, we often seem to be most interested in maintaining the status quo. Often that is a situation that is tenable for us, but not for others, and instead of caring about that we get mad at those who make us uncomfortable.

Colin Kaepernick is right about police brutality. His peaceful, respectful protest has drawn a lot of anger at him, and not at police brutality. That is not his fault. How you get enough people to really acknowledge the problem on a level where people actually do something about it is something I don't know. I respect him following his conscience, and I think it will be a long time before my conscience will allow me to stand for the national anthem again. I don't know that it will change anything.

Since I have started writing about the parable of the sheep and goats, the consistent theme is that answers will be highly individual, and that the complexity of issues is one reason for that. It may never make sense for you to march.

That does not excuse the need for listening to what marchers are saying, and paying attention to what is going on in the world, what needs there are, and what you can do to help. Priests and Levites walked by the man who fell among thieves, but are example is supposed to be the Good Samaritan.

Seeking truth, caring for others, finding ways to help -- those are the things that become a saint. Scorn for the attempts of others does not.