Singing Resistance and Healing

Another horrific school shooting occurred last Friday, this one close to home in my state of Texas. A teenage boy opened fire on Santa Fe High School, not far from Houston, killing ten people and wounding ten others. There has been an average of one school shooting every week this year. I heard an interview with parents about how they are trying to talk to their children, some as young as seven, who are asking if they’re safe at school or anywhere.

At times I feel overwhelmed and don’t know how to respond to all this violence and so many other injustices that daily come to my attention. I’ve tried to respond in a variety of ways, but often wonder if anything I do makes a difference.

Today I read an excellent blogpost by Alicia Crosby, my friend and colleague in Christian Feminism Today, that brought encouragement and renewed focus. In this post, “Finding Your Place in the Resistance” Alicia writes:

“You have something to offer to efforts that resist the injustices faced by members of our human family. Whether it be resources, time, art, space, relationships, social media shares, physical presence, spiritual counsel, emotional support, bail money, blogging skills, lobbying experience, caretaking, conflict meditation, free/low cost professional support, voter mobilization, or something you can name that falls beyond the scope of this writer’s imagination, you have something to lend to those working towards our collective liberation. It will take all of us combining our varied gifts to creatively dismantle prejudice, inequality, and the complex social and institutional systems they lurk behind.

That said, I want to invite you to take some time to consider the following: Knowing who you are, the realities you navigate, and the resources you have access to, what is your place in the Resistance?”

My response to Alicia’s question is that I find my place in the Resistance through writing and through organizations, like Equity for Women in the Church and Christian Feminism Today, dedicated to our collective liberation.

I find my place in the Resistance through writing song lyrics. I believe songs empower social justice movements and can be a unifying force for change. We can sing our resistance. We can sing our visions of healing and liberation.

Recently I wrote this song to the tune “Pass Me Not”:

Heal Our World, O Christ-Sophia

Heal our world, O Christ-Sophia; heal us all, we pray;
fill us all with loving kindness; show Your peaceful way.

Hear the urgent cries of children, marching for their lives;
help us now to end the violence, so they all survive.

Women rise up now for justice, calling out “Me Too”;
Black Lives Matter movement joins in making all things new.

Help us join Your work of healing, that we all may thrive;
give us grace and strength for action; keep our hope alive;

Refrain:

Christ-Sophia, heal our world, we pray;
fill us all with loving kindness; show Your peaceful way.

Words © 2018 Jann Aldredge-Clanton      PASS ME NOT tune for this song