On March 24, 2018, March for Our Lives in Atlanta, Georgia,
began at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, a museum dedicated to
the achievements of both the civil rights movement in the US and the worldwide
human rights movement.
More than 30,000 people took part in the march in Atlanta,
joining marchers in 800 cities in the US and around the world. The people took
to the streets to support a student-initiated movement to change gun laws and
end gun violence in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting that took the lives
of 17 students and adults.
At the Atlanta rally, teenage students took to the podium to
read poetry, sing songs, and call the protesters to action. Congressman John
Lewis, who was a young man when he joined the civil rights movement, was
impressed by the students leading the protest. He addressed the crowd and said,
“It is amazing. It reminds me of the early days of the civil movement.”
I have never seen so many elementary and high school
students marching in a rally before. They carried signs that said, “#Enough,” “Not
one more,” “Loving arms, not fire arms!” One particular sign captured my
attention: it said thoughts and prayers are not enough, and we need policy and
change.
The rally was a site for civic education. A father near me brought
his two small children, who carried signs made by themselves. The family began
shouting, “NRA, go away.” As we passed by a booth for voter registration, a father
told his teenage daughters, “I had registered to vote. As soon as you can vote,
you will register too.”
At a time when the NRA lobby is so strong, and the Congress
refuses to pass common sense gun laws, students across the country marched out of their classrooms on March 14 and took part in the national protest on March 24.
Naomi Wadler, the 11-year-old fifth-grader, said at the rally in Washington.
D.C, “I represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence, who
are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential.” Emma González, 18, one of the most prominent of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas
survivor-activists, asked us to remember the lives of students cut short. When adults
fail to protect them, children across the nation stand up. When politicians refuse
to act, students march literally for their lives!
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| Marching down Martin Luther King Dr |
March for Our Lives took place the day before this year’s
Palm Sunday. As students were marching in the nation’s capital, I was reminded
of Jesus’ march to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the city from the east side, riding
a donkey and cheered by his followers. This was a peasant procession and Jesus
came from the village of Nazareth. On the west side, there was another imperial
procession. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria,
entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers.
Pilate’s march displayed imperial power and Roman imperial theology.*
Jesus’ procession was a protest march, an anti-imperial
march! Many church leaders preach about the religious significance of Palm
Sunday, but completely overlook or choose to forget the politics of Jesus’ march.
On Palm Sunday, I participated in a worship service with
more than 2,000 people in a big church in downtown Atlanta. Most of the worshippers
were African Americans. In his sermon, the preacher said that Jesus entered Jerusalem
triumphantly as a different kind of king, not like the kings in the world.
Jesus entered Jerusalem to fight for us, to fight for forgiveness. He did not mention
the socio-political background of Jesus’ march, nor did he refer to the march that
took place not far from his church the day before. He did not say a word about
a march against gun violence, which disproportionately affects the African
American community.
Jesus’ march and the unfolding events of the Holy Week
must be seen in the larger context of political and religious terror. In The Cross in Contexts, Palestinian
theologian Mitri Raheb reminds us that “Jesus was not only a victim of state
terror but also of religious terror.” This was because Jesus was not sentenced
to death under Roman law alone, but also as a blasphemer, for he dared to
challenge religious authorities. Jesus died because of religious terrorism. The
cross, Raheb says, “becomes the ultimate critique of state and religious violence.”
Today, following Jesus means to confront imperial power
of our time, and to oppose racism, sexism, heterosexism, bigotry,
anti-immigration, xenophobia, and capitalist greed. It means engaging in
non-violent resistance, pursuing justice, and working with our religious
neighbors to foster peace. It means protecting the young and bequeathing our
children a better world.
The children are marching for their lives! Are we
marching with them or not?
* Marcus Borg and
John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week: A
Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem (San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 2-5.