Choose to See

This is a Great Idea in four parts:

  • Seeing our interconnectedness – and that we’re all political.
  • Viewing congregations as community leaders.
  • Opening eyes with educational events.
  • Looking behind the smokescreen – and bringing truth to light.

~~~

[Please also see this week’s Six New Things for additional Great Ideas on creating a better future for all our relations.]

~~~

FIRST

We are connected in both threat and compassion.

Sean Snow’s morale boosting 02.09.26 mash-up clarifies how ‘the conflict in Minnesota has moved from the streets to the suburbs and school zones…’ AND how, ‘the community is building a parallel infrastructure of care’.

If you’ve still got folx unsure of their – or your congregation’s – place in all of this, Lauren Jones, PhD clarifies the many ways politics impacts every part of our daily life and how none of us can claim that we are ‘apolitical’, in You Are Too Old to Be ‘Not Political’ (Substack).

Jesus’ command to ‘Love your neighbor’ requires us to see what’s happening to our neighbors – and to care. Love binds us to what happens to one another.

That’s politics.

Angela Denker points this out in her Dissonance and Departure in Minnesota (02.13.26; Substack), which is a perfect lead-in to:

~~~

SECOND

If and when we are absent troops in our streets – and while we work toward that day – we can begin creating God’s preferred future; we can fulfill the Beloved Community begun amidst the terror.

Here’s Why Spiritual Community Can Change the World (01.15.26 / Convergence): ‘Spiritual community can… be a loom where we weave our individual strengths together for greater impact.’

Rev. Cameron Trimble points to the beauty of this in, The Future Arrives as Community (Feb. 06, 2026; Piloting Faith).

Share the post and the Reflection Questions with Visioning, Social Justice/Engagement/Outreach Teams; Councils or Boards; adult and youth groups.

*How are you – as a congregation – shifting how you function as part of Beloved Community?

*Wonder together about courage, resonance, neighbor-love; newly created networks and deepening relationships.

Wonder: What If Trevor Noah Is Right about the Left and Religion? (Liz Bucar, 02.10.26; Substack) Referencing Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s extraordinary ability to ‘sustain [a] vision through beatings and bombings and betrayals and assassinations’, Bucar asserts that, ‘religious communities have been practicing hope… They’ve developed… practices… for sustaining vision through disappointment. For training people to believe in transformation they can’t see yet. For building the kind of trust that makes costly commitments possible… Faith – however you end up defining it – isn’t a luxury. It’s the foundation.’

*How have you, as a congregation, been prepared/preparing for these times?

*How are you, as a congregation, being called to ‘sustain a vision’ and lead in your community?

The Women Holding Minneapolis Together (02.07.26; Glamour Magazine), provide ample inspiration for the numerous ways we show up for one another and show up together. There are so many ways to participate in the ongoing, don’t-stop-now movement.

Rev. JaNaé Bates Imari, co-executive director of Faith in Minnesota and ISAIAH, is featured in that article. Faith in Minnesota and ISAIAH are constantly building networks and collaboration. Minnesota faith communities: if you haven’t already, join their good work and light the way!

AND From Ash to Action: Even the Stones Cry Out – our multi-ministry, intergenerational Lenten Toolkit helps with spiritual and community organizing skills-building practices, guided conversations, worship elements, and more.

~~~

THIRD

Congregations across the state can lead in educational action through public vigils, story-telling events, and straight-up education gatherings. Invite the media. Speak the truth about what is really happening. Draw attention to the lawmakers and corporations that are not only complicit, but profiting from violence against our neighbors and reckless laws (see below).

~~~

FOURTH

The immediate terror may be subsiding, but now we see clearly how the fury and chaos were smokescreens for big tech and big oil maneuvering.

No matter who you are or where you live, you can draw attention to the egregious laws making their way through federal and state congresses.

Leaders – CONGREGATIONS – cannot choose to look away as laws deprive us and our neighbors of some of our most basic rights:

As Minnesota lawmakers return to session, there are a LOT of important pieces of legislation.

Track and engage upcoming legislation with:

If ICE departs and we can shift focus, let’s take our newly realized sense of care and provision – practiced with neighbors threatened with deportation – and put it to use on behalf of human and environmental rights.

Rev. Bates Imari says,

‘We are like this living, breathing notion of the Good Samaritan… We can’t be the ones that walk past. We can’t be the ones that turn an eye. We can’t be the ones that say, “Well, they’re not coming for me.” Not just in the sense that they might eventually come for you, which is a real thing, but also, what does that do to the soul of the collective – the we – if we just allow this kind of horror to happen?’

Don’t look away.

Choose to see.

Choose to see what is happening to your neighbors.

Choose to see what is happening to our other-than-human relatives.

Choose to see and don’t wait for someone else to come and save.

Choose to see and then get creative and collaborative.

‘As long as I got breath in my body, I’m going to keep doing this good work and hopefully helping others to see the way in which Minnesota has become a bit of a sermon for the country right now,’  says Rev. Imari. ‘I don’t imagine this is going to just end. We’re going to have to fight it out in the most biblical and beautiful ways.’ (Moesling, Glamour, 02.07.26)