Could I add an extension of these questions? If you are someone acutely sensitive to all that suffering and part of that effort to fight the long defeat, how do you also survive it all?
Love these questions Courtney. Wish I had the bandwidth to join in the conversation tomorrow.
I had the thought years ago and still live with it today that "I am comforted by my discomfort". That discomfort drives me to do good, to make things better, even just a little bit at a time.
Vulnerability, openness, and honesty with self and others goes a long way when helping and healing.
Love that offer, Edward. I just heard someone say, "healing comes in pendulation," and it made me think there is something important about building a muscle to experience discomfort, but not lean into it so hard that you burn out. There's a wisdom in that.
Thanks immensely for posing such incredibly thoughtful and challenging questions! I’m very sorry that I can’t join the conversation on 3/31 because I’m traveling at that time. I hope not to miss the next one. Since I won’t be with you, I’ll try to respond briefly to each of these huge questions/problems but with no intention to intrude on your discussion. I feel extremely fortunate just to post ideas because these questions do go to the route of my concerns and actions.
Full disclosure: I’m a deeply frustrated lifelong pacifist, converted to this belief by MLK as I participated in the Civil Rights movement and perhaps stuck in that moment of time. I yearn for a return to the magnificent leadership of those black and white, women and men, who profoundly inspired me. Now, at age 84, I feel that such a golden era in American history won’t return in my lifetime and can only hope that a mass movement of strictly nonviolent transformations might happen for my grandchildren to experience. Do I idealize or exaggerate the quality of that movement and its significance? Yes. Can I deny the influence that it’s had on my own life? No.
Anyway, I said that this is full disclosure so please note my honest admission of limitations about what’s stated here.
This means, in direct answer to these questions, my lasting regret and sense of defeat is that I’ve been unable, as a teacher and activist, to make a real impact on American politics by helping to prevent war.
I’m not disappointed in any way about those who are with me in the cause of genuine peace. They’re still making great contributions, as we see with all efforts by Courtney and this certainly sustains me. My gratitude in this respect is boundless, as when I attempt to reply to these newsletters.
How could I be more “impractical” as a way of living my moral truth? By following the examples of my role models, pacifists like Dorothy Day, Barbara Deming, David Dellinger, the Berrigan brothers (Dan and Phil) who each managed to make personal sacrifices far beyond my meager efforts. Their commitment to nonviolence, including lengthy prison sentences through civil disobedience, are actions that I haven’t had the courage to commit.
I’m “hiding from suffering” in exactly this manner, by not going all the way through serious civil disobedience and accepting its full consequences.
I continually question my pacifist theory, especially after 9/11 when I entered into fierce and painful debates with Barnard/Columbia colleagues over entering the Afghan and Iraq wars. Very few of my closest friends agreed with a pacifist position, that is, by me urging,( with Thich Nhat Hahn, for example) that the US refrain from war.
Of course, I questioned my nonviolent stance and relied on support from TNH or others firmly opposed to invading Afghanistan, like Dan Berrigan who spoke eloquently at Barnard at my invitation. Those crises were excruciating moments in America; and now we live through them again as we face war in Ukraine.
The reward comes from my continuing research and writing on Gandhi as I’ve been doing at the splendid East-West library here at the university of Hawaii in Honolulu. My forthcoming book this year is certainly paltry in comparison to that published by Judith Butler’s “Force of Nonviolence” but it’s the best that I can write. I sincerely wish that I had the writing skills of Courtney Martin!
Dennis, I really appreciate your honest reflection on Courtney’s great questions! I’m interested to hear your experiences and read your book. Have your read American Prophets by the late Princeton religion professor Al Raboteau? I just read it for the second time with my Centering Prayer group at church and found it so inspiring. It profiles figures in American history, most who lived through the Civil Rights Movement (including Dorothy Day). It’s got me thinking about how much we need to know the stories of these trail blazers as motivation and inspiration for what each of us can do. Anyway, I thought I’d mention. Good luck with your research and writing!
Dear Amy, I’m delighted to have your thoughtful response. It’s really heartening to have such an empathetic letter in these desperate times. I’m especially pleased with the reference to Albert Raboteau, whose writings are among the most valuable and urgent that I’ve encountered on African American history. This particular text, “American Prophets,” is so key to studying the Civil Rights movement that I assigned it to both my Barnard seminar in 2017, ( my last teaching there) and the Portland public high school class on Ethics.
As a succinct, stellar series of biographies of 7 thinkers and leaders of nonviolent action in the U.S., it captures brilliantly the spirit of the struggle of the ‘60’s, exactly as you’ve realized.
No other book highlights the incredible contribution of Fannie Lou Hamer as well. We must applaud the scholarship and commitment to racial justice made by such a distinguished professor as AR.
Incidentally, there’s a fine review of this book by Daniel Sack in The Christian Century(July 21, 2017).
How wonderful to hear you have taught American Prophets. And I agree about the profile of Fannie Lou Hamer there. That chapter was the most moving and profound for me. Her story is one we need to know more about. I will look up that review in CC. Thank you!
Thanks Amy for continuing our exchange. All of us are missing Courtney’s vital and inspiring Newsletter this weekend so her devoted readers might try to compensate just a little by posting. We sincerely hope that Courtney is enjoying this break with family.
I’m sure that we’re all immensely heartened by Judge Jackson’s well deserved victory! Charles Blow has an excellent Op Ed in today’s NY Times about Cory Booker’s crucial role in the drama.
Amidst the utterly horrifying reports of atrocities in Ukraine, I’m fascinated by the support for the war by the Russian Orthodox Church that explains why many Russian people are following Putin. I’ve found articles on this in the British press but not much in American media. Have you read anything worthwhile about this subject?
Yes, I hope Courtney and her family are enjoying a much-deserved break. And I am also fascinated by how religion is used to support this (and so many others) wars. Do you read Diana Butler Bass? She is a historian of religion and had this interesting take on the role of religion in the Ukraine war.
Let me know if the link works! Her most recent article about American evangelicalism was also helpful in thinking about where we are and how we got here.
Dear Amy, your link does work and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed listening to Dianna Bass on the podcast with Tripp Fuller entitled Ruining Dinner: “Putin-Bannon Connection” broadest last month. It’s a hour of stimulating exchange about the historical background of the Ukrainian war that nicely complements the article that you also referenced. Thanks! I would have missed both otherwise. I nominate Bass as a person for Courtney to interview because she has original and incisive insights into what she terms Putin’s religious crusade. The way that she and Tripp Fuller relate Putin’s mission of furthering the spirit of Russian Orthodox Christianity that aligns with Bannon’s vision of recalling traditional Christian morality to replace contemporary “Western decadence” were all new to me.
If I could have asked her a question then it would come from my study of Asian thought, especially Indian/Chinese Hinduism/Buddhism. She made no mention of these religious teachings in the article or program. Her focus is exclusively on Christianity in its various forms, yet the best response to the problem that she poses of religious fanaticism in the West comes from the religious inclusive tradition of Gandhi and Engaged Buddhism, especially Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama.
This may be an unfair criticism of Bass because I haven’t read most of her many books, so perhaps you or other readers can help who are more familiar with her writings. Does she discuss anywhere Asian ideas?
Could I add an extension of these questions? If you are someone acutely sensitive to all that suffering and part of that effort to fight the long defeat, how do you also survive it all?
Great add, thanks Fritzie! This is a big one for me.
Love these questions Courtney. Wish I had the bandwidth to join in the conversation tomorrow.
I had the thought years ago and still live with it today that "I am comforted by my discomfort". That discomfort drives me to do good, to make things better, even just a little bit at a time.
Vulnerability, openness, and honesty with self and others goes a long way when helping and healing.
Love that offer, Edward. I just heard someone say, "healing comes in pendulation," and it made me think there is something important about building a muscle to experience discomfort, but not lean into it so hard that you burn out. There's a wisdom in that.
Thanks immensely for posing such incredibly thoughtful and challenging questions! I’m very sorry that I can’t join the conversation on 3/31 because I’m traveling at that time. I hope not to miss the next one. Since I won’t be with you, I’ll try to respond briefly to each of these huge questions/problems but with no intention to intrude on your discussion. I feel extremely fortunate just to post ideas because these questions do go to the route of my concerns and actions.
Full disclosure: I’m a deeply frustrated lifelong pacifist, converted to this belief by MLK as I participated in the Civil Rights movement and perhaps stuck in that moment of time. I yearn for a return to the magnificent leadership of those black and white, women and men, who profoundly inspired me. Now, at age 84, I feel that such a golden era in American history won’t return in my lifetime and can only hope that a mass movement of strictly nonviolent transformations might happen for my grandchildren to experience. Do I idealize or exaggerate the quality of that movement and its significance? Yes. Can I deny the influence that it’s had on my own life? No.
Anyway, I said that this is full disclosure so please note my honest admission of limitations about what’s stated here.
This means, in direct answer to these questions, my lasting regret and sense of defeat is that I’ve been unable, as a teacher and activist, to make a real impact on American politics by helping to prevent war.
I’m not disappointed in any way about those who are with me in the cause of genuine peace. They’re still making great contributions, as we see with all efforts by Courtney and this certainly sustains me. My gratitude in this respect is boundless, as when I attempt to reply to these newsletters.
How could I be more “impractical” as a way of living my moral truth? By following the examples of my role models, pacifists like Dorothy Day, Barbara Deming, David Dellinger, the Berrigan brothers (Dan and Phil) who each managed to make personal sacrifices far beyond my meager efforts. Their commitment to nonviolence, including lengthy prison sentences through civil disobedience, are actions that I haven’t had the courage to commit.
I’m “hiding from suffering” in exactly this manner, by not going all the way through serious civil disobedience and accepting its full consequences.
I continually question my pacifist theory, especially after 9/11 when I entered into fierce and painful debates with Barnard/Columbia colleagues over entering the Afghan and Iraq wars. Very few of my closest friends agreed with a pacifist position, that is, by me urging,( with Thich Nhat Hahn, for example) that the US refrain from war.
Of course, I questioned my nonviolent stance and relied on support from TNH or others firmly opposed to invading Afghanistan, like Dan Berrigan who spoke eloquently at Barnard at my invitation. Those crises were excruciating moments in America; and now we live through them again as we face war in Ukraine.
The reward comes from my continuing research and writing on Gandhi as I’ve been doing at the splendid East-West library here at the university of Hawaii in Honolulu. My forthcoming book this year is certainly paltry in comparison to that published by Judith Butler’s “Force of Nonviolence” but it’s the best that I can write. I sincerely wish that I had the writing skills of Courtney Martin!
Lacking this gift is a price that I pay.
DD
Dennis, I really appreciate your honest reflection on Courtney’s great questions! I’m interested to hear your experiences and read your book. Have your read American Prophets by the late Princeton religion professor Al Raboteau? I just read it for the second time with my Centering Prayer group at church and found it so inspiring. It profiles figures in American history, most who lived through the Civil Rights Movement (including Dorothy Day). It’s got me thinking about how much we need to know the stories of these trail blazers as motivation and inspiration for what each of us can do. Anyway, I thought I’d mention. Good luck with your research and writing!
Dear Amy, I’m delighted to have your thoughtful response. It’s really heartening to have such an empathetic letter in these desperate times. I’m especially pleased with the reference to Albert Raboteau, whose writings are among the most valuable and urgent that I’ve encountered on African American history. This particular text, “American Prophets,” is so key to studying the Civil Rights movement that I assigned it to both my Barnard seminar in 2017, ( my last teaching there) and the Portland public high school class on Ethics.
As a succinct, stellar series of biographies of 7 thinkers and leaders of nonviolent action in the U.S., it captures brilliantly the spirit of the struggle of the ‘60’s, exactly as you’ve realized.
No other book highlights the incredible contribution of Fannie Lou Hamer as well. We must applaud the scholarship and commitment to racial justice made by such a distinguished professor as AR.
Incidentally, there’s a fine review of this book by Daniel Sack in The Christian Century(July 21, 2017).
Peace, DD
How wonderful to hear you have taught American Prophets. And I agree about the profile of Fannie Lou Hamer there. That chapter was the most moving and profound for me. Her story is one we need to know more about. I will look up that review in CC. Thank you!
Thanks Amy for continuing our exchange. All of us are missing Courtney’s vital and inspiring Newsletter this weekend so her devoted readers might try to compensate just a little by posting. We sincerely hope that Courtney is enjoying this break with family.
I’m sure that we’re all immensely heartened by Judge Jackson’s well deserved victory! Charles Blow has an excellent Op Ed in today’s NY Times about Cory Booker’s crucial role in the drama.
Amidst the utterly horrifying reports of atrocities in Ukraine, I’m fascinated by the support for the war by the Russian Orthodox Church that explains why many Russian people are following Putin. I’ve found articles on this in the British press but not much in American media. Have you read anything worthwhile about this subject?
Best wishes, DD
Yes, I hope Courtney and her family are enjoying a much-deserved break. And I am also fascinated by how religion is used to support this (and so many others) wars. Do you read Diana Butler Bass? She is a historian of religion and had this interesting take on the role of religion in the Ukraine war.
https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/next-year-in-kyiv?r=a2pro&utm_campaign=post&utm_source=Next%20Year%20in%20Kyiv?&utm_medium=ios
Let me know if the link works! Her most recent article about American evangelicalism was also helpful in thinking about where we are and how we got here.
Amy
Dear Amy, your link does work and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed listening to Dianna Bass on the podcast with Tripp Fuller entitled Ruining Dinner: “Putin-Bannon Connection” broadest last month. It’s a hour of stimulating exchange about the historical background of the Ukrainian war that nicely complements the article that you also referenced. Thanks! I would have missed both otherwise. I nominate Bass as a person for Courtney to interview because she has original and incisive insights into what she terms Putin’s religious crusade. The way that she and Tripp Fuller relate Putin’s mission of furthering the spirit of Russian Orthodox Christianity that aligns with Bannon’s vision of recalling traditional Christian morality to replace contemporary “Western decadence” were all new to me.
If I could have asked her a question then it would come from my study of Asian thought, especially Indian/Chinese Hinduism/Buddhism. She made no mention of these religious teachings in the article or program. Her focus is exclusively on Christianity in its various forms, yet the best response to the problem that she poses of religious fanaticism in the West comes from the religious inclusive tradition of Gandhi and Engaged Buddhism, especially Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama.
This may be an unfair criticism of Bass because I haven’t read most of her many books, so perhaps you or other readers can help who are more familiar with her writings. Does she discuss anywhere Asian ideas?
Gratefully, DD
This was the first Zoom meeting I came away feeling touched and nourished, and in tears. Thank you, Courtney.