We’re gonna set it right again
Photograph by Fauxels via Pexels
Rev. Dr. Jessica Williams
Earlier this summer, I sat in the small sanctuary of a Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, with fellow clergy, activists, students, organizers, and people of faith and moral conscience as we sang “there’s a great trouble in this land; we’re gonna set it right again.”[i] Those great troubles were weighing on us as we shared stories of what the “big, beautiful bill” would mean for our communities, already struggling with hunger, poverty, homelessness, lack of healthcare, and more. We heard from experts about how the cuts to Medicaid will decimate rural hospitals in Kansas, and, thus impact the entire healthcare system. We learned about food deserts in the community and how the SNAP program is in jeopardy, creating more hungry people even in the “breadbasket of the world.” We heard from young people who are already experiencing challenges finding affordable housing and decent paying jobs. We lamented that these cuts are directly tied to funding systems of state violence and detention, all of which are against popular will.
While people shared these and other worries, we also heard how they’re confronting these crises, how they’re working to set things right again. We heard about the ways communities are taking leadership to care for one another and organize toward a more just and inclusive future for all people. We heard how communities are coming together across lines of division like race, language, theology, and politics to declare that the world does not need to be this way, to proclaim the good news of liberation, to resist policies and programs that hurt us and our neighbors, and to organize for a society of abundant life for all.
This gathering, and what was shared about the struggles people are facing and the struggles they are waging, is not unique to Topeka. Over the last four months, folks from the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice have been traveling to small towns and big cities, college campuses and storefront churches, hoods and hollers to hear from everyday folks about the great troubles in our land and the ways they are joining together to set it right again. Kansas was the last leg of this tour, which included 42 stops in ten states, organized around the recently released publication “You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take: Lessons From the Movement to End Poverty,” written by my friends and colleagues, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back.
We are called to join with our neighbors and the least of these, who are most of us, to stand up to the rulers of our day, to care for one another in the midst of the abandonment of those in power, and to set things right again.
The book chronicles over 30 years of anti-poverty organizing of the poor, by the poor, and for everyone. It shares history and lessons from the National Union of the Homeless, the National Welfare Rights Organization, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, and more about the ways poor folks have joined together across lines meant to divide us to set our neighborhoods, states, and nation right again. It is essentially a book of good news for those of us living through the great troubles of our day.
As I sat in that sanctuary in Topeka and reflected on the book and organizing tour, I was reminded of the missionary journeys of Paul who also traveled from town to town, city to city, and village to village both sharing and hearing the good news. Like those who gathered in the places we visited, most of the people Paul encountered were also poor, hungry, and living under the subjugation of a violent, authoritarian regime. They, too, met to organize to meet their basic survival needs while also resisting the powers of their day. They, too, experienced great troubles in their land and worked to set it right again.
Today we find ourselves with innumerable great troubles as those in power choose to perpetuate and worsen poverty, hunger, homelessness, genocide, and other death-dealing policies, while lining the pockets of their billionaire cronies and expanding systems of state violence while restricting the space to express dissent to maintain their power and control. Nothing could be more antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet we repeatedly find the Bible and Christianity used as justification for such inhumane and violent actions. As people of faith, we have within our sacred text a blueprint for what we are called to do in this moment, for how we are to set it right again. The Bible is a guide for resistance and non-cooperation, for caring for one another’s immediate needs, and for organizing toward a society that offers abundant life for all people, here and now. We have examples, in word and deed, from Moses, Esther, the prophets, Mary, Jesus, Paul, and so many others, of bold and courageous resistance to empire. We are called to join with our neighbors and the least of these, who are most of us, to stand up to the rulers of our day, to care for one another in the midst of the abandonment of those in power, and to set things right again.
Rev. Dr. Jessica Williams is a pastor, theological educator, and fundraiser who has been part of the movement to end poverty, led by the poor, for over twenty years. She currently serves as director of development and engagement at Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
[i] The song “Set it Right Again” was written by Ana Hernandez, a leader in the movement to end poverty led by the poor, and inspired by the words of Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
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