The Heart of Resistance

Tomorrow I am going to an event called “CrossRoads” where I’m going to speak as part of the Church’s work at dismantling racism. I’ll be sharing some of my thoughts surrounding immigration and the Border. As part of that, I am going to rap a song that I wrote, and the lyrics are below.

*I realize that most people would have a hard time understanding this all at once, so I am adding links to share where my mind went when writing this.

VERSE 1

“We’re prophets of a future that is not our own,”

It seems our best times have predeceased us.

We’re midwives of a promise that is still unknown. 

When we talk about new life, it makes the Beast fuss.

Sometimes we fight about just when life begins

While migrants die of thirst in the Real Death Valley

They say we should keep putting wine in old wine skins,

That’s the same thing that they said when slaves sat in the galley.

It’s funny how El Alamo’s a sign of Texas freedom,

Just down the road encroaching injustice rages

At best their souls are beaten and at worst — eaten,

You think you’d be real different if we put you into cages?

Our Lord was an immigrant whose name was Jesús, 

They hated him and yet he made resistance a habit,

More times than once he avoided their noose,

with totalizing tactics that were just like Br’er Rabbit! 

HOOK 1

Jesus found a way to skip the condemnation

And set up a model for coexistence

We have an ever-changing US population,

So let’s claim the Church as the heart of Resistance

You’ll never know what you don’t know until you give up what you know is wrong.

VERSE 2

When did we get hooked on the polarizing poison,

It’s like we got bit by grimy snake views.

You’d think we all want reform over prison,

But sometimes we get tricked by endless fake news.

2016 was a really tough year.

The griping was like a barking Chihuahua

there were a lot of things that set free fear,

as divisive words flowed from La Casa Blanca.

“Only I can save you, and just me alone,”

We’ve heard claims like this and others that are yuge

The Devil’s attack goes after our shalom,

Being shut off from others is like Ebenezer Scrooge.

When the welcome house becomes a concentration camp

It ought to be something that we all can condemn,

Nationalistic rhetoric is a population clamp,

a vice that serves to Make America Hate Again.

HOOK 2

Somehow we’ve become a DomiNation.

It’s time to tap into the art of persistance

We have an ever-changing US population,

So let’s claim the Church as the heart of Resistance

You’ll never know what you don’t know until you give up what you know is wrong.

VERSE 3

Y’all we’ve been here before, and God helped us through.

We can do it again, but I know it won’t be pretty,

Let’s give up the divisions that we know aren’t true,

and begin to ignore the Back to Egypt Committee.

There are children of God who suffer family separation

Bringing them together can be a common ground

And this ain’t even something that should stall with preparation,

Every person that we put off is someone who might get drowned.

There’s possibility now, but we gotta see the Border

The biggest problem comes when we think we are proficient,

We begin to settle in and make an immovable Order.

The greatest danger then is just that we’re complacent.

We’ve seen a whole lot that should raise our alarm,

or at the very least get our butts off the floor.

Wesley’s wisdom tells us, “Do no harm,”

And Jesus Christ says, “Go and sin no more.”

HOOK 3

It’s time to wake up and resist the condemnation

Loving each other gives us a chance at existence

We have an ever-changing US population,

So let’s claim the Church as the heart of Resistance

You’ll never know what you don’t know until you give up what you know is wrong.