PHOTO/ANDY WILLIS
By Pastor Tom Gaulke, First Lutheran Church of the Trinty, Chicago
CHICAGO, IL — I hate that faith has been co-opted by the political right.
I hate that my faith tradition, begun in a radical ethic, claiming to love people is to love God—and, in fact, God is Love—has been distorted into a hateful, oppressive, backwards-facing body of cranky, racist, homophobic, immigrant-bashing, poor-hating individuals and communities. It’s a shame. It’s hypocritical. It’s downright sinful. The church is in bondage to the sin of fear and hate. The Body of Christ needs to repent!—just like our governor, and all who put profit before people and planet and Love.
May 18, 2015, in front of some tables piled up with money bags and other resources proposed to be cut by Bruce Rauner, between large statues representing agriculture and industry, with a backdrop of an ever-flowing fountain, just outside the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Toby Chow, vicar at First Lutheran Church of the Trinity and a leader with Fair Economy Illinois, proclaimed to Gov. Rauner:
“Not only do these tables . . . represent your hoarding, your greed, and, as of yet, your unwillingness to repent and share God’s abundance which was meant for all; these tables also represent a great divide between rich and poor, a great chasm you have fixed. You may think you are rising to the top, but the eyes of faith see that you are pushing yourself deeper and deeper into the flames of hell.”
Chow then instigated the crowd gathered to topple the tables and to redistribute the hoarded wealth, demonstrating what repentance, for Rauner, is to look like—it looks like sharing, not hoarding. It looks like taxing corporations and the 1%, not cutting government services to the most vulnerable in our state.
This particular action, asking, “What Would Jesus Cut?” and shouting “Rauner, Repent!” was the first of what would become a steady stream of Moral Mondays Illinois direct actions on billionaires, corporations, and contributors of millions to Governor Rauner. Actions have always included acts of civil disobedience and interfaith testimonies. As the movement has grown, we’ve added the occupation of corporate offices and spaces, and the disruption of the marketplace as a central marker of who we are as Moral Monday Illinois. We are growing in number. We are serious about building a movement that puts people and planet over profit. We disrupt business as usual.
Moral Mondays is a call for Rauner, corporations, politicians, and the ultra-rich to repent: No cuts! Tax corporations and the 1%! It is also an opportunity for faith traditions to return to their roots of love, liberation, and deliverance from bondage. For leaders willing to take a stand, or willing to take arrest, Moral Mondays is an opportunity to free themselves and their communities from the strong grip the political right has had on their traditions—an opportunity to turn around the faith that has been so badly distorted and distracted from Love, and to create change in so doing.
