From Check Points to Check Ins: A Gasp for Global Solidarity

Approaching the chapel, I see police.

I wasn’t as shocked this time because I came yesterday and after an initial inquiry by an officer, I was asked if I was there for a class.

Instinctually, part of me wanted to just say what I needed to get through. As if I needed to justify and explain why I was entering into a space that was for me.

But ultimately I was deterred. The longer I stood there, the greater the risk of things falling out of my favor. I am still a Black man in America. It was as if some inner clock was ticking and something told me, my time was up.

Call this capacity a grace, a discernment. Or consider it a curse, a consequence of brutality on Black bodies that’s diminishes our patience for police.

I was triggered. My mind was seemingly motioned back to last November, as I took a weeklong pilgrimage to Israel/ Palestine for the first time. I’m still struck by how close the conditions of occupied Palestine are to these “yet to be United States” (word to Maya Angelou).

This confrontation was familiar.

As our delegation journeyed to Jerusalem, we approached to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, waiting as our guide spoke with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) on our behalf. We stood steps away from the entrance as locals loitered, some gaining entry, others rejected. But as with many encounters with the IDF, my attention was arrested by the weapons they wielded. These elongated and extended guns that do as much damage to the psyche as they could to the body.

This place of worship we learned was gatekept from many of the locals. I’m not even Muslim, but my heart broke for those brothers and sisters who were restricted from the very spaces they hold sacred in their own land.

Yet there I was and here I am in Atlanta, a new day, a new mercy. An opportunity to decide otherwise. I glanced in the direction of Canon Chapel, took a step in the opposite direction, then I remembered. Yesterday I walked away disturbed, but today something stirred differently in my spirit.

I can just walk away. This is my home. To walk away was forsake my fellow brothers and sisters abroad who have no agency to move about. I will not forsake them, I will not forget what I have seen. To turn now would feel like a miscare of the very freedoms I possess. So I turned around and moved towards the door. I inquired, signed in, checked my bag, and did whatever was needed to do to enter.  I was going in because I was entitled to this space. This is my home.

I said yes to showing up in solidarity for those whose movement remains restricted by a geonocidal regime (sadly backed by my country) that continues to regulate and eliminate Palestinian life. I’ve experienced firsthand the “security” checkpoints, the being pulled over, having to identify yourself and endure harassment. Our struggles cross both countries and cultures, which is why we must be unified. Dr. King said it best from a Birmingham jail, that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

The checkpoints have arrived. “For your safety” we are told. But we must wonder what is the real threat at work?

By no means do I want to diminish the reality of real and ruthless evils that prowl even places of holy worship. But I do challenge us to not be numb to the ways in which structures of oppression are being replicated and perpetuated across boarders.

Are we safeguarding the word of truth or are we safeguarding our image? Are we protecting people and defending just principles or is this just pageantry?

I came to chapel for worship.

Dr. Matthew Taylor’s message was powerfully pointed and prophetic. The stakes are high during this time.

I close in hope with the moving words of the final song we sang together in chapel by Peter Scholtes:

“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord;

We are one int he Spirit, we are one in the Lord;

And we pray that all unity will one day be restored.

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,

yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand;

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand;

And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land.

We Will work with each other, we will work side by side;

We will work with each other, we will work side by side;

And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride.

All praise to the Father, from whom all things come;

And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son.

And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one.”