This Demands a Response: A Call to Spiritual Defiance

Here we are, not even a month into Donald Trump’s second term, and already, chaos reigns. Foreign aid is being slashed. Gaza is being spoken of as if it were prime real estate rather than a humanitarian catastrophe. Netanyahu smirks when asked about the dead. The unraveling is happening before our eyes. And yet, some are cheering. They are so disillusioned with the system that they welcome its destruction, perhaps not realizing how quickly disorder can spiral into something far worse.

For years now, the world has watched the United States with growing alarm, seeing what many Americans have struggled to acknowledge: a nation in decline, a faltering empire unwilling to face its own contradictions. And now, this moment feels like further confirmation of that trajectory. Each day brings a new absurdity, an unchecked billionaire pushing his latest vision, a fresh wave of racist rhetoric, a normalization of violence that once would have been unthinkable. There was a time when corruption wore white gloves; now, it parades in the open.

The new regime even seems to have a new theologian in chief, and his theology is as ugly as its heartlessness. Vice President J.D. Vance invokes faith to justify cruelty, twisting the gospel until it blesses the strong and abandons the vulnerable.

This chaos is not accidental. It is the strategy itself. As one commentator put it:

Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president. He is trying to substitute perception for reality. He is hoping that perception then becomes reality. That can only happen if we believe him.

And that is the heart of the challenge—what do we believe? What is our ground? What narratives have shaped us and are shaping us? We must have the clarity to name evil for what it is, yet without losing ourselves in othering, understanding that in some way or form, we are part of what we are naming. We must engage not just with what’s out there but with what’s within us as well. History is filled with revolutions that promised liberation only to replicate the cruelty they overthrew. Justice movements have struggled against the pull of ego. Institutions built to resist oppression have, over time, become oppressive themselves.

Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of people, to be caught up in love and drawn out of the world’s illusions. Have we been caught? Have we been pulled out of a system that thrives on violence, on stepping over others to climb higher? Or are we still trapped in it, confused and disoriented?

If we have been pulled out, then we must see clearly. We must commit to both inner and outer work. We must say no to violence, no to greed, no to power that exploits and destroys. And we must do it even when it costs us, because that is what it means to live in truth. That is what it means to allow ourselves to be caught in the net of love.

But how do we do this in practice? How do we hold onto clarity and courage when the world around us seems to be unraveling? We need resources, spiritual, intellectual, and communal, to help us remain steadfast. Below are some practical steps and guiding voices that can anchor us in these times.

1. Pause and Connect with Yourself

Before reacting, stop. Take a breath. Try to reconnect with who you really are and let your spiritual practice support you in processing turbulent emotions. With mindful breathing and observation, allow feelings to settle and release into calm. A Christian approach to this might be to gather all our fears, hopes, and heartaches, especially those we tend to exclude, and bring them to God, resting in Divine Presence and consenting to God’s love and healing action within us.

This is the foundation for everything else. Without grounding ourselves, our actions can become reactive rather than intentional.

Two resources that can help:
• We Were Made for These Times by Kaira Jewel Lingo – A short and powerful book offering wisdom for navigating difficult moments with mindfulness and resilience.
• Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide (my book) – A reflection on how heartbreak, when met with contemplation and courage, can become a source of deep transformation.

2. Develop a Spiritual Perspective

Developing a spiritual perspective on current events is essential because politics alone often misses the deeper forces shaping our consciousness, values, and actions. Political analysis can expose corruption and injustice, but without a spiritual lens, it risks reducing crises to ideological conflicts rather than recognizing how they distort truth, manipulate fear, and weaken our shared humanity. Naming these forces isn’t exaggeration, it’s clarity. Without it, we risk normalizing what should not be normalized.

Matthew Fox, in Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ, drawing on art, theology, Carl Jung, and depth psychology, explores the Antichrist as an archetype that takes shape when mass delusion, abuse of power, and religion become entangled and exploited for destructive ends. He shows how movements throughout history have used spiritual language to justify the opposite, replacing justice with oppression and humility with narcissism. These forces, working through institutions, ideologies, and collective fears, shape people and policies in ways that dehumanize and divide while presenting themselves as righteous and holy. Fox links many of Trump’s words and actions to this archetype, arguing that meaningful resistance must be both political and spiritual. At their best, spiritual traditions help us name these realities and build the courage to respond with integrity. They also remind us that we, too, are vulnerable to these forces, and without vigilance, they can erode our own humanity.

3. Understand How We Got Here

It’s hard to respond wisely without understanding the events that have shaped the moment we’re in. One resource I highly recommend is the episode Democratic Dealignment on The Dig, a podcast from Jacobin, featuring Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation.

In this conversation, Taylor dives deep into why Trump won, how many people feel abandoned by the Democratic establishment, and the growing dealignment within the multi-racial working class. She unpacks the key themes and challenges that have led to this crisis and explores where movements should be strategizing from here. The interview is nearly two hours long, but it’s well worth the time.

4. What’s Needed from a Movement Strategy Perspective

It’s not enough to react. We need to move strategically. To understand how, a key resource is an article by movement strategists Paul Engler and Mark Engler, who have spent years studying successful movements.

In It’s Going to Take Multiple Strategies to Win Under Trump 2.0, they outline the current moment and what it will take to build a movement that can actually succeed. According to them, social movement ecology provides a framework for groups with different organizing traditions, mass protest, structure-based organizing, personal transformation, and alternative institutions, to collaborate effectively. By understanding and valuing these distinct approaches, movements can work together to pursue change, even in a time of hostile government.

No single strategy alone is sufficient. Some will take to the streets in mass protests, some will build alternative communities and institutions that showcase what is possible, others will engage in deep personal transformation, and some will work within structures to shift policies. All of these roles are necessary, and success depends on people committing to the work best suited to their skills, convictions, and context.

5. Discern What Is Yours to Do

As we’ve seen, real change requires many roles, each essential in its own way. Take time to discern what these times are calling you to do. We live in a culture of proclamations. Words are easy, but they often cost us nothing. Don’t say something unless you’re willing to put your time, energy, and resources behind it.

We are entering difficult times, when networks of mutual aid and solidarity may become necessary for survival. Depending on your role and where you fit within the broader movement, simply making statements may not always be the most helpful or strategic action. Some things are best done quietly, without public attention. Let your actions, not just your words, be your witness.

6. Get Organized, But Start with Your Own Community

Many spiritual practitioners join protest movements but remain on the periphery. People often engage with movements out of urgency but stay only when they find a sense of community. Building that community with strangers around a single issue is difficult. Rather than joining as isolated individuals, a more effective approach is to organize a group of friends you already have who share similar values and connect that group to a larger movement. Once organized, the group can go through the movement’s training together, learning shared strategies, deepening their commitment, and discerning a minimal, structured level of participation that everyone is willing to take on and be accountable for. This ensures that participation is not just reactive but consistent, strategic, and reliable, key to sustaining momentum and building power within movements.

For a movement to be effective, it must be able to depend on its members in a predictable way. This isn’t about full-time activism but about ensuring that engagement is concrete, sustainable, and consistent. Each person should commit to a role that the movement can count on. Together, we can commit to:

· Voting as a bloc rather than as individuals
· Showing up at protests and actions during pivotal moments
· Using economic power, such as strategic boycotts, as a unified bloc
· Participating in movement training to develop skills and shared strategy
· Contributing to constructive programs that build resilience alongside resistance
· Committing to nonviolent discipline in both action and rhetoric
· Building alliances with other groups to strengthen the broader movement

By committing as a group, going through training, and holding each other accountable to a shared minimal but essential level of engagement, we ensure that our activism is not just symbolic, but impactful. This approach transforms movements from loose networks of concerned individuals into organized, resilient forces for change.

7. Stay Informed, Thoughtfully

We are living in urgent times, but urgency doesn’t mean rushing in blindly. It means grounding ourselves in understanding. This requires reading broadly, analyzing events within a trusted community, and engaging with voices that challenge our perspectives. Many of us exist in ideological bubbles, reinforced by media and social networks. But by actively seeking diverse viewpoints, we can move beyond caricatures and engage with complexity.

Independent media is essential in this process. Outlets like Democracy Now! and Waging Nonviolence prioritize real journalism, amplifying the voices of those directly affected by crises. The Thom Hartmann Show brings historical analysis to shed light on current events, helping to contextualize today’s political and social issues. Platforms that examine issues from multiple perspectives allow us to move beyond familiar narratives that often reinforce only our own viewpoints and convictions.

It’s also crucial to engage with perspectives that don’t center the United States. Thanks to the internet, we have access to analyses from Africa, Asia, and beyond, broadening our understanding of global realities. The widespread use of English enables us to step outside Western-centric frameworks and see how others perceive not just our struggles, but also our politics. For much of the world, the challenges we face today are inseparable from the history of U.S. policies, policies that have shaped economies, destabilized nations, and fueled conflicts, often with devastating consequences. Yet in the U.S., we rarely acknowledge the full extent of this impact, let alone how it shapes the way others see us. Some also recommend using tools like ChatGPT to explore current events from multiple perspectives. It’s surprising how objective and varied its responses can be when prompted with curiosity and nuance.

By staying informed in this way, we can move beyond reactionary responses and cultivate wisdom, ensuring that our actions are rooted in truth and a broader awareness of the historical forces shaping our time.

8. Embrace Nonviolence as a Way of Life

Unchecked anger can turn us into a mirror image of what we oppose. That’s why cultivating nonviolence must be more than just a strategy. It must become a spiritual practice.

For those from a Christian tradition, I highly recommend The Gospel of Peace by Father John Dear. This book offers a line-by-line commentary of the synoptic Gospels through the lens of Gandhian and Kingian nonviolence, reminding us that nonviolence isn’t just about what we do. It’s about how we live.

Here we are, not even a month into Donald Trump’s second term, and already, chaos reigns. It may not be in our power to determine how things will unfold, but it is in our power to decide how we respond. It is in our power to hold on to the practices that nourish us, inform us, and give us courage. It is in our power to remain in integrity, to choose nonviolence and noncooperation in the face of all the violence we are already seeing.

Jesus was clear. Love always. Bless those who persecute you. Forgive even the unforgivable. Turn the other cheek, not in surrender but in defiance of violence. Do not repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good. This may not change the world, but sometimes it is important to do things simply because they are the right things to do. In the end, all we have is our integrity. So let us stand in it, grounded in the One who renews us each moment and calls us to a nonviolent witness of love, one that is big enough to hold both our friends and our oppressors, knowing that love endures beyond violence.