“We find it necessary. We know we will win. We have confidence in the victory of good over evil.”
In 1992, Sinead O’Connor, the dead-too-soon, made this statement, and then ripped the pope’s portrait on Saturday Night Live in protest of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sex abuse scandals, and declared, staring straight into the camera: “Fight the real enemy. “
She paid a price, with rage from her Irish community, but also gratitude and praise from many for her courage and truth telling. She’d eventually embrace Islam and create many beautiful songs - but that performance was a defining moment of her prophetic activism. Did it help the church take note and work for change? Some think so.
When I asked you last week who are the Jeremiah voices you can think of, using litanies and art, rage and grief to wake us up towards being better many of you had responses. Here is a selection:
MLK Jr. and Greta Thunberg were a popular choice. Also cited - feminist icons Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinham. Rabbi Arthur Waskow - a leading voice for Jewish renewal and climate activism; The Reverend William J. Barber II who continues MLK JR’s work, and Rev. Senator Raphael Warnock.
Amanda Gorman - the young poet who captivated the nation at Biden’s inauguration, alongside debt abolitionists, prison abolitionists, those working to stop gun violence, domestic violence, and violence against indigenous women and so many others.
Al Gore got on the list for his work for climate change, as did Dr. Fauci.
The many speakers at pro-democracy rallies in Israel and the opinion writers in Haaretz and Times of Israel calling attention to the many problems caused by the current administration in Israel.
One of the readers named John Spritzler, who retired as a biostatistician at Harvard School of Public Health, and has been active for social justice for many decades. He started a group called People for a Democratic Revolution (PDR) and speaks passionately about egalitarianism
One of you notes the many voices protesting and lamenting reality on the airwaves but that “What is missing is the quality and depth of grief Jeremiah felt and expressed, the use of poetry as a way to tenderize the heart and to awaken the perception.”
And finally, one of you wrote that “ It is my deepest prayer that I continue to be a Jeremiah in my own way.”
As we wrap up another week with Jeremiah, I invite us to review his words and what they mean to us today, pondering in what ways we can name a wrong in our world and say or do something about it - in as poetic and powerful, small or big way as possible, to move the needle even just a tiny bit towards the better? And maybe this is us talking to ourselves, where change, like peace, always begins?
Next week Jeremiah walks the talk in very visceral, embodied ways. Like Sinead, he understood the power of prophetic spectacle. Stay tuned.
“Fight the real enemy. “