Why Be a Citizen?

Welcome to this conversation

Citizen! Episode 1: Why Be A Citizen? Do you feel like a stranger in your own land? Minorities and the marginalized have for centuries, and now many with white privilege feel they don’t know this country and don’t want to be part of it with people from the other side. Is being a citizen a game we play to pretend we get along, or is it what we are missing so that we have come to this? With an election three weeks away, we are at a critical juncture of realizing what it means to be a citizen and of acting on it. This is about thought and action.

Why be a Citizen?

Something to consider:

“What are you a citizen of, and who are you a citizen with?”

• Think about the indigenous peoples of our land’s citizenship here. How does that inform your sense of being a citizen?

• Picture the land, shore to shore, and the built environment we’ve created, and the diversity of peoples who call the United States their home. How does that inform what it means for you to be a citizen?

“On the eve of what is probably the most contentious election in our lifetimes, when most people say that the outcome will have a direct impact on their lives, we need to figure out what this Citizen-thing is all about, and we need to start living according to what we discover. We can’t stop because it is hard. Of course it’s hard. There are over 300 million of us! There are no bystanders, there are only people who are making decisions and people stepping aside and letting the others make them, but we are all in the game, all on the field. We are all the inheritors of the decisions we make – or let others make for us.” 

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Watch Eric Liu’s TED Talk from 2019, “How to Revive Your Belief in Democracy” LINK

“Democracy works only when enough of us believe democracy works.”  Eric Liu

“Being a citizen is not unthinking patriotism, or loyalty to the state, it is a commitment to one another. Commitment because and despite what all the other people are like and believe. Commitment to them is not the same as acceptance of what they do or believe, but to the fact that they matter, that they, like you, are sacred as human beings deserving of respect and love.”

Something to Consider: How is your freedom tied up in the freedom of others?

A definition of being a citizen from Eric Liu: To be a citizen is to be bound to others in mutual aid and obligation.

Something to Consider: “Your citizenship, your binding to others in mutual aid and obligation, happens EVERY DAY and is most often acted out LOCALLY.”

Biblical examples of how we are bound to one another:

“You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were once aliens in the land of Egypt, I am Yahweh, your God.” Leviticus 19.33-34

“We are all members of one body, and individually members one of another.”    Romans 12.4-5

The term translated as “hospitality” in the New Testament is literally “Love of strangers” (philoxenia)

Jesus’ gave a vision of how we are to see one another - that is as God’s presence among us. 

“...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me – whatever you have done to the least of these, my sisters and brothers, you have done to me.”     Matthew 25.31-45

Something to Consider: What do you see as the relationship between being a citizen and getting along, accepting, arguing, protesting, holding others accountable?

A closing invitation from Eric Liu. “We are never asked to reflect on the content of our citizenship. Most of us are never invited to do more or to be more, and most of us have no idea how much we crave that invitation.” 

And from Greg Meyer: Consider yourself invited. Also consider yourself invited to VOTE in this election. And to work to encourage others to vote. There is information about voting and how to participate in “Get out the Vote” type efforts at www.fabricmpls.com/vote

Last thought:

“If you feel hopeless or helpless in the face of trends that you cannot change, remember that you can still be the citizen you choose to be. And you can invite others to be the ones that they choose to be. That is both where change starts and where it continues, the work of being a citizen doesn’t end, it is a constant pulling together of varied people. The on-going braiding of a 3-fold cord.

“And remember that your citizenship is mostly exercised locally. And the heart that you daily create close to home will beat throughout the nation.”

Talk more about this with a group

Click HERE for a discussion guide.