Dianna Butler Bass is the author of seven books, a sought after speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. Earlier this year she blogged about the need to restore the idea of protest within Protestantism.
Bass places the current situation in context: in recent years the percentage of Americans who self-identity as Protest has declined from roughly 2/3 to 1/2. Furthermore, Protestantism has “often been torn between the impulse to protest (the abolition movement, women’s rights movements, the Civil Rights movement) and the complacency of content by virtue of being the majority religion.”
Her plea is simple yet profound: “It is time to put the protest back in Protestantism.”
So What?
Bass encourages mainline churches to work together to start “a church-based protest movement to challenge two things: bad government and cruel capitalism.” While either item on her list or both are possibilities, it is my hope that all Protestants feel empowered to protest any form of injustice they observe.
- What are some of the injustices you observe in our world today? in your local community?
- What does your faith say about these matters? Has your faith moved you to action and, if so, has such action been supported by others within your community of faith?