By Susan Wordal
I’ve found myself on Facebook now and again, and some days I just scroll and check in with friends, while other days I find myself going down a proverbial rabbit hole depending upon what has been posted by friends or shows up on my feed. I’m never sure what the gremlins in the Meta-verse do to create the algorithms that populate my feed, but it’s interesting.
Recently, an “ad” popped up for a t-shirt. I don’t often buy them for myself, but I like to look at the slogans. I used to buy my son t-shirts with somewhat sarcastic slogans on them. They were pretty good and would usually give me a chuckle. He often came home to tell me a teacher liked whatever shirt he had on that day. It was fun.
Anyway, this ad was for a t-shirt featuring a partial image of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and featured the saying: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty”. Now, for those who don’t know, RBG was an attorney before she was appointed to the federal bench, and before she was appointed to the US Supreme Court. She’s someone I liked on the Court but have learned more about in recent years. There is a fascinating conversation with Bill Moyers I ran across after I saw this shirt:
https://billmoyers.com/story/transcript-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-in-conversation-with-bill-moyers/ During the conversation, Moyers’ uses this quote and references the ‘60’s, when both he and RBG were more at the beginning of their careers than the end. I liked the shirt and the quote, and it was being held up by Michelle Obama in the ad, so that was even better (even if she wasn’t really holding it, but as they haven’t been forced to take it down, I guess she’s ok with it). I bought the shirt.
When I opened the package, I took the shirt out, put it on a hanger and took a photo and put it on my Facebook page. Then the strangest thing happened. The algorithms gremlins decided I was making a reference to a statement which has been falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson. So, they put a gray screen over the photo with a link to a site for Monticello refuting this as a spurious quotation by Thomas Jefferson. (Hmmm…with RBG’s partial photo and her signature at the bottom???)
Now, I may be an English Lit major and not a historian or a political science type, but I’ve read the Declaration of Independence and other documents from that time, and I know that the specific language isn’t something to attribute to Thomas Jefferson. He was a flawed individual, as many are in our history. He was someone who was the product of his upbringing and environment. He stepped out of the comfort zone of that time a little in his writing (while still acting much like others of his time and station. UGH!), but while some of his writing was forward-thinking, he still was flawed and did things that, from our perspective today, were not very credit-worthy. But one cannot deny that his prose in the Declaration of Independence went against the established thinking and continues to stand and inspire and educate. It charted a new course for a new union. And we have been pushing against the boundaries ever since.
But I wondered if this had any relation to the function of religion. How does one take a phrase like: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty”, and find within it a message from the Holy One? Interestingly, when I put the phrase into a Google search looking for a biblical passage, I came across an address given at the Vancouver School of Theology by guest speaker Professor Martin Rumscheidt on July 6, 2017, entitled “When Injustice Becomes Law - Resistance Becomes Duty”, Theology is Not Exempt. Given that Professor Rumscheidt was born in Germany in 1935 and moved to Montreal, Canada in about 1952, and only then really began to confront the legacy of Hitler and what that meant to his perspective on life and his relationship to others, this address is fascinating. https://vst.edu/2017/07/06/when-injustice-becomes-law-resistance-becomes-duty/ He talks about resistance as a verb not a noun. He points to John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” And John 10:1 – 9 wherein Jesus is the doorway or the avenue by which one reaches God and not otherwise. (there’s something in there about entering a sheepfold by climbing in rather than entering through a door is akin to being thieves and robbers.) If you consider it, the point is: The Holy One has given us the path through Jesus Christ, and to follow a path of another that stands against the path offered by the Holy One we do not work in service to nor do we honor the Holy One, but that “other” who would lead us down the false path. Thus, we must resist those who would lead us to dishonor the right path by dishonoring those of a different faith, a different color, or a different gender. Sounds like the one commandment: Love thy Neighbor as thyself. If we consider that refusing to merge “the State” with “the Church” we embrace freedom for a more truly theological existence, then we have a “duty to resist”. Hmmm.
Apparently, the algorithm gremlins decided that my using the photo of the t-shirt is ok now, because my profile photo now shows up without being blocked. (Or at least I think it does.) But it reminded me that we are never too old to learn new things and we are indebted to those who blazed trails like RBG. She was and remains one of those jurists who battled injustice. Not because of her religion or her gender (although both came into play during her career), but because injustice is injustice regardless of one’s color, gender, orientation, religion, etc.
Lady Liberty is blindfolded for a reason, folks. And it is good to remember that when we consider what this union of imperfect individuals from every walk of life is meant to be. I’m an imperfect person in an imperfect world striving to live up to the vision and the obligations my citizenship requires. I will resist as a duty I owe to my fellow human beings in order that I may walk the path of justice. I just hope I don’t step off that path too often, or that someone will yank me back when I misstep.
Thanks for the lesson, algorithm gremlins. This gray-haired lady will keep watching and learning. I hope others will be with me and will keep me on the right path.