Prayerful, Peaceful, Non-Violent, Lawful @StandingRock
“You are protecting a pipeline that was put in place because of a church doctrine. I am here to say that we are wrong.” That’s what we’re doing tomorrow. We are clergy coming to say we were wrong. Fr John Floberg of St James’ spoke to Dakota Pipeline officers today about our clergy witness walk tomorrow. He was referring to the Doctrine of Discovery as the church’s statement that blessed the colonizer’s disregard for the life of First People’s in this land.
Tonight we met at Cannon Ball Community Gym to prepare 500+ clergy for what we are doing at 9 am Thursday morning. It is a communal prayer walk by clergy from 20 different faith traditions. We will walk through an area of these Great Plains where burned out vehicles and broken debris give silent witness to the violence and struggle that is active around the Dakota pipeline.
The four rules we have all vowed to follow as we walk and pray:
Prayerful.
Peaceful.
Non-violent.
Lawful.
This is not a “protest.” This is bearing witness and an opportunity for churches to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery that gave institutional, religious support to the historic structures of the oppression and decimation to indigenous people.
