Rick acknowledges that many acts of civil...

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Rick acknowledges that many acts of civil disobedience are “carefully choreographed,” low-risk affairs, especially in the U.S. where public protest is mostly tolerated. Given this, I’m not sure such actions can even be placed in the same category as the Arab Spring or the Christian Peacemaker Teams, where there is grave risk involved. I am awed every time I read about young undocumented immigrants being arrested over anti-immigration policies around the nation. They stand to suffer severe and lasting consequences of their actions. That is what captivates the imagination, not celebrities and upper-middle-class college students being arrested in Lafayette Square.

Not Violent Enough | Two Friars and a Fool

This is the latest bit in an ongoing conversation the Friars and Fool have been hosting on the topic of civil disobedience, and it’s a good one. It’s written specifically from the perspective (and the vocabulary) of religious people of the Christian persuasion, but I think the ideas in it are relevant to anyone who has considered the viability of civil disobedience as a form of social action.

And don’t miss the comment thread about whether our need for measurable results isn’t actually the enemy of the small actions that do bend the arc of the moral universe.

The idea of “stewardship of privilege,” that privilege is a resource like money, time, or talent is one I’ll be rolling around in my head for a while.

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