Speaking Truth to Power

Rev. Erik Swanson
September 7, 2025

This past Thursday and Friday I spent two full days at a training on community organizing. It was both challenging and inspiring, giving me new skills and connections to help me understand how to build spiritual and people power in today’s world. We talked a lot about the times we live in — times that feel dangerous for democracy and especially for vulnerable groups.

Instead of Going Back, Move Forward

As faith leaders from across California, we wrestled with the reality that the United States has never truly been an inclusive democracy. From its beginnings, people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ folks have been excluded. So rather than trying to go back to some imagined golden past, we spoke of organizing toward something new: a more representative and egalitarian society where we can speak truth to power with a forceful and collective voice.

Organizing Is About Overcoming Isolation

One hopeful reminder I kept hearing was this: there are more people who feel like I do than I realize. More people are willing to stand up than I think. But isolation keeps us quiet and defeated. Organizing is about overcoming that isolation so we can discover and speak our truth together. That’s not easy, especially when powerful forces deliberately sow confusion with “alternative facts.” But naming reality is essential: our country is rooted in racism; capitalism contradicts many of Jesus’ teachings; vulnerable communities are under attack. Whether it’s mass deportations without due process, genocide abroad, or climate change, these truths must be spoken again and again.

Our Spiritual Practices Ground Us With Courage

Yet naming them is only the beginning. The real work is speaking truth directly to those in power. That can be intimidating — fearing backlash or drawing unwanted attention — but it’s necessary. Our spiritual practices ground us with courage. God has given each of us a voice, and we’re called to use it: making calls, writing letters, attending town halls, pushing elected officials. When enough of us speak with persistence, we can force change.

Facing Truths Dismantles False Systems

This is true in society, but also within ourselves. I’ve had to face hard personal truths, like discovering that my own ancestors owned enslaved people. As painful as that was, confronting it fuels my commitment to never let such systems stand again. I also recognize how my whiteness has shielded me in ways my friends of color don’t experience. Facing those truths helps dismantle the false systems inside me. And just as I must organize outwardly, I must organize inwardly too — through prayer, mantras, and consistent practice that remind me of God’s deeper truth: that I am beloved, that I am enough, and that oppressive voices within me can be silenced.

Persistence, Organization and Community

But let’s be clear: unjust systems don’t fall easily. Power resists. That’s why persistence, organization, and community matter so much. We have to keep at it, again and again, until the new takes root. When good people do nothing, evil wins. I believe God calls us to seek the deeper truth, to find courage, and to speak with our voices — timidly, boldly, or somewhere in between — until oppressive systems, both around us and within us, begin to crumble.