We got into good trouble on Good Friday. Twenty-five people were arrested for a nonviolent direct action at the headquarters of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons contractor, where the weapons being used in Gaza are made. Hundreds of others joined in the action during Holy Week as members of the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage walked over 20 miles, roughly the length of Gaza, from the Liberty Bell to Lockheed Martin.
Here’s why we did it.
The event was part of a global movement with similar walks happening in over 200 cities around the world, in every continent including Antarctica. Our message is simple. End the genocide – we need a permanent lasting ceasefire, now. Let in the aid – collective punishment and forced starvation are evil and morally indefensible. Release all the hostages. And stop sending weapons and funds to Israel, weapons like those made at Lockheed Martin.
On October 7, some 1200 precious lives were lost, every one of them a sacred child of God, made in the image of God. The world stood with Israel against the merciless slaughter and terror of October 7. And we must not hesitate to stand against anti-semitism today.
But in the days since October 7, we have watched the State of Israel pour out its wrath on the people of Gaza, killing around 200 a day, one child every 10 minutes. Often using the Bible as a weapon to justify their revenge.
Two wrongs don’t make a right… that’s what my momma taught me.
In the past 170 days since October 7, over 32,000 people have been killed… 15,000 of them are children. And over 74,000 people have been injured. Thousands are missing under the rubble. We are watching a genocide, ethnic cleansing – livestreamed on social media, and most of our leaders are silent or even complicit. As Palestinian pastor, Munther Isaac has said, “Gaza has become the moral compass of the world.”
To speak out against the violence of October 7th does not make you anti-Palestinian. It makes you decent, human, moral, and compassionate. To speak out against the violence since October 7th is not to be antisemitic or pro-Hamas… it is to be decent, human, moral, compassionate.
One of the central convictions of Christianity is that there is a God who is near to the suffering, to the poor, the widows and orphans, and to all those who are victims of violence. Jesus left all the comfort of Heaven to be born as a brown-skinned, Palestinian, Jewish baby, born as a refugee during a genocide under King Herod… born homeless in a manger, from a town called Nazareth where people said nothing good could come… arrested, terrorized, tortured and executed on a cross. On Good Friday, Christians around the world remember in a special way that Christ is God’s act of solidarity, as he endured the most horrific violence on the cross, and subverted it with love, forgiveness, and an empty tomb. It is Christ who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they are the children of God. It is Christ who rebuked his own disciples when they wanted to call down “fire from heaven” on the people of Samaria. And it is Christ, who scolded Peter when he resorted to violence, saying to Peter, “Those who live by the sword, die by the sword… put the sword away.”
In the Easter story, Pontius Pilate washes his hands as Christ is being killed, attempting to wash the blood off his hands and pretend he was not responsible. So that was part of our message at Lockheed Martin on Good Friday. Our lead banner read: Lockheed Martin, YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS.”
Ironically, Lockheed Martin covered up the large signs at their main entrance with large blue tarps and duct tape, making the point even stronger. They literally tried to hide any evidence of their corporate logo as we gathered. You can’t make this stuff up.
We also made a banner with the numbers on it: “Over 32,000 killed. Over 13,000 children killed. Over 74,000 injured.” And we all added our handprints in red paint, even little Eli added his for the babies in Gaza. Many folks left the paint on their hands as a reminder that the genocide in Gaza is not just being done by Israel. It is being done with funds from the United States and weapons made in the United States, by companies like Lockheed Martin.
The US gives Israel $4 Billion a year. And Lockheed Martin makes billions more from weapons sales, with contracts that did not begin after October 7 but have a decades old history. Since the 1970s, Lockheed Martin has provided the F-16s and more recently the F-35 fighter jets used in Gaza. In 5 years, Lockheed sent 102 F-16s and 50 F-35s. They also make the M-270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, and the Hellfire missiles that have killed so many people. In the recent assault in response to October 7th, the US and Israel agreed on a new weapons package (two months into the genocide) to supply even more F-35 and F-15 jets as well as Apache helicopters. So yes, Lockheed Martin has blood on its hands. They have made a killing off killing. They have turned war into a billion-dollar business enterprise. The old saying is correct: “If you want to stop war, figure out who is profiting from it.”
That’s why we gathered at Lockheed Martin on Good Friday. As many fellow Christians bless the bombs falling on Gaza, weapons made at Lockheed Martin… we say NO, not in our name, and not in the name of our Savior. As many Christians try to defend the violence of Israel being done in planes made by Lockheed Martin, we are calling for a ceasefire, and an end to the violence in the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace.
To be clear, it was a diverse, interfaith gathering – with people of all faiths and folks who aren’t religious at all but are compelled by their conscience to stand against the violence in Gaza. We had dozens of children of all ages. I’m guessing my little baby, Elijah, was one of the youngest at 12 weeks old. One of them held a homemade banner that read, “US Bombs Kill Children.” The young and young at heart put a rhythm to our call for ceasefire, as they beat on large drums together.
And we carried the signs and banners. We had posters with large images of the devastation from the bombing, and the shattered lives… each one branded with “Made In the USA.” And we carried six large black signs with the names of the children, a reminder that they are not just numbers. Every one of them has a name, a precious child made in the image of God. We carried thousands of those names onto the property of Lockheed Martin… an act that was part religious ceremony, part street theater, part public lament.
As we crossed over the blue line that designates where the public property ends and the private property of Lockheed Martin begins, we were given a warning that we were trespassing and could face arrest. The folks with the names of the children laid down on the ground, a profoundly moving posture in the rich tradition of “die-ins.” Others of us began to sing. Several participants unrolled yellow “Crime Scene Do Not Enter” tape and roped off the entrance, calling it what it is – the scene of a crime, a war crime. On the other side of the boundary we laid several dozen red roses. One after another, kids and adults brought those flowers over the blue line and laid them on the names of the children – it was all so powerful and moving.
As the police began arresting us, we sang hymns and freedom songs – “Down by the Riverside” and “We Shall Overcome” … and “Ain’t Gonna Let Lockheed Martin, Turn me ‘Round.” And we said the “Lord’s Prayer” which had a new ring to it as we said the part about forgiving us “our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” as we were arrested for trespassing.
As we began the procession onto Lockheed Martin, I reminded the group of these words of Martin Luther King (whose assassination we remember on the anniversary this week), as he said this: “There is nothing wrong with a traffic law which says you have to stop for a red light. But when a fire is raging, the fire truck goes through that red light, and normal traffic had better get out of its way. Or when a man is bleeding to death, the ambulance goes through those red lights at top speed.”
There is a fire raging in Gaza, and we need brigades of ambulance drivers who will ignore the red lights of the present system until the emergency is solved. That’s why we were willing to go to jail.
And it was also Dr. King who reflected on how he was initially troubled to go to jail – but then he looked at history and saw what good company he had. Indeed, all the way back to Jesus on that first Good Friday. And Christians have been making good trouble ever since, stirring up holy mischief and challenging the systems that crush other people. So, it was an honor to go to jail on Good Friday. As John Lewis once said, when we get into good trouble we can smile in our mugshot because we know that we are on the right side of history.
Without a doubt, our children and grandchildren will ask us what we did to try to stop the genocide in Gaza. I am trying hard to be able to honestly answer them – everything we could, including going to jail. In fact, I’ll tell my little boy Eli – it was your first protest. And I know it will not be his last.
On the citation we were given, we have been charged with Disorderly Conduct, and underneath the charge is a section called “Nature of Offense” and they wrote that the police officers wrote this in that section: “Defendant created a physically offensive condition by an act which served no legitimate purpose”.
There was a crime committed at 230 Mall Blvd, but it was not prayerfully putting our bodies in the way of the flow of weapons of mass destruction. The crime was happening inside the headquarters of Lockheed Martin. And that was the act that was “offensive” to God and to all of us who care about life.
We will not build a better world by killing other people’s children. It’s time to get in the way of the business of war. And for many of us, we do this holy work in the name of our Savior… that brown-skinned Palestinian refugee from Nazareth… Jesus the Christ.
Violence is always evil, no matter what flag it’s wrapped up in.
Let us continue to work for peace… and do all we can to interrupt the war… and grieve every life lost… and commit ourselves to building a world where every person is sacred.