Editor’s note: “This year, this decade, have you labored, as I often have, with the suspicion that you are not quite seeing things clearly? With so many inputs, so many provocations and so much vying for our attention, do you feel caught in an endless cycle of reaction?” Yes. Big yes.
Michael Wear’s organization, the Center for Christianity and Public Life, recently issued a “National Call to the Christian Practices of Silence and Solitude.”
Here, Michael shares that Call with the democracy space.
P.S. Democracy Notes and CCPL are exploring co-hosting a silent retreat for folks in the democracy space (of all faiths, or none). If you’re interested, let us know here.
One thing I have learned after working in politics and civic life for almost two decades is that it never stops. I’ve also learned that politics has the capacity and tendency to construct a kind of pseudo-reality which is not constituted by what is true, but by the currency of attention and our interpretation of the various inputs to which we have access.
In civic life, in a democracy, the discernment of our own motives and beliefs—not to mention everyone else’s—can be confounding and even debilitating. Despite these difficulties, perhaps even because of them, the pressure to act, to respond to every provocation and opportunity, is profound.
This year, this decade, have you labored, as I often have, with the suspicion that you are not quite seeing things clearly? With so many inputs, so many provocations and so much vying for our attention, do you feel caught in an endless cycle of reaction? I worry we are not seeing clearly.
At the Center for Christianity and Public Life, we—along with a number of partner organizations and friends—recently issued a “National Call to the Christian Practices of Silence and Solitude.” This Call draws on the resources and history of the Christian tradition, confirmed by the experiences of countless people across time and background, regarding the historic practices of silence and solitude.
In solitude, we abstain from human interaction for a limited period of time. In silence, we abstain from manufactured noise, including our own talking. We, for a time, resist offering or demanding communication.
I believe these are essential practices for this particular moment, and I recommend them to you as gifts with a measure of confidence that they offer good things to you personally as well as to how you might contribute to our broader public life. For Christians, we take up these practices with an expectation that God might use them. If you are not a Christian, or not religious at all, I believe the practices will be helpful for you, too. I’d be eager to learn from your experiences with them.
You can read the Call here. Let us know if you take it up, and how it affects your life and your vital work in the coming days and months. Perhaps, in periods of silence, we will find what it is we are to say. Perhaps, in periods of solitude, we will find new resources for building solidarity in the midst of the crises of this moment. This cycle of reaction can be broken, and our expectations for ourselves, our communities and our politics can be reset. Something new can emerge for our life together.
Michael Wear is the President and CEO of the Center for Christianity and Public Life and author of The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life. He previously served in The White House.
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