Sea Lions, Solitude and Suppression
The tactics of fear...
First this. I’m sure you’ve seen it. If you haven’t seen it: watch it, like it, share it. Tweet it. Send it to your e-mail lists. Pass it on to your children. Get it to your fellow church members. This is important. A PDF of his testimony notes can be found here:
Perhaps a copy finds its way into church mailboxes, onto a pastor’s desk, or non-destructively attached to a church’s door.
(If you’d really like it to be read: put it in a cover and set a copy next to a toilet in the men’s bathroom at church.)
The topic at hand is related.
If you are in a political war room you have three main goals.
Raise money.
Figure out who’s voting for your candidate and drag them to the polls.
Figure out who’s not voting for you candidate and try to keep them away.
Number three is where we’re going to focus some attention today. As we live in a relatively peaceful, modern, western democracy that is privileged with rights and systems to protect them, keeping people from voting (apart from gerrymandering and disenfranchisement) is something that can’t be done.
You can’t physically stop someone from voting. But! You can attempt to persuade people not to vote.
Welcome to the world of hatchet men.
The goal is quite simple: elicit negative responses. It doesn’t really matter which one because negative responses are almost always effective for the dark arts of politics.
A sense of doubt about the candidate that gets you less excited about voting, volunteering, donating, or sharing your support with others.
A general disgust at politics in general that will keep you cynical and disengaged.
An angry response from an ally that is as off-putting as any attack ad you can craft.
Fear of social reprisal that will silence your voice.
Isolation and the feeling your side has already lost so why bother.
Attack ads and tactics work. They’re cheap. They’re dirty. They’re easy. The visceral nature of the emotional response means that facts, criticism, and even attempts to engage them with patience and grace rarely mitigate the effect.
If you’re on the attacking side they elicit a positive effect too. Your candidate is a fighter. Tough. Scrappy. Willing to do what is necessary to win and make things right.
Campaign school 101: If you want to *actually* run a clean campaign, don’t run.
Here’s a question I’d like to ask you.
How do you feel when you think about the state of LGBTQ+ inclusion in our little denomination?
Sad? Discouraged? Angry? Afraid? Disgusted? Fed up? Unheard? Cynical? Alone?
Sounds about right.
Duane Kelderman’s beautiful and powerful testimony is a message that needs to be heard. It is intelligent, Scriptural, thoughtful, kind, heartfelt, humble and courageous.
The response of those dudes I don’t Abide with? Predictable.
He is “the George Soros of the CRC”.
He is “spouting the same old arguments that have already been refuted” (Protip: they have not been refuted - simply argued against.)
He is “Satan, the father of lies.” (Yes. This is a direct quote.)
I imagine as this video filters through the various networks of the CRC you’re going to see some variation on the attack ad that is meant to diminish Kelderman’s credibility even though he has served with irrefutable distinction and is one of our denominations finest preachers.
Moderates will, not having known him, be less inclined to hear his voice. Conservatives will gnash their teeth at him. We, who love him, will be tempted to respond in anger continuing to fuel a narrative of “mean progressives” and they can play the besmirched gentlemen in their southern drama.
And what will we be tempted to do?
Less.
We’ll see what they’re doing to impeach the unimpeachable. We’ll fear the toxicity of comment feeds on social media. We’ll get cynical about the process. We’ll get tired when an “honest question” from one conservative is followed by 20 more pulling in different directions, obfuscating the point, focusing on minutia, and pages of pseudotheology in walls of text meant to drown out any other voice.
(All of this, by the way, is called sea-lioning. It’s a technique named after an internet meme. Feed one sea lion and a hundred will appear barking until it’s all you hear.)
The question is: how do we counter suppression tactics?
If we were in a political war room I would tell you to fight fire with fire. It’s cheaper and easier. Drag everything down and rely on your get out the vote campaign.
That’s not the way we roll, however, and that’s a good thing. While it might be Campaign School 101 it is not Jesus 101. We’ve got a harder road ahead but let me suggest a list of things that might be helpful.
Recognize the strategy and see it at work. Most Abide folk don’t realize they’re doing this. They’ve simply become culturally accustomed to the tactics as being normal engagement. If you can see it happening then you can manage its effect.
Manage its effect. When you are feeling the negative impact of suppression dig into your toolbox of self-care. Negative is where they want you to be.
Remember what you are for and don’t focus on what you’re against. This is the message that moderates will be moved by.
Don’t feed sea lions. If you’re commenting online voice your support and pick something praiseworthy. Ignore all questions. If you must respond: don’t answer a question. Invite them out to tea. “I don’t agree with you, but I’d love to buy you a beverage.”
Don’t be alone. You’re not alone. They want you to feel alone.
Know that they haven’t won and are not winning. Think about the long haul. These are the lashings out of a culture war fuelled by a hot-burning but short lived source. Anger and fear never prevail against love and hope in the long term.
Stay positive. As someone who has practised the dark arts and exists in a world of cynicism I can say with authority: it is not good to live like this. It is a gift of grace when I am lifted above the negativity and it is hell when I am not. DON’T BE LIKE ME. We serve a very good God, the world is still beautiful, our LGBTQ+ friends and family have experienced way too much ugliness for us to add to it. Philippians 4:8.
Amplify.
AMPLIFY.
AMPLIFY!!! One of the effects of suppression tactics is noise. Their goal: Be loud. Obnoxious. Confident. Numerous. In the clamour we are afraid to speak up or it’s so noisy that nobody will hear. Notice the very first thing that I wrote. Share Kelderman’s testimony as far, and wide, and often as you safely can. We need to amplify the message so that it can’t be drowned out. Every time something that is good comes to you - pass it on to as many people as you can. The number one thing that we can do when people try to drag a message and its messenger down? Lift it up.
On a side note - sorry it’s been a while - it’s been a season.