Friday Nudge: Non-Violent Direct (Climate) Action is Christian

I'll be taking Non-Violent Direct Action Training (NVDA) soon in order to join in civil resistance for the Earth community. Join me?

With the kids home due to climate crisis-related freezing rain in January (check out Weather Trader’s daily posts on extreme weather and climate events around the world, like the one from this morning), I am very aware that winter is not a reason not to take climate action (how’s that for a double negative?!). Starting on February 6, Last Generation Canada is beginning a series of disruptions in Ottawa to call for:

“a national firefighting agency that trains and employs 50,000 firefighters” and

“that Canada implement legally binding citizens’ assemblies to tackle the climate and ecological crisis in less than 2 years.”

These are eminently sensible demands, but since the government has not been listening to sense, direct action is necessary. Want to get involved? Go here.

Don’t live in Ottawa or Canada? Look up what non-violent direct climate action is taking place in your community, and join in.

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These planned disruptions are part of an international movement of non-violent direct action on behalf of the Earth community and its people. I am feeling called to participate as a chaplain to everyone involved: the protestors, police and other officials, and the general public. I will be present at the actions, where and when I can, in collar and religious garb so as to be recognizable.

Today’s Friday Nudge is to invite you to join me and Last Generation Canada in taking nonviolent direct climate action. Not sure what that means?

What is Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA)?

Non-violent direct action (NVDA), which is also called civil resistance, is defined as follows by renowned American political scientist Erica Chenoweth:

“Civil resistance is a method of conflict through which unarmed civilians use a variety of coordinated methods (strikes, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, and many other tactics) to prosecute a conflict without directly harming or threatening to harm an opponent. Sometimes called nonviolent resistance, unarmed struggle, or nonviolent action, this form of political action is now a mainstay across the globe.”¹

Non-Violent Direct Action is Christian

In some religious circles that I’m in, I have heard expressed a distinct discomfort with the idea of civil resistance. Recently, a Christian leader became visibly upset at the idea of blocking roads and bridges and felt very strongly that this was the wrong way for climate activists to act. No one should be obligated to take action that they do not agree with.

At the same time, when we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, who is the model for discipleship for those of us who follow him, we will notice that Jesus engaged in non-violent direct action all of the time! He regularly interrupted everyday life and inconvenienced people in the course of calling out the status quo and calling for the transformation of the world.

Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. He dined publicly with outcasts and sinners. He urged people not to pay their taxes, and, in an exquisite form of public theatre, he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to fulfil the prophecy that the king of peace who would end a world of war would travel in that very manner (cf. Zechariah 9:9). And, as peace activist John Dear says,

“Certainly the climax of his public work -- even his life -- was [Jesus’] nonviolent civil disobedience in the temple, where he turned over the tables of the money changers and prevented people from engaging in the profitable big business of organized religion.”²

If we were to ask WWJD³ in this time of climate emergency and ecological crisis, he would surely be planning to take non-violent direct climate action.

Unlike Jesus, We Need NVDA Training

Since we aren’t Jesus, to most successfully engage in non-violent direct action, it is essential to get training. The training is a process of preparing people to use their bodies, words, and actions in order to remain calm and nonviolent in the face of resistance, including armed resistance and perpetrated violence on non-violent protestors.

NVDA Training is being offered by experienced trainers with Last Generation Canada on February 3 and 10, 9 am- 5 pm. I will be taking the training on Feb 3, and several of us who will be there are people of faith, and inviting other people of faith to join us.

Will you please join me?

Taking the training does not obligate you to a specific form of non-violent direct climate action, nor to even take action beginning on Feb. 6 in Ottawa. However, it will help prepare you for these and any other events you may be involved in in the fight to end the burning of fossil fuels, mitigate the climate emergency, and increase our ability to fight the increasing forest fires and other climate events happening here and around the world.

So, this is your Friday Nudge: Join me on Feb 3 to take non-violent direct action training. If you’re not free then, register for the Feb 10 session!

And please join me during the actions beginning on Feb 6. Join the call for a national firefighting force and legally binding citizens’ assemblies to fight the climate crisis.

NVDA Training is climate action. NVDA Training is discipleship. It is discipleship in action!

Message me and I can help you register for the training and send you emails about the actions I will be involved in. Hit “reply” to this essay in your inbox or:

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It’s time for a national firefighting agency in Canada with a team of 50,000 firefighters. Help us get that!

1. https://www.ericachenoweth.com/research/civil-resistance-what-everyone-needs-to-know. Accessed January 26, 2024.

2. John Dear, “Discipleship to the civilly disobedient Jesus,” https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/discipleship-civilly-disobedient-jesus. Accessed January 26, 2024.

3. “What would Jesus do?”