Endangered rulers make war

Jobs, Journalism, Justice

Contributing Writer

Rev. John Helmiere is co-convener of Valley & Mountain in South Seattle.

Our bodies have limits to how much tension we can absorb. We are already in the midst of a generation-defining disruption in normal life, and then we add to it the tide of white supremacist violence and reverberating effects of prolonged isolation and economic paralysis. Now, as the election looms in just a few weeks and our society is already quivering with anxiety, many will experience seismic shifts in their personal, spiritual stability. Many of my friends and members of my community have been reporting troubled sleep, persistent inability to focus and even episodes of vertigo. ...

Sacred, toxic during COVID

By John Helmiere | September 9, 2020

Six months ago, the sidewalk began to feel like a place of fear and algebra. As I walk down the street, I see people coming my way, and I can tell they are calculating our speeds and charting our courses. I do the same thing, imagining how to give people space, dancing off the sidewalk into the street as the distance between us thins. We are all trying to remember the math class that demanded of us: “One train leaves Philadelphia at 50 mph. Another leaves New York City at 60 mph. When do they collide?” In sidewalk math, we all try desperately to avoid the collision. ...

This week, dedicating my column to amplify a letter to the Seattle City Council

By John Helmiere | August 12, 2020

Dear City Councilmembers: ...

Deceit, conceit and mercy in Durkan’s Seattle

By John Helmiere | July 8, 2020

Social psychologists note three traits among those most driven by the forces of revenge: (1) a preference for social dominance and hierarchies, (2) an acceptance of social norms and the importance of authority and (3) a need for the world to be predictable and orderly. Every day, videos spread over social media of white people waving guns or weaponizing police against Black people due to breaches of their preferences for dominance and orderliness. We need look no further than our own mayor and police to see these behaviors. ...

Righteous flames and wild dreams

By John Helmiere | June 10, 2020

Flames, vapor, dreams and visions and masses crying out in many tongues. These are the central symbols of the major holiday that churches around the world celebrated the past two weekends (the Eastern and Western churches use slightly different calendars). It is a story called Pentecost and the beginning of church, as it has come to be known for Christians. I have understood Christmas and Easter through a revolutionary lens for many years, but the brilliant and bold Black-led national uprising for Black lives has illuminated the holiday of Pentecost in a whole new light for many of us. ...

Endurance spirituality

By John Helmiere | May 13, 2020

Since this pandemic started, I’ve been asking, “How do you endure times of profound uncertainty with courage and faithfulness?” I have spoken with therapists, organizers, artists, theologians, priests and parents. We have spoken about their approach to this lockdown, but focused more on their past experiences of enduring extended suffering. I have now heard many stories, strategies for survival and ways of emerging on the other side of trauma. I have been oddly comforted to find that a single, unifying idea has not emerged as the key to gracefully surviving challenging times. ...

Groaning and grounding

By John Helmiere | April 8, 2020

As the societal shutdown drags on, I find myself on tumultuous seas. I am tossed between troughs of despair and crests of equanimity. I do not think I am alone. All around, I hear groaning — expressions of fear, anger, helplessness, yearning and anxiety. And yet, I see grounding — people finding centering, calm, awareness and even awakening amid chaos. Everywhere, there is groaning and grounding. ...

Canceled: Just when we need community the most

By John Helmiere | March 12, 2020

This past Sunday my church canceled our flesh-and-blood gathering, and had an online service instead. It was a very difficult decision to make. Embodied gatherings play a crucial role in awakening, connecting and healing. They are essential to our spiritual lives, and times of collective anxiety — like the one we are in now — are precisely when we most need a community to gather with and lean on for support. ...

Embracing our dirt-ness

By John Helmiere | February 13, 2020

The one benefit of having a flagrant narcissist in the White House is what it reveals about our society. The president provides a mirror (which is a metaphor narcissists adore) that reflects what drives much of our own national behavior. Our fascination with celebrities — whether we worship or hate any given one — indicates how entangled we are with vanity. Whether we obsess over the primaries, the playoffs or the Oscars, many of us live vicariously through the reflected glory of our idols and the anticipated downfall of our adversaries. ...