The Loudest Silence

Let’s get one thing straight: silence isn’t neutral.
It’s an endorsement – just whispered.

When injustice rolls into town, dressed up in flags and Bible verses, it’s not the screams of the oppressors that echo the loudest. It’s the silence of those who knew better and did nothing.

Martin Luther King Jr. said it straight up: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Y'all, that line will still preach.

Church folks, I’m talking to you.

Because while you were holding hands and humming “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” Black folks were being lynched under crosses. Gay teens were taking their own lives after your sermons. Women were bleeding in bathrooms because you voted “pro-life.”

And right now, kids are being torn from their families, trans folks are being legislated out of existence, and entire communities are fighting just to breathe.

And some of y’all are busy “staying out of politics.”

Let me say it loud for the people in the back pew:
Love that doesn’t speak up isn’t love.
It’s fear with a cross around its neck.

Silence lets injustice write the liturgy.

Christianity has never been judged by Jesus’ words nearly as much as it’s been judged by our silence. And honestly? The judgment’s fair.

The Church stayed silent while slavery thrived.
Stayed silent when Nazis rose.
Stayed silent during segregation.
Stayed silent during the AIDS crisis.
And it’s staying damn near silent now – while fascism tiptoes in boots too big for its morals.

You want to know why people are leaving the Church?
Because the Church left them first,
in every moment that demanded courage and got crickets instead.

Silence is a strategy – and it protects the powerful.

Let’s be real: silence keeps you safe.
Safe from the backlash.
Safe from losing donors.
Safe from the discomfort of challenging grandma’s theology or the racist deacon on the church board.

But while you’re keeping yourself safe, someone else is paying for it –
With their rights.
With their dignity.
With their life.

And that silence? That silence is screaming.

Here’s the truth: if Love doesn’t cost you comfort, it’s just PR.

Love will push you into uncomfortable conversations.
It will force you to pick sides.
It will break your silence and sometimes your relationships.
But that’s the price of justice.

Jesus flipped tables, not because it was polite, but because silence wasn’t an option.
If your faith doesn’t move your mouth when injustice is screaming,
it’s not faith.

It’s conformity dressed up in a choir robe.

So speak up, Church. Before your silence becomes your legacy.

The world doesn’t need more comfortable Christians.
It needs loud, inconvenient, justice-loving troublemakers.

Speak truth.
Get kicked out of the “club” if you have to.
Speak the truth like justice depends on it, because it does.

Because history doesn’t look kindly on the quiet.

But Love shines in voices that speak up!