A Guide for Movement Chaplains: Spiritual & Emotional Care During Counter-Actions to White Supremacist Hate Rallies

For those of us who are chaplains, healers, caregivers, and religious or spiritual leaders, there are always questions about how to show up in movement spaces like protests or counter-protests in ways that best channel our skills and strengthen the movement for racial justice and collective liberation. Multi-faith movements for justice are always in the process of learning. But one way to resist white supremacy is to use our skills to provide spiritual and emotional care to organizers, activists, and community members on the frontlines—to the people who participate in all types of actions from tension-filled counter-protests to more-removed community picnics held in response to white supremacist gatherings. These are the spaces where we must learn to better support each other, birth community narratives rooted in radical hope and love– and cultivate pastoral presence in situations of uncertainty, tension, conflict, violence, and trauma. Faith Matters Network calls this work “Movement Chaplaincy” and we believe that providing holistic care to frontline people is essential to movement building and working toward justice, equity, and collective liberation.

This community guide was created by Rev. Margaret Ernst and Rev. Lindsey Krinks in preparation for the Movement Chaplaincy team they led that provided care for counter-protesters and community members resisting the “White Lives Matter” protest in Shelbyville, Tennessee in October 2017. Here, they share the many lessons learned from that experience.