Heidi Neumark - Sanctuary: Being Christian in the Wake of Trump

Heidi Neumarks powerful book will retain its importance long after Donald Trumps presidency. Neumark has the unique ability to bring together people and events that are seldom in the same spaceconsider her chapter, Bedbugs, Condoms, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Biblical texts and church seasons intersect with politics without apology: Its remarkable, she writes, that people who gather to worship in spaces with a cross prominently displayed become upset about politics in the sanctuary. You will never say sanctuary again without hearing her passionate plea for the church to take sidesbased on the Biblewith those whose lives are demeaned and dismissed. This is a book many have been waiting for; hopefully, it will also be read by those who didnt know they were waiting.

Barbara K. Lundblad Union Theological Seminary, New York City

Pastor Heidi evocatively defines sanctuary as an embodied way for dreams to grow in a protected space so that a different future can be born. This book is a sanctuary rich with the gilded stories of beautiful people for whom the church or society have rarely offered safety, finding their way to healing in a community finding its way to Jesus in our ever-changing and brutal city. A beautiful, compelling vision.

Winnie Varghese Trinity Church Wall Street

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

www.eerdmans.com

2020 Heidi B. Neumark

All rights reserved

Published 2020

Printed in the United States of America

26 25 24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ISBN 978-0-8028-7839-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Neumark, Heidi, author.

Title: Sanctuary : being Christian in the wake of Trump / Heidi B. Neumark.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Reflections on living in Christian community during our current times of political division, dehumanization, and crueltyProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020017616 | ISBN 9780802878397 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: CommunitiesReligious aspectsChristianity. | United StatesChurch history21st century. | Church year meditations. | Christianity and cultureUnited StatesHistory21st century. | Trump, Donald, 1946 | Asylum, Right ofReligious aspectsChristianity. | HomeReligious aspectsChristianity.

Classification: LCC BR526 .N4235 2020 | DDC 277.308/3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017616

Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

I dedicate this book with deepest love and gratitude to the Trinity community. You embody so much hope for me and for our world.

Para la comunidad de la Iglesia de la Trinidad con todo mi amor y agradecimientoustedes infunden esperanza para m y para el mundo.

I dont know what the future holds for this country. I dont know whether the causes of liberation and freedom will continue to unfold in the mysterious ways that they have been. I dont know whether the hand of a providential God will once again break into human history. Simply put, I dont know whether salvation is coming for America. I often wonder, is the project of America even worth saving? Is the often-maligned, abused, denied, policed, hijacked, and deferred American dream even worth dreaming?

I also dont know whether this criminal administration in the White House at the time of my writing this foreword will win another election. But I have to ask, does it even matter? The rampant white supremacy, systemic and structural racism, weaponization of executive privilege and orders, and intentional legislative harm to communities of color have been here long before Trump. Im not even sure whether the next election matters as much as the revelation that, in a lot of ways, this is who we are as a country. This is us at our core. This is what the republic is now, a bloated empire with no regard for its citizens, pitting those who dont know they are in a cage against those it wants in a cage. In the question of what came first to the White House, white supremacy or Donald Trump, the answer is obvious in his rise.

Herod didnt create the throne of Israel. He sat in it. In the same way, Donald J. Trump, the forty-fifth president of the United States of America, didnt create systemic racism and four hundred years of oppression. He was baptized in it. From gorging himself at the trough of end-stage capitalism at his birth to wielding the outsized influence that celebrity culture gave him most his life, he is truly American in his rise to the greatest office in the land. That rise was built on the backs of the very poor, empowered by the wealth of others, and filled with overt acts of hatred.

I dont know what the days ahead will hold or where we will be as the people of God by the time you read this. But I do know Heidi Neumark and the people of Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City. I do know that in the early days of this administration, they did public acts of church and liturgy that were resistance. I do know that as a leader in the church, Heidi spoke sharply and clearly. She didnt equivocate or negotiate with evil. She named a thing what it was when many others in the church were too busy worrying about congregational backlash and retirement-planning. Maybe that is a product of the incredible community she serves. Maybe its because queer bodies are held sacred in Trinitys sanctuary walls and sheltered in its basement. Maybe its because, like a sower, Heidi has been spreading the Kin-dom of God wherever she goes. Not worrying about what folks deem the best soil. The proper soil. Just throwing the seeds of new life everywhere she goes. That new life is a thing you cant bottle or recreate, but you know it when you come across it in the twenty-first century church, and you intuitively know it is precious, special, rare, and needs to be cared for and nurtured. That it has to be allowed to spread wild, new life and growth to everything it touches.

The author and pastor and the community you are going to meet in these pages are all those things. If you are looking for hope, respite, courage, and a draught of the water of life, then you have come to the right place. You see, there are people who have labored long and wearily in this cause. There is a ragtag army ready to wage peace on the world and turn back the tide of oppression sweeping this country and, by proxy, the American church. It is rising up. Thankfully, some of those joining its ranks are Heidi and the community she serves. May the authors words bless you. May the stories within speak to the tender places inside you. May you find sanctuary in the current raging storm. May you still find ways to look through your own brokenness and beyond your neighbors brokenness to the imago Dei in us all.

In the Name of the Parent, the Rebel, and the Spirit +

Lenny Duncan

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you. Philippians 1:34

So much joy and so much gratitude:

For the editors at the Christian Century who have been ever generous in allowing my words to see the light of day, especially former editors Debra Bendis and David Heim;

For Don Ottenhoff, Carla Durand, and everyone at the Collegeville Institute who create a magical space of hospitality for writers and creative nourishment beyond compare;