Nonviolent Direct Action: Why youth are walking out and organizing.
“...it hurts to do nothing about it and just watch the world fall apart.”
Let’s talk about nonviolent direct action and the faith community. Direct action can take different forms, from participating in a peaceful march, or gathering sign-ons for a letter, or showing up to hearings, or even raising up signs and a megaphone. Direct action can also look like a group of people sitting outside a bank calling for divestment from fossil fuels, or gathering at the site of a pipeline to speak out against more fossil fuel construction.
With COP27 underway, the imperative to address climate change is right in front of us. And globally people—especially young people—will be organizing, speaking out and taking direct action to demand a livable future and flourishing planet. Yet even as direct action is closely followed in the news most days, it is often far from the average American church or faith community. While mainstreet churches slumber, their youth are on their feet, youth who were raised in those same faith communities, and they are marching, and organizing and demanding older generations attend to the destruction and destructive systems before they wreck our planet.
Our recent Climate Cafe Multifaith conversation centered the voices of two young organizers, faith organizer William H. Morris and forest protector Victoria Wingell. Both have participated in marches and other actions as a matter of conscience and concern for environmental destruction. (scroll for bios). I asked them, when it comes to organizing for the planet, for justice issues, and for communities, how do they hope people of faith would respond to their efforts? Says Wingell, “I would wish that they would join us.”
Victoria Wingell, a climate organizer and forest protector, speaks to why she engages in direct action and how important it is to recognize the importance of action in community.
“I think what is important to be mindful of is that there are real people who are at risk when we’re talking about climate issues…what ignites non-violent direct action is really passion and a sense of survival for a lot of folks”
Direct action is viewed by young people as a moral and living imperative. They are motivated by what is at stake if people of conviction do not act. Says Wingell, “I am really invested in climate work. It's absolutely something that affects all people, whether folks accept that or not.” She explains, “ I think it's a really beautiful thing to see folks who are so passionate and engaged on these issues really putting it all on the line. They mean that they want change and they really are willing to put in the work for it.”
Wingell understands the imperative in a community context. It is important to act against climate pollution and for clean air and healthy forests alongside the most effected communities. It is also important to act with and in community. “Something that I really love about doing this work is just how human it is and how many different humans you meet,” says Wingell. “There are so many people who will agree with you, it's just a matter of finding them.” And once you do find them, often tight relationships can form.
The relationships that form are meaningful simply for building energy and momentum in the work. But where they really count is when it is time to act. Direct action is not something to enter into quickly or too easily. There is a learning curve, relationship building, and practice. Says Wingell, “when it is time to take action… Trust who you're with, stand firm in your beliefs, and just learn as much as you can before actually taking that step. Just prepare, prepare, prepare and surround yourself with good people.”
In this video, faith organizer William H. Morris speaks to what it was like growing up near oil refineries, and why he takes direct action for climate justice.
“I started really wanting to go to these different climate marches and rallies.... the boldness and the fearlessness and the truth telling that young people have ....they tell the truth.”
For Morris, raised evangelical, organizing for climate change means engaging people of faith both inside and outside the church walls. As someone who grew up in the church, he sees the disconnect between what he was taught growing up, and how church structures seem to prevent action on those same teachings. This can be heartbreaking for youth who hold a deep conviction that action is necessary. Morris explains, “For some congregations, even talking about climate justice causes waves. That’s okay, because it's important. It is what we need to be talking about… those who are suffering effects first and worst really need us to show up.”
Not only do conversations about climate change and environmental injustice too often get stifled in the mainstreet congregation, but this silence also forces young people out. The most recent PEW report shows that more people than ever are leaving faith communities, especially young people. Yet a 2021 PEW study shows numbers of people engaged in marches and action for justice are increasing. Says Morris, “a lot of young people who are out here marching are doing it independently from their house of worship. They had to go outside their congregation, and people didn't come with them. It was really heartbreaking to see that.”
Morris sees this abandonment as a ‘failure of care’ from spiritual elders and church family. Young people who are leaving to join their peers on a climate march, or encampment, are acting from deep conviction. This conviction calls them to act even as they experience abandonment from their place of worship. Explains Morris, “they felt that this is something that matters so much to them. This is their future. This is our shared sacred Earth.”
“Growing up Christian, I always read about Jesus in the temple. He sends out the moneylenders, then blockades the temple for the rest of the day. Jesus takes direct action against injustice.”
Too often, youth using their voices in public—with signs, marches, megaphones, or their very bodies in harms way—gets dismissed or criticized. Says Wingell, “there is quite a bit of pushback for this.” Some want to ask, “‘well, what is the direct effect that this tactic is having?’” This is the wrong question, Wingell says. She asserts that people engaged in that kind of action are doing it because they believe their homes and lives are at risk. She explains that the “fight for a better world is something that is really important. Recognize that some of the biggest societal changes that we have gone through in terms of social justice haven't happened without at least an element of this at play.”
For Morris, he grew up between the church and the gas refineries. He shared that as a child at school he remembers “having to shelter in place, and run inside because gas has escaped to the refinery.” This was not a small threat, as “The refinery has exploded in the past, raining ash and debris down and our town.” Besides explosions, Morris’s hometown “is littered with a lot of capped oil wells that will leak methane.” He sums up his experience this way: “growing up, I didn't realize it wasn't normal to have, you know, your air poisoned.”
William H. Morris and Victoria Wingell share what is that brings them hope when it comes to climate organizing.
Morris has a degree in ecological restoration, while Wingell’s degree is in environmental policy. Though they are cronologically young, they have spent years educating themselves on the science of climate change, the impacts of fossil fuel pollution, and the systems that permit poisoning of the air, water, and land of this planet. They have shared countless conversations with people of all ages in a sincere effort to listen and be heard.
As the work to organize for forests, communities, and a healthy future continues, they share a conviction that what they are doing must be done. While they build community and work for change, says Wingell, “regardless of what other people think about this work, on the inside doing it, it's meaningful. It's hopeful. It's encouraging. And it's also a lot of fun, too.”
For more articles, also news and information, see the Faiths4Future blog page.
Social media image thank you Vincent M.A. Janssen.
William Morris (he/him) is a 26-year-old climate activist located in Torrance, CA. He holds his degree in environmental science with an emphasis on ecological restoration and a minor in watershed management from Humboldt State University. William is a Faith Organizer with GreenFaith working on the People vs. Fossil Fuels campaign. He also works with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA) serving first as a field organizer and is now Co-chair of the steering committee. He volunteers with The Climate Reality Project, is the founder and chair of the Los Angeles chapter’s Faith-based Communities Committee, founder and chair of the creation care committee at Faith United Methodist Church, is part of the leadership team with Faiths4Future, and a member of the board at Circle Faith Future. William also has worked with faith organizations abroad spending time in Kenya, Chad and Indonesia. He spends his time engaging with faith communities, schools, universities, and organizations around the topics of faith-based climate justice and education. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, ABC News and the BBC.
Victoria joined Oregon Wild in 2022 as a Forests and Climate Campaigner. She is thrilled to join in protecting our old-growth forests. She graduated with a Bachelors degree in environmental policy from Pacific University with a special focus on grassroots dissent and societal change. In this program, she conducted a research project spanning 2 years to better understand the language that is most impactful when addressing a variety of audiences with opposing interests related to environmental policy.
She then worked on the Grassroots Outreach team at Columbia Riverkeeper to block proposals for the world’s largest fracked-gas-to-methanol refineries from opening up along one of her most cherished wonders of Oregon, the Columbia River. Her favorite parts of this work were connecting with communities and getting them fired up to take action for a great cause. She takes great joy in acting as a major pain-in-the-butt for industries that prioritize profits over people and the planet. In addition to Oregon Wild, Victoria works with Urban Nature Partners PDX to provide youth of color greater access to the outdoors.
Whenever possible, Victoria spends her time enjoying the outdoors. Some of her favorite ways to explore are rock climbing, backpacking, mountaineering, and white water rafting. She spent 5 months living in a van with her partner and their 2 dogs, fueled by solar-powered lattes and visiting some bucket-list climbing destinations. Now at home in the PNW, she serves on the board of directors of Friends of Rocky Butte to maintain Portland’s most local climbing area.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. She organizes the Climate Cafe Multifaith as a co-leader of Faiths4Future. Find her in real life in Southern Oregon, working as Steward of Climate with the nonprofit Circle Faith Future.