submitted by Hillary Mohaupt

I have been thinking a lot about resistance lately. Not only the formal, organized Resistance I'm supposed to be studying for my senior seminar, but also everyday, unorganized, heartfelt and sometimes desperate acts of resistance towards systems of unnamable oppressions.

Because I am reading about the French Resistance, I have been impressed at the sheer amount of scholarship around two percent of a population that is so divided and so politically diverse. But my own study is recognizing that that "two percent" cited as the actual proportion of French people who resisted Fascism during World War II doesn't take into account the actions of non-French people, or the majority of those of French women.

But, most importantly, as I'm reading, I wonder what resistance looks like today. In an historical account it's easy to set up good versus evil, to render events clear-cut; it's easy to claim that we would be on the side of the resisters. How does each of us, though, participate in the oppressions? How do we doubt that resistance is possible and practical?

Progressive Christians cite Jesus' meals, foot-washing and associations with outcasts as Biblical evidence that God is on the side of the oppressed. Resistance against oppression, then, is a moral and spiritual duty—and that's often how women who participated in the French Resistance justify their decisions to shelter, aid, fight, and guide during a time of great social and political turmoil.

Does God still call us into that place of resistance, to the sides of those who are the most forgotten, the most abused? How do we follow that calling, in the fullness of our faith?

Hillary is a senior at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.
She is on NNPCW's Coordinating Committee.

I think you all already know what I think about the first question Hillary posed: YES!

What do others think?