RadicalICEd
- SJ Williamson
- Jan 25
- 5 min read
Spiritual Gifts
In my early adulthood, I wanted to know what my spiritual gift(s) was. Spiritual gifts, according to their mythology when I grew up, were traits a Christian was born again with that could be used to bless God, others, and themselves. The Bible lists several examples in Corinthians and Romans:
healing (1 Corinthians 12:9)
prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:10)
speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10)
interpreting tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10)
administration (1 Corinthians 12:27)
miracle workers (1 Corinthians 12:28)
teaching (Romans 12:7)
exhortation (Romans 12:8)
giving/generosity (Romans 12:8)
leadership (Romans 12:8)
mercy (Romans 12:8)
While the Bible says these traits are revealed through prayer, there are also online personality quizzes that can help Christians understand their spiritual gifts better. I also was in a Bible study that focused on spiritual gifts for women. Based on that and my experiences as a Christian, my top gifts are discernment and administration. Administration I'm sure you're aware of; it involves organization and assistance. Discernment, however, seems more rare to me. Discernment, according to Merriam-Webster, is the act of seeing and understanding what might be obscured from others. Christian interpretations of discernment involve seeing people's true intentions and understanding right from wrong, truth from lies.
I feel like administration is a gift others appreciate more compared to discernment. Organizing is an outright gift that serves others. Discernment, on the other hand, sometimes feels like a curse. There are times when I have used this gift to help lead others in the right direction only to feel like a modern mystic, a Cassandra of sorts. I once had a friend who believed God's will involved cheating with a man in a relationship. She was not open to me when I told her God's will did not involve breaking multiple commandments and this relationship with a committed man would not end well for either party. My ex's family didn't believe me at first when I tried to tell them about his severe mental illness. The board of a ministry I worked at didn't listen to me when I spoke up about a pastor's inappropriate, aggressive behavior towards myself and other women working in the ministry. None of these religious relationships worked out; I eventually left each one, avoiding future bad things to come.
Radical Politics
I have always had a rocky relationship with American politics. I believe due to my gift of discernment, I can see the evil from both sides of the political spectrum. In early adulthood, I thought I was libertarian, a stance that idealized freedom for all if it didn't hurt others. I saw libertarianism as outside of the political spectrum, outside of both red and blue. Instead, I have seen in the last decade that libertarians are not outside of the broken system. They're either in the middle (what I like to call, purple) or they are really red extremists who pretend to value freedom for all without truly valuing that principle. In the last few years, especially with the rise of the MAGA movement, I have met and seen more libertarians who are only for freedom for certain individuals-- straight people, white people, Christian people. I eventually gave up the title of libertarian as I did not believe what these other people believed. I did not want to be associated with them.
This last year, perhaps even a couple years before that, "radicalized" me according to some people. When Roe v Wade was overturned, I fixed myself to avoid pregnancy or forced childbirth in case of emergency. When the Trump administration claimed war on DEI and released a list of banned words, I refused to change research interests while in higher education. When Trump pursued Greenland, I was disgusted. I see all of these issues and wonder how other people can't see the evil, the overreach I see.
The biggest issue I have has to do with ICE. ICE agents have torn apart families, detained young children, and have abused and killed people in custody. Most recently they have embedded themselves in Minneapolis, where ICE agents murdered two people. I have seen a lot of social media posts about the murder of these two people. People justify their innocence as white American citizens. My discernment has ached whenever I saw these posts, and it took me some reflection to understand why. These justifications are true; the victims were white American citizens. But honestly, that shouldn't matter.
The matter of fact is that ICE is murdering people. Even if Renee Good and Alex Pretti were not white, were not citizens, ICE murdering people in the streets is not okay. If they were people of color, murder is murder. If they were immigrants or undocumented, murder is murder. ICE has already been murdering people in custody. That abuse is abuse and that murder is murder, though it is less covered in news compared to the killing of these Minnesotans in the streets.
It is disheartening to me that it takes ICE murdering white citizens outside of ICE facilities for some people to finally realize that what ICE is doing is not just and not okay. It's a wake up call that came very late. There are still some people who have no issue with ICE, justifying the murders as deserved for trying to escape violence instead of cooperating with ICE officers assaulting them or even for legally carrying an unused firearm. These murders are not okay. ICE agents should not be armed; they've proven themselves incapable of doing so responsibly.
It's taken a lot of time, consideration, and research for me to realize this: the Trump administration radicalized me. It made me realize I'm outside of libertarian. I see value in people even if they are not who the government says I should value. I see evil and I feel the need to speak out on it instead of trying to avoid politics that made me anxious in early adulthood. If all who are anxious withdraw, we lose to the bullies of the world. Instead, we need to combine forces, hold peaceful protests to make our voices heard like those in Minneapolis. We seek community and must find it. We seek justice and must demand it. We seek truth and must reflect on it.
If me saying these things troubles you, so be it. I have discerned evil from good, and like my past moments of discernment, expect to be ignored, hated. Trump radicalized me against him, not for him. When you research and see these abuses of human dignity and murders, I encourage you to bare witness. See what is happening before you think. Before you think he fought officers, he had a gun, he resisted, she was driving a car, he was dragged by a car on the job before, see, really see, what is happening. Multiple ICE agents gang up on one person. They use excessive force, chemicals, and violence. Someone's life ends. They refuse to intervene, to attempt to save a life they endangered. They laugh. They run. They hide away. Then they try to reframe what happened with justifications like firearms, cars, and past trauma. Beneath it all, murder is murder. It is happening to the most vulnerable among us and the ones who support them. It might also happen to you.
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