For those who observe the Christian traditions of Holy Week, Good Friday invites remembrance of Jesus’ crucifixion. Some Christians mark the day with rituals contemplating the Stations of the Cross or Jesus’ seven last words; grateful devotions to honor his suffering and death as a saving sacrifice that forgives human sin. But not all Christians approach Good Friday this way. For others, such as myself and many like me, Good Friday is a day to grieve the historical reality that the Roman Empire publicly executed Jesus to terrorize his disciples and to quell uprisings of Jewish resistance. In remembrance of Jesus’ death on the cross, on Good Friday we bear witness to the crucifixions happening in our world today and summon courage and love to counter the threats that would quell resistance.

Christian theologian Walter Rauschenbusch, writing over a century ago, insisted the death of Jesus was not an atoning sacrifice for human sin; rather collective, systemic evils conspired to kill Jesus. He named those social sins as 1) religious bigotry, 2) bribery and political power, 3) a corrupt legal system, 4) mob spirit and mob action, 5) militarism, and 6) the class system—all of which benefited the power and wealth of an oppressive empire. On the abuse of political power Rauschenbusch wrote, “those who are in control…are able to use it for selfish and predatory ends, turning into private profit what ought to serve the common good.” On a corrupt legal system he said, “Even in free countries the judicial process can swiftly break conscientious convictions and the most cherished rights of democracy.” On mob spirit he noted, “Entire nations may come under the mob spirit and abdicate their judgment.”

Rauschenbusch’s list would not take much updating to apply to our time. This Good Friday, we need sanctuary spaces and rituals in which to feel the losses and witness the sorrows happening now. Some on the political and the religious right are openly opposing empathy as toxic to their goals. But if we become numb to or deny the unholy sacrifices occurring all around us, our humanity is diminished. We risk the breakdown of our capacity to care and the weakening of our moral conscience.

“By naming and resisting “crucifying powers,” social gospel and liberation theologies have inspired generations of religious activism for justice.”

The stations of the cross are everywhere. It is important to recognize and mourn the lives lost to violence; the erosion of trust between our country and our allies; and the resurgence of racist hate. Our faces can turn towards the terrified people seeking safe refuge who are being hunted down and deported to distant prisons. We can make space in our hearts for the war-ravaged, displaced people struggling to survive, the sick and hungry who are now deprived of a helping hand from our rich nation.

Rauschenbusch’s A Theology for the Social Gospel was written in the context of the Gilded Age and its economic exploitations. His theology, with its focus on systemic injustice, helped fuel the Progressive Era. Martin Luther King Jr. built on it to galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. By naming and resisting “crucifying powers,” social gospel and liberation theologies have inspired generations of religious activism for justice.

Many people of diverse faiths who have labored for “diversity, equity, and inclusion” now find their spiritual values under attack and their religious freedom suppressed. The historical crucifixion of Jesus functioned to threaten his followers. Some reacted by fleeing, abandoning him, or denying they knew him. Profound risks, then and now, attend those who seek to hold fast to the love, generosity, inclusion, and courageous resistance that Jesus embodied. This Holy Week, in a rapidly transforming America where the politics of threat silence many into “obeying in advance,” I put my faith in those who resist the crucifying powers. With hope as fragile as the tender green buds of spring, I look for a resurrection of love.

Rebecca Ann Parker is co-author with Rita Nakashima Brock of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us; and Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire.