Sabbath Devotional :: MWEG Turns Four: Three Miracles and a Birthday Wish

Image: “*Looking for Something*,” by Brian Kershisnik

This past Tuesday — January 26, 2021 — MWEG turned four.

My little granddaughter, Lizzie, also recently turned four. Watching this miraculous little being flitter-tromp about in her princess tiara and dinosaur-green rain boots, chattering nonstop while showing off her new trick of hopping on one foot and then turning a somersault (whoops! there goes a boot!), fills me with unspeakable joy and delight.

Four is a magical age. And it’s an age of tremendous growth and development–physical, intellectual, social. As it will be for Lizzie, so will it be for MWEG.

Birthdays and other anniversaries are important milestones and provide excellent opportunities for reflecting on the past, for remembering.

The commandment to remember and the act of remembering are spiritual patterns that we see repeated throughout scripture. The children of Israel are instructed over and over, for example, to remember the goodness of God in bringing them out of Egypt and preserving them. Each year at Passover, Jewish families worldwide gather and retell the story, thus ensuring its continuity and preserving its power from generation to generation. Lest they forget.

The act of remembering yields the fruits of gratitude, hope, perspective, wisdom, compassion, faith, and can provide the inspiration to move forward, to persist, to endure.

I hope that each year, sometime during the week of January 26, we will pause and remember the spiritual roots of MWEG and the miraculous nature of its beginning and its continuance. Lest we forget.

THREE MIRACLES

If MWEG is anything at all, it is miraculous.

The first miracle of MWEG was its beginning. This story — MWEG’s genesis story — has been told many times in many places, but I feel the need to tell it here again. We have many new members who may not be familiar with it. (Feel free to skim this part if you already know the story.)

Like many of you — and millions of others across the nation (and world) — I found myself growing increasingly alarmed during the 2016 election cycle as I watched the great rifts in our political landscape widen and deepen, exacerbated by the divisive, hyperpartisan, often vitriolic rhetoric on all sides. This, combined with the flagrant flouting of basic honor and decency by some who were elected to positions of the highest trust, awakened many of us to a sense of our duty as citizens. When, immediately following his inauguration, our 45th president began issuing executive orders targeting some of the most vulnerable among us (refugees and immigrants), I, like many of you, knew I could no longer remain silent.

During this time, Melissa Dalton-Bradford, a dear friend since grad school, and I often volleyed our dismay (and simultaneous resolve) back and forth across the Atlantic (she was living in Germany) via email and phone calls. In one such email exchange on January 25, 2017 — the day that Executive Order 13767 was issued, calling for the “immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border” and two days before the so-called “Muslim ban” — Melissa reached out to me with the urgent question: “What do we do?”

I responded:

“We turn our outrage into action. First, and above all, we seek the Spirit. We stay on our knees and pray our hearts out until we know we have the Spirit with us. And then we get to work — calmly, with focus, impelled by the ferocity of love, not fear, not anger.”

At the time, both Melissa and I sat on the board of Segullah — a literary journal for Latter-day Saint women. The board had an online forum wherein we conducted business related to the journal, but often our conversations would be overtaken by our concern about what was happening in the wider political world. On the day I wrote the above email to Melissa, I told my Segullah sisters that I would be setting up a separate space — a Facebook group — where we could continue our political discussions and figure out how best to mobilize. This new group would not be a forum for venting, but for organizing, for planning direct action. I asked who wanted to be added, and nearly everyone (around twenty women) said “I’m in!”

It was a busy day (in addition to everything else, I was hosting my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday that evening) and so it was very late when I finally sat down at my computer — a prayer in my heart and fire in my soul — and got to work.

I know we’ve all experienced those rare occasions when we’ve felt the Spirit with us in an undeniable way, working through us like a literal conduit from heaven. This was one such occasion for me. As I sat at my computer, I felt as guided as I’ve ever felt in my life. It was as though someone were standing right next to me saying, “Do this first. Now this. Add this. Now this.”

Even though at the time I truly thought I was setting this group up for just twenty or so like-minded friends (at least for then), I felt compelled to put in place — to write out and post in the group description — the foundational principles that still guide MWEG today: our absolute commitment to civility; the laser-focus on ethics and ethical government; the requirement that this not be a space where we criticize the Church or discuss Church governance/policies (there were already plenty of other spaces where those conversations could take place); the guarantee that this would be a strictly nonpartisan group; the insistence that we be action-oriented. (We later encapsulated many of these guiding principles into what we call MWEG’s four core attributes: Faithful, Nonpartisan, Peaceful, Proactive.) I also felt prompted to stipulate that members of the group would have to commit to abiding by the Six Principles of Nonviolence as practiced by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (I had taught Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as one of the primary texts in the writing and rhetoric class I taught at BYU for many years, and was and remain a true admirer.) We were later inspired to adapt these principles into our own “Principles of Peacemaking.”

So, all of these guiding principles were in place by the time I finished setting up the group at about 2:30 AM on January 26, 2017 and before I added a single other person. I know now that had these guidelines and principles not been established from day one, the group almost certainly would have imploded within the first few weeks. (Hundreds if not thousands of such groups popped up in the days after the 2016 election, and very few survived.)

The first person I added to the newly formed group was Melissa, followed by my daughter, Erica Glenn. I then added all the other Segullah sisters who had expressed interest. What I did not do (because I didn’t realize I needed to) was ask people not to add anyone else just yet.

What happened next is MWEG history. Almost immediately, those original MWEG members began adding like-minded friends who added friends who added friends. And within just a few days, our numbers had grown to over 1,000. Within a few weeks, we had over 4,000 members.

What I did not know in those early hours of January 26, 2017, could not have known, is that there were literally thousands of other Latter-day Saint women out there who were feeling exactly as I was. There were thousands of my sisters in the gospel who felt the exact same call to action, who were ready to claim their moral authority as women, as citizens, to speak up and speak out, who refused to be complicit by being complacent — and they were just waiting for someone to build the field of dreams, so to speak, so that they could come and play some activist ball! As one of our earliest members, MaryJan Munger, wrote shortly after finding the group: “I am in tears. I thought I was almost alone — and here are my sisters, already gathered ‘fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners’!”

Well, those were wild and heady days, those early days. Hundreds of strong, smart, energized women were pouring into the group every single day, ready for action and eager to share their thoughts and ideas. We had no moderators yet at that point and no system for screening new members. But thank goodness our inviolable guiding principles were in place! Melissa, Erica, and I were working, very literally around the clock, trying to stay on top of member and post approvals, moderate the discussions, and put in place a structure and organization that could accommodate thousands of women who were ready to roll! Very quickly, we brought Linda Hoffman Kimball, Michelle Lehnardt, and Jacque White on board to help, and we recruited our first magnificent, life-saving team of moderators — Nicole McQuain Terry, Courtney McQuain, Jillaire McMillan, MaryJan Munger, Megan Lagerberg, and Maren E. Mecham. (Within the first few months, Erica, Michelle, and Jacque had to step away from active leadership because of competing life demands, and Diana Bate Hardy joined Melissa, Linda, and me as an invaluable member of the core leadership team).

Right out of the gate, we were organizing committees and chapters, designing logos and other graphics (Megan “Wonder Woman” Lagerberg proved beyond all doubt that she was a true superhero!), issuing calls to action, building a website, researching how to incorporate as a nonprofit and, and, and . . . . AND we were already in the trenches, doing the work that we had all felt so called to do — organizing vigils, advocating for people who were being unjustly targeted for deportation, writing op-eds, helping register voters, etc.

As Melissa so aptly put it, we were racing at breakneck speed down the autobahn, building the car as we went. Thanks to that direct early inspiration from God, we had a motor, a steering wheel, and a solid chassis — but we didn’t yet have doors, or bumpers, or brakes for that matter! Wheeeeee!

But we managed to do it. Within the first few weeks, we already had working committees, chapters in nearly every state, and a whole team of remarkable, committed leaders. We had claimed our moral authority and were making our voices heard. We were a thing, and already a force to be reckoned with.

This was the first miracle of MWEG, and the credit goes to God.

The second miracle of MWEG is its members. All of you. You came, throngs of you, bringing your extraordinary gifts, sleeves rolled up and wearing courage like a banner.

I wish I had the time and space to list the name of every single one of you who contributed so much in those early days (and beyond!). What MWEG has become could never, ever have happened without you.

You are MWEG. MWEG is you.

I want to say something now about the organizational structure of MWEG. And to do so, I’m going to switch metaphors and talk about MWEG, not as a car, but as a ship. (And then, just to keep things interesting, I’ll switch metaphors yet again and describe MWEG as a tree. )

In 1 Nephi 17-18, God asks Nephi to build a ship. When Nephi starts, he is mercilessly mocked by his brothers who remind him that he doesn’t know how to build a ship.

In a sense, God also asked us to build a ship — the Good Ship MWEG. And, as with Nephi, God specifically asked that it be built “not after the manner of men” (1 Nephi 18:2). Very literally. This was a ship to be built, instead, after the manner of women. In one of the most profound of the many spiritual experience I had during the early days of MWEG, God let me know that one of the many reasons MWEG had come into existence was because They (Father, Mother) were schooling Their daughters — for purposes so vast and varied that I could not even conceive of them all. And, as part of this schooling, we were being called to do things in a new way, a different way, a way that deliberately rejected the worldly patriarchal, hierarchal, corporate model.

Because this organization was not to be “after the manner of men,” there would be no centralization of authority, no top-down chain of command. Rather, this was to be an organization of the members, by the members, for the members. It was to be based on the notion of individual empowerment and spheres of stewardship. The organizational model was to be, not a pyramid, but a tree, complete with roots, trunk, limbs, branches, leaves — organic, collaborative, cooperative, synergistic. And the members themselves (yourselves, ourselves) would have the responsibility of oversight — of ensuring that the organization stay true to its foundational inviolable principles and practices.

You, the members, and this marvelous, inspired model of individual empowerment, collaboration, and member oversight are the second miracle of MWEG, and the credit goes to all of you, and to God.

The third miracle of MWEG is its persistence. In the four years of MWEG’s life, it has not only survived, but flourished. MWEG now has an active board of directors and a robust operational leadership team, led by our inspired and extraordinarily competent executive director, Emma Petty Addams. We have successfully launched significant, impactful initiatives such as “Protecting Democracy” and “Protect the Vote” and have plans for new initiatives focused on practical peacemaking and what it means to be a principled citizen. MWEG hosts weekly “GROW” and “Town Halls & Deep Dives” meetings, participates in voter registration efforts, sponsors an annual conference, and has issued numerous carefully-researched Calls to Action. MWEG members have published hundreds of op-eds in papers across the country, including in The New York Times, The Hill, and USA Today, and MWEG has been invited to help plan and/or participate in national events such as the NICD’s Golden Rule 2020 campaign, the National Summit for Democracy, and, most recently, the 2021 National Inaugural Prayer Service. And the list goes on.

MWEG is here to stay.

This is the third miracle of MWEG, and the credit goes to our current leadership, to all of you, and to God.

A BIRTHDAY WISH

And now for my birthday wish for MWEG. During the first few years of MWEG’s existence, when I was still actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the organization, the message that the Spirit kept whispering to me over and over was: “You must continue as you commenced.” And I knew what that meant. It meant that we had to proceed with the same faith, humility, courage, and purity of motives that we started with. It meant that we had to continue to honor our inspired foundational principles and our core attributes of being faithful, nonpartisan, peaceful, and proactive. It meant that we had to continue to allow ourselves to be schooled. It meant that we needed to not waver, but to keep walking on water.

There is no doubt but that God has been with us. Our challenge is to make sure that we are always with God.

With the election of a new president, things feel a little less urgent now than they did in January 2017, but there will always be a need for watchdogs for ethical government. My hope is that we will be just as vigilant — no matter who occupies the White House or controls Congress — in guarding against corruption and abuse of power, in defending democracy, in advocating for the human rights and dignity of all our sisters and brothers, and in being proactive makers of peace. In many ways, the hard work of repairing rifts, building unity, and working toward Zion has only just begun.

My birthday wish for MWEG is that we will always live up to our legacy as an organization that was inspired by God and that was born of the burning desire of thousands of faithful women to be ambassadors of peace who transcend partisanship and courageously advocate for ethical government.

As we learned earlier this month from a 22-year-old beacon in a bright yellow coat:

“For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.” ~Amanda Gorman

Let’s continue to be the light, sisters.

Onward!