What Does it Mean to Speak Truth to Power? Micah 6:8, Jeremiah 22:3, Luke 4:16

Micah 6:8, Jeremiah 22:3, Luke 4:16

“Speaking truth to power” is a term that has been in circulation for a very long time. I recently heard it while attending a community forum which centered around democracy at the intersection of America’s two hundred and fiftieth birthday. The panel was discussing ways in which common people can work together to protect the vulnerable from the advances of what many people are calling the “undermining of democracy”. In the first seventeen months of the current administration, for example we have witnessed:

·         Cuts made in various programs such as USAID, education, Medicaid and other programs

·         USAID cuts alone has resulted in as many as 800,000 deaths across the globe, according to experts.

·         Domestic cuts have resulted in eleven million people losing their health care

·         The gulf between rich and poor is widening

·         The unprecedented assault on the Black Middle Class from as seen in massive cuts to the federal workforce, a traditional anchor for Black mobility

So, who’s speaking up and what does it portend for our community as it relates to our looking out for one another in the spirit of:

“We then who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves”.  Romans 15:1(NIV)

The Washington Informer, a Black female owned, weekly newspaper published in Washington, D.C., recently examined Black solidarity in the United States. Encouragingly, the Informer highlights, “Black voters are signaling dissatisfaction, caution and conditional readiness to act as the 2026 elections approach, according to a sweeping new national study examining political opposition and civic engagement within Black communities”, quoting the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing civic engagement based in D.C.

The findings are detailed in a report entitled: “The State of Black Opposition and Engagement in 2026,”

This caught my attention:

“Researchers divided the electorate into three segments. Thirty percent are classified as “Defenders,” voters already highly active in resistance activities and 98% certain to vote in 2026. Thirty-four percent are labeled “Activatables,” voters who recognize that issues they care about are under attack but prioritize self-preservation over public action. Twenty-four percent fall into the “Spectators” category, less likely to see urgency in fighting back and only 68% certain to vote.”

The fact, according to this report, that the majority of Black Americans are indeed poised to make a difference is encouraging.

So, what does speaking truth to power really mean? I endeavored to answer that question myself before looking up a more formal definition in commentaries. This is what I came up with:

·         Speak what is and not gloss over it

·         Stand on behalf of the left-out and locked-in

·         Point to specific instances of the abuse of power

·         Tell what God says versus what man says

·         Don’t flinch in the face of push back

·         Stand for something rather than fall for anything

·         Demand a timeline for justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream

Definitively, speaking truth to power means: “to bravely confront those in authority with facts, moral arguments, or evidence, often at personal risk, to challenge injustice or oppression”. Its simplest definition: stand up for what’s right. Or stand for something, less you fall for anything.

Demonstrations: There are several iterations of this concept.

·         The phrase originated in modern times with Bayard Rustin, an American civil rights activist, in the 1940s and was popularized through his 1955 Quaker pamphlet Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence. Bayard Rustin was a lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Of course, Dr. King was the twentieth century’s most prolific proponent of speaking truth to power. Dr. King suggested, “Life’s most persistent question is, what are you doing for others?” This question invites a horizontal element to the definition of speaking truth to power.

·         To speak truth to power does not come without a cost. Dietrich Bonhoffer in Nazi Germany, and Martine Luther King in the US were martyred for speaking truth to power (as well as countless many others!).

·         Rustin advocated nonviolent resistance e to confront injustice, inspired by earlier traditions such as the Hebrew prophets and the classical Greek concept of ‘parrhesia’, meaning "to speak boldly" or “speak everything”.  In Indian belief systems, speaking truth to power is exhibited as "truth-force".

·         It was the classical prophets in the Hebrew Bible who galvanized the concept. Micah 6:8 prophesied to both the Northern and Southern kingdoms, who had fallen into ways of injustice, expected of surrounding nations, but not from God’s people. His ministry came at a time of moral decay, political instability, and looming Assyrian threat, a time in which injustice against the poor, the widow, the orphan was rampant.

·         One of the foremost architects of “speaking truth to power” was James Cone, (Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation and Black Theology), who constructed a contextual theology for treatment of systemic oppression. Darvin Adams writes of Cone: “…at the heart of his methodology lies an inspirational ability to speak theological and cultural truths to empirical and colonial powers as the truth of God is revealed to him”. Adams continues: “Cone’s theological method draws upon the various resources of African American religion and Black culture for the purposes of speaking the truth and constructing a liberating theology for oppressed Black folk”.

·         Paulo Freire in his seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed explains how "oppression” has been justified and how it is reproduced through a mutual process between the "oppressor" and the "oppressed". 

·         The Jewish Talmud teaches that silence is acquiescence and is the anthesis of speaking truth to power.

Jesus Christ, though, was the superlative example for speaking truth to power. He did so in four ways:

1.Economic disruption by overthrowing of the tables. Pilgrims were expected to pay Temple tax with specific Jewish currency. Moneychangers (similar to pay day lenders today, banks etc.) took advantage of this by charging exorbitant rates or by charging overinflated prices for sacrificial animals (Matthew 21:12,13 Mark 11:15-18).

2.Religious by railing against the legalism of the religious establishment (Matthew 23:13-36)

3.Politically, as demonstrated in his words to Pilate on the eve of crucifixion when he reminds Pilate, he’d have no power except given by God (John 18:28-40).

4.Morally, defined by the ethic of love your neighbor and do good to those who despise you (Matthew 22:37-39)

In his prophetic personal mission statement, Christ defines for us what speaking truth to power is:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised". (Luke 4:18)

He had seen the crippled, the poor, the handicapped, the frail, the broken huddled against the abuses of the imperially rich. He consciously chose to identify with the left out and the locked in and he challenged the systems that robbed them of life.

Here’s the question: Is speaking truth to power merely quoting Scripture? The Bible would suggest that speaking truth to power is not word only but is reinforced by deed or by action. Moses showed up at Pharoh’s court; the Hebrew prophets prophesied at the gates and courts of the city; John the Baptist dared to get in Herod’s face; Christ did not shrink from his encounter with Pilate.

Thus, speaking truth to power is actionable. It only requires a person to care about something to the degree action must be taken.

Jesus Christ is our redemptive hermeneutical principle when it comes to speaking truth to power! How will you measure up against the witness of Christ?

In the end, speaking truth to power does not require a national organization - or even a local one! It simply requires you begin to look beyond your own place in life.

Pick a problem. Then take a stand.

Pastor C. can be reached at: info@pastorwericcroomes.com