Governor Walker, Jesus, and “Outside Agitators”

I can’t help but chuckle whenever Governor Scott Walker complains (whines?) that many of the protestors in Madison are outside agitators. Many of them are, but the vast majority of protestors are Badgers standing up for justice in our state.

Why all the complaining about people from out of state joining the movement for workers’ rights and social justice? First of all, Gov. Walker has received enough “outside” money to help his cause. “Americans for Prosperity” out of Washington, D. C., has also been visiting our state, renting a bus, and running radio ads promoting their right-wing agenda. It’s a bit hypocritical for Gov. Walker to whine about outside agitators when he himself uses them for this own political purposes.

Gov. Walker comes from a strong Baptist background. His dad is a Baptist minister. Maybe this will help him understand this issue from a biblical perspective. For example, many of the Old Testament prophets were outside agitators. Elijah the Prophet went all the way up to Samaria to confront Ahab and Jezebel. King Ahab said, “Are you the one who’s causing so much trouble in Israel?” Elijah, answered, “No, you are.”

Gov. Walker the problem isn’t the outside agitators; the problem is YOU.

Everywhere Jesus went he was an outside agitator: Capernaum, Tiberias, Tyre and Sidon, Samaria, and especially Jerusalem. He was kicked out of Samaria and even his home town of Nazareth. He was crucified in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul was imprisoned at least three times for being an outside agitator. He was stoned almost to death numerous times and was kicked out of countless synagogues. The whole history of Christ and the Apostles and the early church is a history of outside agitators.

But what about America? I will use only one example, Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1963, King wrote his famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” He went to Birmingham from Atlanta to protest (nonviolently) racial injustice. He was jailed as an outside agitator. From his jail cell he wrote one of the finest social justice documents ever written…on a few scraps of paper brought to him by a friend:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere . . . whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives in the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. was being true to Jesus and to the spirit of democracy. Gov. Walker isn’t. His complaints about ‘outside agitators’ are hypocritical, unbiblical, and undemocratic.