OAKLAND, Calif — Last evening, Pagan spiritual leaders T. Thorn Coyle and Marissa Evans, along with 12 other interfaith leaders, were arrested for trespassing at the Alameda County Court House. The spiritual leaders were part of an interfaith service and a rally, demanding District Attorney Nancy O’Malley drop all charges against a group that has come to be known at the Black Friday 14.
The faith leaders arrested are from the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the Deacon of First Congregation Church of Oakland, Bend the Arc: Jewish Partnership for Justice, United Church of Christ, and the Starr King School of Religion. Also included was T. Thorn Coyle, Pagan author, spiritual leader, and President of Solar Cross Temple, and Marissa Evans, co-founder of Light Hands Healing and a Pagan seminarian at Pacific School of Religion.
Police arrest T. Thorn Coyle (center) and other faith leaders. [Photo Credit: Michelle Puckett]
We are in a state of emergency in the U.S. Something must be done to counter the corrosive effects of white supremacy and racist systems that are killing Black, brown, and trans people on a daily basis. Bearing witness to this, as a reminder that we are all part of the sacred web of connection feels important to me. It is part of my religious and spiritual practice to invoke justice whenever I can, in as many ways as are possible.
The charges the Black Friday 14 are facing must be dropped. They chained themselves together and stopped the wheels of commerce for a few hours in order to tell us: Wake up! Remember what connects us! What connects us does not have to be greed and consumption. What connects us is breath, and life, and all that we call holy.
I was willing to get arrested to stand in solidarity with such a powerful wake up call. It is my job to invoke the sacred and to call on justice. And as I said in my statement [on Facebook]: I must fight for what I love. What I love are these people, struggling for life and freedom.
Being arrested is a small price to pay. And in the scheme of things, I’m a middle class white person who spent only a few hours in jail. That is nothing compared to the suffering of Black, brown, immigrant, indigenous, poor, or trans people who get shuttled through these inequitable systems built to protect the interests of a tiny portion of our society. All of this suffering feeds the .001%. If I can highlight that at all, by placing myself in the hands of that system for a few hours, I consider that community service.
I feel blessed and grateful to the Interfaith 14, the Black Friday 14, the people in the streets of Oakland, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, Ferguson, and everywhere that voices are raised for the call of love and justice.
The Black Friday 14 are a group of protesters, affiliated with the Black Lives Matter, who blocked access to the BART trains in West Oakland Black Friday 2014. The West Oakland stop is in the heart of the Bay Area and one of the busiest sections. Four of the system’s five trains pass through that station, and Black Friday is when the trains are running at full capacity. The protestors successfully shut down the station for several hours.
Similar shut downs took place at stations in other parts of California, such as in Los Angeles.
Black Lives Matter activists have alleged that white protesters in other transit shut downs are normally cited and released, while the fourteen black activists in West Oakland were arrested and initially threatened with $70,000 fines. The fines were later dropped, but the Black Friday 14 are still facing misdemeanor charges of interfering with train operation and trespassing. These charges carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail.
Marissa Evans, who identifies as a Witch, agreed that justice appeared to be applied unequally based on race. She said, “Last year [a few weeks after Black Friday] I joined a group of faith leaders protesting in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement: we engaged in a nonviolent direct action of obstructing a freeway. All charges against my mostly white group were dropped. The harsh penalty that the Black Friday 14 are facing for their action reveals systemic racism.”
Those charges are what the interfaith group were protesting last night by staging a sit in at the Alameda County Court House. The sit in, led by a group called the Interfaith Committee In Support of the Black Friday 14, is the latest in a string of actions that began last week when labor leaders also occupied O’Malley’s office, demanding the charges be dropped.
The interfaith service started at 1:30 pm outside the courthouse. Lou Florez, Awo Ifadunsi [Orisha Priest], was asked to attend the interfaith service to bless three of the Black Friday 14, pour libations, and evoke the ancestors in the ritual space. He also helped construct the altar that was used during the service.
Xochiquetzal Duti Odinsdottir, a Dedicant of Umbanda, decided to attend because Thorn had said that a Pagan presence was requested at the rally. Odinsdottir said, “At this time, more than any other, we need to use as many of our tools as possible to fight the systems that are creating more dead black bodies in our streets.” She also said that as a nonwhite Person of Color she couldn’t stand by when oppression is being masqueraded as law.
![Florez and Odinsdottir at the interfaith service outside the courthouse. Altar is in the background. [Photo from Florez]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lou-and-m-500x375.jpg)
Florez and Odinsdottir at the interfaith service outside the courthouse. Altar is in the background. [Courtesy Photo]
![Lou Florez, invokes the ancestors, during the interfaith service. [photo credit Clark Sullivan]](https://wildhunt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Lou-photo-by-Clark-Sullivan-500x375.jpg)
Lou Florez, invokes the ancestors, during the interfaith service. [Photo Credit: Clark Sullivan]
While the interfaith service was happening outside, the 14 faith leaders were staging their rally inside the courthouse. Beginning around 1:20 pm, they joined hands in a circle, read statements, and sang. When the service was over, several of those outside entered the building to join in solidarity. Then, shortly before 4:30 pm as the courthouse was scheduled to close, police issued their first warning to the protesters. At 4:55 pm, they arrested all fourteen faith leaders including Thorn and Evans.
Official order to disperse given. Interfaith leaders not moving. #BlackFriday14 #Dropthecharges pic.twitter.com/ohwGvwGdqf
— Bay Solidarity (@BaySolidarity) November 26, 2015
Thorn describes the experience:
We were handcuffed and led to a holding space in the courthouse and told to face the wall. The whole time we were singing: “We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes!” and “Which side are you on, friends?” We were asked a list of questions and had IDs taken. Searched. In custody, I was reminded of the story of Inanna, because, hands cuffed behind me, the arresting officer started stripping my things from me, one by one. Necklace. Earrings. Rings. Belt. Sign around my neck. Shoelaces. Black Lives Matter buttons… and then, still singing, we were taken in a caged elevator down, descending like Inanna. We then walked a long circuitous warren of cement hallways, following a red line, singing all the while.
We were then placed in holding cells. Then moved. Then moved again. Then we had to take shoes and socks off. Then put them back on. Spread our legs and stand against the wall. Get searched a second time. Back in a holding cell. Then another holding cell.
Finally, we were cited and released. As usual, they had trouble taking my fingerprints. This always amuses me.
As I was being searched the second time, I kept thinking of people for whom this is a regular occurrence. People who are not white. Not middle class. Without the stamp that clergy offers. Nine out the 14 of us were white, and several wore clerical collars. It was clear we were religious leaders. What if we hadn’t been? Our experience would have been vastly different.
All fourteen faith leaders peacefully submitted to the arrests, were cited for trespass, and released later that evening.
CORRECTION 11/26 4 p.m.: The original article stated that the interfaith rally and protest happened one after the other. However, the protest inside the building began as the rally was happening outside. We have corrected that timeline.
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I am very grateful to these Pagans for the work that they are doing. It’s not easy to put you own body on the line to make an important point. I think that T. Thorn Coyle’s discussion of how the stages of being incarcerated follow Innana’s descent into the underworld is enormously powerful. Thank you so much to each of the Pagans mentioned for their work.
I wish that the Wild Hunt would be more careful with the language that it uses. Paganism is a religion, not a “faith.” The Abrahamic religions are “faiths” and using “faith” as a synonym for “religion” elevates the Abrahamic faiths above other religions, including Paganism. I don’t doubt that Ms. Coyle and some of the other Pagans mentioned are leaders, but they are leaders of their spiritual and religious traditions; they are not leaders of faiths. Words have power and I’d like to see the Wild Hunt use words carefully. It’s also well past time for “Witch” to be capitalized, just as “Buddhist” and “Jewish” are capitalized.
It would work no harm to the other religious activists if they were called “religious leaders” or “religious activists” instead of “faith leaders.” I hope the Wild Hunt will do better in the future.
I’m sorry, but this is just a little too much.
Religion is usually a system, faith is the juice that makes the system go.
You can’t play the language game with a revealed faith system, they always answer to a Higher Truth™. At least in their own minds. They’re the ones who use language to control which thoughts are allowed under which circumstances.
Experience trumps language every time. Tell someone who has never heard music what Greensleeves is. Tell someone who knows nothing about fruit how amazing homemade peach ice cream is in the summer. Tell a virgin how incredible sex can be with someone you care about.
The best we can do is share enough experience so that language bridges the gaps.
Oh, and paganism (uncapitalized and without airs) isn’t a singular religion. Often it’s not organized at all.
Hecate, I agree with you, and that said, I don’t know that this is on the Wild Hunt. WH was mirroring the language the main organizing group of this event – a large interfaith justice group– was putting out.
Anytime a pagan does interfaith work, it gets tricky. I would rather we called it “inter-religious work” but that’s not the term of art. The term of art is interfaith. And so people start getting called “faith leaders” and some of us just roll with it because even though it isn’t accurate, it doesn’t feel worth arguing about in the larger scheme of things. Heck, even the Buddhists were called faith leaders, which is grossly inaccurate. They seemed also willing to use that language for ease of solidarity, despite, like Paganism, Buddhism not being a faith. Our smaller group of 14 also had a discussion about our discomfort with the term “leaders” because, what constitutes that? We decided that anyone who shows up to put their beliefs in action can be called a leader. The term we thought was being used was “interfaith leaders” to hopefully reflect that we were an interfaith team. That sometimes shifted to “faith leaders” which did make me squirm slightly. But the larger cause felt greater than that language issue.
So no, I’m not a “faith leader” but it was convenient to let myself be called one for the sake of this action. Thanks for your diligence in pointing it out. Sometimes I’ve balked at the “faith” language and gotten it changed, but in this case, the planning for the whole event was already in place and it didn’t seem a worthwhile battle.
Faith Leader is not the term I would usually use, but it was the language used by the group organizing the event to describe themselves. My personal guide – I allow individuals and groups to self-identify and roll with that.
Typically we rarely use the term “faith” to define Pagan leaders or practices. However, we will pull terms from the the sources on which we report. We do this carefully in order to remain sensitive and true to what people and groups themselves prefer. That is what happened here.
And, as an aside, we do have capitalization standards and Witch is generally capitalized. There was a typo is this article that has been fixed.
I understand the reason for this civil disobedience I do not agree with the reason for it. White supremacy? What is that, or maybe what is “white”.
Is there a land of white where all the white people came from? Maybe the Isle of White, oops wait that’s actually Wight.
People in power are made up of every color, not just white. I can understand attacking the establishment or bringing attention to the 1%. However people of European decent or those with lighter skin tones are just as much under the thumb of oppression as anyone else.
Why concentrate on dividing rather than uniting?
I am sorry, but I lost all confidence in this movement and as a person of lighter skin I feel it is more an attack based on skin color than changing the norm. Most of us are a mix of many cultures and skin tones.
But no it’s all the White peoples fault?
Sorry, I am no longer buying this narrative and I do not support any attack on anyone based entirely on their skin complextion – it’s just the most racist thing I have ever heard.
I hope you all realize your exclusivity and change the narrative.
Huh. Did I miss cops declaring open season on white people the way they have on people of color? Did I miss states passing laws requiring photo ID to vote and then closing DMV offices in primarily *white* counties? Has Driving While White become a thing while I wasn’t looking?
No. These are things that still happen primarily to black people. Until they do become commonplace occurrences in white people’s lives, maybe you should consider what “racism” actually entails.
Not sure of your red herring approach, but sure I’ll address your statements.
Which by the way has nothing to do with “Its all White peoples fault narrative” of the BlackLivesMatter campaign. Which I was talking about.
You are talking about profiling, which I did not mention at all.
There are more deaths inflicted by other blacks by other blacks in inner city’s then by police. Where is the outrage for this?
Your statement sounds like you assume all police are white; news flash they aren’t. They are from all backgrounds, all races.
Here’s an idea for those who suffer from police brutality – which happens for all races, not just blacks. Don’t commit crimes and don’t resist arrest – problem solved.
If there are a small percentage of pure white only police groups that are stupid enough to risk their jobs, risk their family’s, risk their security and risk being treated by society anathema just to get their jollies from abusing a few people or for that matter only blacks – then they deserve whatever they get. Which by the way is losing their income, being fined and most likely being jailed – which for a police officer to be jailed and labelled a racist is almost definitely a DEATH SENTENCE.
A police officer to only target and bully blacks if you are white is probably the dumbest thing one could possibly do in the entire history of dumb ideas.
Thank you for doing such a great job on this story, especially since it was the middle of the night on the East Coast by the time you got all of the information.