• About
  • Clips
  • Blog
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Latest
  • Contact
Menu

Dan Zak

journalist
  • About
  • Clips
  • Blog
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Latest
  • Contact
Photo by Linda Davidson (The Washington Post)

Photo by Linda Davidson (The Washington Post)

'Every time and place needs prophets'

December 30, 2013

Earlier this year I wrote about three activists who penetrated the grounds of one of America's most protected nuclear weapons facilities. Last week, a Roman Catholic priest at a parish outside Ottawa used their action as inspiration for his Christmas Day sermon. He graciously e-mailed it to me, and so I will excerpt parts of it:

Fully aware and willing to face the consequences of their actions, this unlikely trio sit in prison tonight with the potential of ending their earthly days behind bars. They are there willingly because of their passion; yet their country could easily label them as terrorists. If you are a little uncomfortable about these characters, you’re not alone. Why couldn’t they just have stayed at home and wrote letters to their members of Congress? Why couldn’t Sister Megan have just started a blog from the comfort of her community’s convent? Were there not less threatening ways of making their point? But it begs the question: how could three senior citizens so easily break into one of the most secure facilities in the country? No one can reasonably explain how such simple folk could penetrate this fortress built to keep the world out. It wouldn’t take much to classify these three as senior-citizen extremists in their own right. Equally, they could also be seen as zealous souls, blindly detached from the judgments of any form of earthly court, willing to sacrifice -- and yes, even die -- for the cause of righteousness and peace.

Criminals? Kooks? Prophets?!

The story of Christ’s birth, proclaimed in our midst again this night, is actually even more radical, political and not without complexity. A carpenter, a teenage girl and a newborn baby born in the backwaters of nowhere is how God the Most High chose to become God with Us. While generations long awaited the arrival of the Messiah, never could they have imagined that he would break into the world in the middle of the night using such unlikely folk who risked home and reputation to freely cooperate with the plan of salvation. Just as God broke into the world through the mystery of the incarnation, even now we are shocked -- and perhaps a bit scandalized -- to think that we could be so very loved as to have God go to such lengths to fall in love with us.

[...]

Every time and place needs prophets to shake things up; to remind us of what is lasting and of what is passing. We need to let unlikely characters make us feel uncomfortable from time to time, only so that we can reclaim what is right and just. And if we let their passions stir ours, we may be able to rekindle the hidden corners of our souls that have grown cold. Because of the birth we celebrate tonight, the veil between heaven and earth is forever pierced; the ultimate barrier has been toppled and life can never be quite the same. With the incarnation the work of making God’s love known is a story that is never quite done, and for that he is always in need of prophets unafraid of going forth into the night.

Since being convicted in May of damaging federal property and intending to harm national security, Michael Walli, 65, Megan Rice, 83, and Gregory Boertje-Obed, 58, have been held at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga. They will be sentenced Jan. 28 in Knoxville, Tenn. The maximum combined penalty for their crimes is 30 years in prison.

This post originally appeared on washingtonpost.com.

In religion, activism, nuclear weapons Tags God, Megan Rice, The Prophets of Oak Ridge
← Things fall apartMegyn →

Recent posts

Blog
An oral history of this week, as told by your pets
An oral history of this week, as told by your pets
about 5 years ago

As the coronavirus pandemic compels Americans to work from home — or forces them out of work entirely — their pets are also adjusting to a new world. Here is an oral history of the past week, as it would be told by the country's cats and dogs, if they could talk.

One year, two worlds
One year, two worlds
about 5 years ago

I spent 2019 in two different worlds, writing mainly about two different topics: climate change and the Trump presidency.

Competing for a tiny crown
Competing for a tiny crown
about 6 years ago

The Style section is turning 50. You don’t know what the Style section is. That’s fine. Most people don’t. It used to be a thing, and now kind of isn’t, even though we still talk about it here in the newsroom as a journalism ideal…

My year in bylines
My year in bylines
about 7 years ago

The Muslim ban. Blackstone, Va. Faye Dunaway. Richard Simmons. Rosie the robot security guard. The Vegas shooting. The city of West, Tex. Carter Page. Dave Thomas Circle.

The year in bylines
The year in bylines
about 8 years ago

Here are 10 pieces that I enjoyed reporting and/or writing this year, including Bowie, Hillary, Sweet Baby James and the Cowboy Poet.

A bit o' the twit

  • McKinnon is so bad.
    May 11, 2019, 11:34 PM
  • McKinnon is so bad.
    May 11, 2019, 11:31 PM
  • This is my Christmas. https://t.co/nv4UUI23LF
    May 11, 2019, 12:23 PM
  • March 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (1)
  • June 2016 (1)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • June 2015 (1)
  • April 2015 (1)
  • December 2014 (1)
  • July 2014 (2)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • April 2014 (3)
  • March 2014 (2)
  • February 2014 (1)
  • January 2014 (2)
  • December 2013 (3)
  • November 2013 (3)
  • October 2013 (3)
  • October 2011 (2)
  • August 2011 (1)
  • December 2010 (1)
  • September 2010 (1)
  • June 2010 (1)
  • April 2010 (2)
  • Afghanistan (1)
  • America (1)
  • Buffalo (1)
  • California (1)
  • China (1)
  • Louisiana (1)
  • Massachusetts (1)
  • Texas (1)
  • Washington D.C. (1)
  • climate change (1)
  • death (1)
  • essays (1)
  • holidays (1)
  • literature (1)
  • long reads (1)
  • love (1)
  • magazines (1)
  • marriage (1)
  • newspapers (1)
  • partisanship (1)
  • physics (1)
  • publishing (1)
  • reporting (1)
  • space (1)
  • spirituality (1)
  • television (1)
  • the aughts (1)
  • theatre (1)
  • 9/11 (2)
  • Nevada (2)
  • archives (2)
  • book reporting (2)
  • newsprint (2)
  • photo (2)
  • politics (2)
  • readers (2)
  • religion (2)
  • travel (2)
  • activism (3)
  • film (3)
  • media (3)
  • military (3)
  • obituaries (3)
  • profiles (3)
  • Iraq (4)
  • nuclear weapons (4)
  • war (5)
  • writing (5)
  • books (6)
  • clips (8)
  • journalism (12)
  • Ben Bradlee
  • Challenger
  • Cincinnati
  • Donald Trump
  • Faye Dunaway
  • Hank Stuever
  • John Dos Passos
  • Katharine Hayhoe
  • Megan Rice
  • Megyn Kelly
  • Nevada National Security Site
  • Sacred Peace Walk
  • The Prophets of Oak Ridge
  • The Washington Post
  • Yangshuo

Instagrams @MrDanZak

Hostage situation.
Turns out she and I were both on tour in #Charlottesville tonight so I walked up and bought a ticket. 🔮 ("I like to chronicle things," she said. "I'm a reporter, really." Ditto kiddo.)
You're so vane.
Get a feathered hat for the baby/ Photographs in front of the theater. #vabook #vabook2017 #cville #charlottesville
Link in bio to my piece on #California in the age of Trump. #Illo by @joshcochran. #wapowork #newsprint #newspaper #washingtonpost
New duvet cover arrived for the #vernalequinox. #cabbageroses #grannybed #spinsterchic #nofilter #notaste
#Nowruz #washingtondc
Fun with #Overgram.
Gift from @imdahlers. Another gift: 17,178 steps between midnight and 4:30 a.m. today.
Dahlia & Joy III: Cock. #dclivingcolor

Copyright © 2020 by Dan Zak. Washington Post articles and photos are property of the Post. Credits for photos and illustration on the home page (left to right, top then bottom): Blue Rider Press, Marvin Joseph (The Washington Post), Bill O'Leary (The Washington Post), Chris Earnshaw and Joe Mills, Michael S. Williamson (The Washington Post), and Bob Kotalik (AP).