Spiritual Resistance in Chaotic Times: Strength, Meaning, and Hope

Equipping Spiritual Resistance

In times of rising totalitarianism, when entire communities are targeted with discrimination, hatred, and violence, how do we survive? How do we stay whole, ethical, and grounded in our values? How do we resist without losing ourselves to despair?

For those of us who accompany others on their spiritual journeys – whether as spiritual companions, activists, or simply as friends – these questions are urgent. The people who turn to us may be trans folks, people of color, Spanish speakers, disabled people, or anyone marginalized in America’s current climate. They seek spiritual resources to endure, resist, and reclaim joy in the midst of oppression.

History offers us voices of those who have survived and resisted before. Their wisdom has been forged from the worst of times:  Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags, fascist regimes, and anti-colonial struggles. They remind us that even in the fearful times, people have found ways to sustain their spirits, to resist oppression, and to pass on commitment to love, like a candle flame.

Candle lighting another candle (Pexel)

Finding Meaning in the Struggle

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, wrote that “everything can be taken from a man[sic] but one thing, the last of the human freedoms, to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Frankl found that even in the depths of suffering, meaning was possible. He saw prisoners who, despite starvation and brutality, shared their last piece of bread, and others who found dignity in comforting a fellow inmate.

To resist despair, we must ask: What meaning can we make of our struggle? For some, it may be the commitment to care for others. For others, it may be the knowledge that survival itself is resistance. And for many, it is the understanding that we are part of a lineage of resistance, what Czesław Miłosz called, in “The Captive Mind,” “a mandate from those who have perished, a mandate to act in their place and to fulfill their unfulfilled hope.”

Resisting Silence and Fear

Totalitarianism thrives on silence. It isolates, shames, and convinces people that resistance is futile. Nadezhda Mandelstam, who lived through Stalin’s purges, wrote: “If nothing else is left, one must scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.” Speaking the truth – even in whispers, even in hidden circles – is a form of defiance.

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi tells of her childhood under the Iranian regime, where even wearing the wrong kind of clothing could be deadly. Yet her family laughed together in secret, held underground discussions, and kept the memory of freedom alive. To resist, we do not always need grand gestures; we need only to refuse the lie that we are alone.

The Power of Community and Ritual

Valarie Kaur, a Sikh activist in the USA, speaks of revolutionary love: the idea that survival and resistance are deeply tied to community and care. “The darkness of the womb,” she says, “is not the darkness of the tomb.” Even when everything feels hopeless, something new can be born if we hold each other up.

For those of us providing spiritual companionship, this means helping others stay connected to their traditions, ancestors, and practices. In “My Grandmother’s Hands”, Resmaa Menakem teaches us that trauma is stored in the body, but so is resilience. Simple rituals, breathing, humming, grounding in nature, can remind us that we belong to something larger than our suffering.

As spiritual companions, we can help people ask:

• What practices keep me connected to my dignity?
• Who are my people, past and present, who remind me that I am not alone?
• What stories, prayers, or songs bring me strength?

Plant with roots in water glass (Pexels)

Courage, Humor, and the Refusal to Submit

Vaclav Havel, who resisted Soviet rule in Czechoslovakia, wrote that “hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” To live in truth, even in small ways, is resistance.

Primo Levi, an Auschwitz survivor, reminds us that laughter is an act of defiance: “If you lose the ability to laugh, you lose the ability to think.” Humor, even in dangerous times, keeps us human. The ability to see absurdity in oppression –to laugh at tyranny’s pomposity, or dance furiously – is a form of spiritual resilience.

Laughing kids on street (Pexels)

Bearing Witness, Holding Memory

Anna Akhmatova, a poet under Stalin, stood in the prison lines with other women, waiting to hear the fate of their loved ones. She wrote, “I stand as witness to the common lot, survivor of that time, that place.” Bearing witness, refusing to let suffering be erased, is itself a form of resistance.

George Orwell warned that authoritarian regimes seek to “obliterate people’s understanding of their own history.” We see this now, as books are banned, histories are rewritten, and entire communities are told they do not belong. Holding memory, telling stories, and refusing to forget is an act of defiance.

Living as Resistance

The line between survival and resistance is not always clear. Sometimes, getting out of bed is resistance. Sometimes, feeding each other is resistance. Sometimes, telling a joke, breathing deeply, or singing an old song is resistance. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn reminds us, “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.” Even in a time of fear, we can choose truth.

For those of us who guide others spiritually, our role is to help people remember: You are not alone. You have ancestors – of blood, of spirit, of struggle – who have traveled this road before. You carry something within you that no regime, no oppressor, no law can take away. You are whole, holy, and worthy.

We resist not only for ourselves but for those who came before and those who will come after. And in that resistance, we find each other. We find joy. And we find life.

Let us remain faithful: Faithful to our wholeness, faithful to one another, and faithful to the work we must do.

Blessings of resistance,

Rev. Amy

Deepen and explore spiritual practice and find meaning through spiritual direction work. Find a Spiritual Companion, visit http://AmyBeltaine.info or https://shorturl.at/pr0ue or http://UUSDN.org 

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