June 5

Today is World Environment Day. According to the United Nations website: “World Environment Day is the biggest international day for the environment. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and held annually since 1974, it has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach.” It is celebrated by millions of people across the world. World Environment Day 2025 is hosted by the Republic of Korea. 

Today in 1989, an unidentified man stood in front of a column of tanks, blocking them from leaving Tiananmen Square, in what has become an iconic photograph of human non-violent resistance to authoritarianism. 

Today is the birthday, in 1950, of Abraham Sarmiento, Jr., nicknamed “Ditto.” He was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper of the University of the Philippines. After Ferdinand Marcos closed all media offices that were not sympathetic to him, the student newspaper became the main source of editorials and articles calling for freedom of speech. Ditto was imprisoned and lived in such harsh conditions that he would die from asthma complications shortly after his release, in 1977. He inspired many more to speak out against the dictatorship. His father went on to become a supreme court justice after the Marcos regime was ousted.

Today is also the birthday, in 1947, of Freddie Stone (Frederick Stewart), pastor and guitarist for Sly and the Family Stone.

Reflection:

Sly and the Family Stone sang:

The connections between gospel, blues, funk, and rock are deep, and it’s not a surprise that many popular songs contain elements of call-and-response worship, testimony, and choir. This is a musical gift from the Black church to the world, and it reminds me of Jesus’s parable, “A sower went out to sow.” The seeds that get scattered in lyrics and music continue to grow towards peace. 

In this devotional, although my own roots and lens are American, I try to include saints, healers, justice-workers and light-bringers from around the world. We don’t know who the protester in Tiananmen Square was, and he was really only one of many who showed such acts of courage. He challenged the soldiers in the tanks, who had so much more power to do violence, to recognize their own humanity and to respond with their consciences. 

In the New Testament, Jesus exorcizes demons from people. Today, we need people exorcised from systems of domination and control.

David Dark gets at this idea with his metaphor of Robot Soft Exorcism, which you should read, digest, and live out. Though we may not drive tanks, we are all operators in a system that is doing massive damage to human beings and the planet. Those who are at the controls must be summoned away.

Prayer: God, help us hear the call to come out of the machine, and to recognize that we are simply everyday people. Amen.