I’ve heard a term repeatedly in recent days that, depending on your cultural, social and religious location, might resonate with you, or might make you feel a little sick to your stomach.
The term is “bearing witness”.
If I don’t give you the context of where I have heard the term, then you will default to where you heard the term and then the term might just make you cringe.
Witness in the evangelical church was a noun and a verb. You could be a witness, but more often witnessing was something that you were supposed to do in your spiritual life. If you cringe at the term it is likely because it conveyed a sense that you were supposed to tell your friends, potentially your family, maybe your co-workers or others at your school, about your faith and why they should adopt it as their own. I have a feeling that it was not faith that potential witnessers were reticent about, it was the idea of coming across as judgmental or as overly religious.
“Bearing Witness” as a term is being recovered. It is actually a good term. In faith it speaks to a call to articulate hope where so much can seem hopeless. In general, it speaks to a need to demonstrate important truths in the world, or to voice hardship that people are living with or to help people see the humanity in other people.
I really like when I get to watch Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper speak with one another. Recently, when Cooper was in Lviv, Ukraine covering the Russian invasion, he took time to be a guest on Colbert’s show. They talked about the war. Anderson Cooper gave a synopsis of how things were going, and what it was like where he was. In the second segment of the interview (the video below), Cooper spoke about why he was there, why it mattered to him. In doing so he became emotional. He had to fight back tears exactly when he used the term “bear witness”. It is clear that Anderson Cooper (descendant of the ultra-wealthy Vanderbilt family) has a sense of call in his life. He does not need to work, at least not for the money. As he spoke about why he was in Ukraine, the lines of the call in his life became clearer. Though he comes from a family which would allow him to stay insulated and safe from the pain in the larger world, he has felt compelled to tell the stories of humanity and to spend his life making a difference. Here is how he described making that difference:
“I believe in bearing witness to the dignity of people here and also to the indignity that is being done to people.”
As he was saying this, Anderson Cooper couldn’t entirely hold back the tears. In hopeful theology an explanation for this emotion is that bearing witness is exactly the spiritual vocation of every human. We are called to bear witness. The problem in so many religious settings is that witness bearing so often focusses on a relatively small club that you are supposed to try to get others to join. It is a kind of moving away from the world. Anderson Cooper is moving towards the world in his bearing witness. He is aiming to humanize people, particularly those who have been dehumanized by others and sometimes those who have dehumanized themselves.
It is worth tearing up over, because it is a kind of beauty, and true beauty leads us to tears.
Evangelical Christianity too often used witnessing as a way to move someone from where and who they were, to where and who the witnessers were. Life giving witness bearing is a realization that salvation (healing) and vocation go together and we bear witness to the beauty of God in the lives of others and in what they are doing.
On this Substack platform I have been privileged to get to know some fellow writers. One is an acupuncturist, another writes about hypothyroidism, another writes about her health journey through the diagnosis and treatment of a brain tumour. I have met someone on the platform who has written inspirational messages of faith and hope for over 15 years, and someone else who writes about how psychedelic drugs have helped in mental health treatment. I have really enjoyed getting to know these people and one of the things that strikes me is that so much of what they are doing in their writing is bearing witness.
In much of evangelicalism, the idea of being a witness in such a group of people would be thought of a one way transaction. Kind of like, I have something that they need. Maybe I do. I don’t know. That’s for them to determine, not me. However, I am sure of this, they have been and are a blessing to me, and I have seen the vocational call of what they are doing and writing.
Bearing witness, in regards to hopeful Christian theology, is pointing to the hope that in the end, life is bigger than death and that ALL things will be renewed in Christ. That is what I believe in my Christian faith, but I don’t want to hold that faith in such a way that it misses out on the beauty of the vocational call of other people, whether they believe what I do or not.
Looking back with something like embarrassment I sometimes remind myself that I once had a fish on the back of my car (those who know, know). That was a long time ago.
Bearing witness is so much better than that. If, like Anderson Cooper, we are all called to bear witness in some way, perhaps a place to start is to consider how other people already are doing so in some very life-giving ways. If I can’t see how people who believe differently than me are bearing witness to some of the best truths in the world, then I will not know what it means that I can also bear witness in life giving ways.
Beautifully said, Todd. As a healthcare provider, an element of bearing witness to me is de-centering myself from another person's pain. People come to me for help and I can't always make their pain go away. But I can see them and hear them, and not try to quell my own discomfort by looking away, or by trying to fix things for them - which is just another form of looking away from where they are in this present moment. Bearing witness is hard because it calls us to be still, when we want to spring into action in help. There's a time and place for action, but first we must see and hear and feel with our hearts.
Well said, Todd. Anderson Cooper’s strength has always been that he can see the humanity in others. He is a respectful journalist who does not just cite facts but bears witness to the pain and suffering he sees during all the difficult situations to which he is assigned.
Bearing witness to humanity was the strength of Cory Booker as he rebutted the attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on March 23rd. After days of her accomplishments pretty much being belittled by several Republicans senators, Judge Brown was properly validated and esteemed by Senator Booker who told her “God has got you”. Senator Booker bore witness to her accomplishments and her worthiness as he promised to celebrate her.
For all to hear, Senator Booker bore witness to God’s unfailing love.