The Cost of Courage
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.” — Isaiah 59:14
Yesterday, six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned rather than participate in a Justice Department effort to investigate the widow of Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent during a protest.1 Their departure names something many of us feel but struggle to articulate: there comes a point when staying means consenting to a lie.
What happened to Renee Good was not only an act of lethal force. What followed was just as devastating. Within hours, federal officials worked to recast her as a threat—a “terrorist”—despite video evidence that contradicted that claim. Her identity as a mother, a wife, a community member, a witness to state violence was erased and replaced with a category easier to govern, easier to dismiss, easier to justify killing.
Civil rights attorney, Sherrilyn Ifill, roots this in history:
Remember when the New York Times describing teenager Mike Brown who was killed in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 as “no angel”? Or when then-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2000 released the sealed juvenile records of Patrick Dorismond, a 26 year-old Black man killed by police, saying of the victim “he was no altar boy.” (For good measure Dorismond, it turned out, had attended the same Catholic high school as Giuliani had in fact, once been an altar boy).
So it was no surprise that within an hour of Ms. Good’s killing, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem described the victim as a “domestic terrorist.” The disgraceful FOX News host Jesse Waters, smugly described Good as “a self-described poet, with pronouns in her bio...[who]… leaves behind a lesbian partner.” In MAGA world that is how they signal to their base to turn off the empathy - that this white woman is not worthy of your sympathy – not worthy of protection.
Sometimes no adjustments are necessary. In all cases when there’s video, you are asked to disbelieve what you can see with your own eyes.2
This is not an anomaly. It is a pattern.
When power feels threatened, it often responds by collapsing complexity into legibility. A grieving widow becomes an enemy. A witness becomes a danger. The violence of the state becomes “self-defense.” This is not harmless propaganda. It is a ritual of erasure, a way of stabilizing authority by rewriting reality itself. History has a name for this pattern. So does theology.
Across religious traditions, truth is not simply factual accuracy. Truth is relational. It is fidelity to what is real, especially when reality is inconvenient or destabilizing. In the Hebrew scriptures, truth—emet—is bound to faithfulness and justice. To distort the truth is not only to lie; it is to sever the moral fabric that makes communal life possible. The prophets understood this well. They warned that societies collapse not first through invasion, but through the normalization of falsehood.
James Baldwin named this danger: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”3 What we are witnessing now is a refusal to face what has been done and an effort to punish those who insist on seeing clearly.
This is why the prosecutors’ resignations matter so deeply. Their courage was not performative. It was costly. They chose professional loss over moral complicity. They refused to participate in a system that demanded obedience at the expense of truth. In doing so, they reminded us that conscience is not an abstract ideal. It is a practice. It has consequences.
The spiritual crisis of this moment is not only the violence itself. It is the attempt to make that violence morally invisible. When the state trains us to distrust evidence, to doubt witnesses, to accept official narratives over lived reality, it asks us to surrender our moral imagination. When we do, the cost is not borne equally. It is borne by those whose lives are already treated as disposable.
This is why courage now looks different than it once did. It is not heroic posturing. It is staying aligned with reality when distortion becomes policy. It is telling the truth when silence and complicity is rewarded. It is refusing to let grief be rebranded as guilt or resistance as threat.
We are here because too many systems failed to hold power accountable. But we are also here because some people refused to go along. They remind us that repair remains possible because people continue to choose integrity over fear.
The cost of doing what is right is real. So is the cost of not doing it.
Today, we honor those who stood down rather than stand falsely. We grieve the life taken and the truth distorted. We recommit ourselves to the slow, necessary work of refusing erasure, of holding reality with tenderness and resolve, even when it breaks our hearts.
This is what moral courage looks like now. This is the work before us.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where have I felt pressure—internal or external—to accept a version of events that does not align with what I know to be true?
What losses am I afraid might come if I choose integrity over compliance?
Who has modeled moral courage for me in this season, and what can I learn from their example?
A Prayer for the Day
A Blessing for Truth That Costs
Holy Source of Life, You who see what is hidden and know what has been erased, we come to you carrying the weight of what has been done and what has been denied. We grieve lives taken and stories distorted. We grieve the ease with which violence is renamed as necessity and truth is treated as a threat. Give us the courage to remain faithful to reality when lies offer us safety. Strengthen our consciences when obedience feels easier than integrity. Hold those who have paid a price for standing against injustice. Teach us how to tell the truth with humility and resolve. Help us resist the temptation to turn away from what hurts to see. Keep us grounded in love that does not abandon clarity and compassion that does not require silence. May truth find its way back into the public square, and may we be among those who make room for it. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Practicing Fidelity to Reality
This practice is meant to be done slowly. It may take 20–30 minutes. Do not rush it.
1. Choose One Story
Select one concrete event from this moment that you cannot shake: the killing of Renee Nicole Good (or the countless people of color before her), the resignations of the prosecutors, the state’s attempt to reframe reality, or another instance where truth is being actively distorted.
Do not choose something abstract. Choose one story with names, faces, and consequences.
2. Write What You Know
Without commentary or interpretation, write down only what you know to be true. Not what you fear. Not what you hope. Not what others are saying. Just the facts as you understand them.
This step resists propaganda, which thrives on emotional flooding and abstraction.
3. Name the Cost of Truth
Now write honestly about what it would cost you to hold this truth publicly or privately.
What would you risk?
Reputation?
Comfort?
Relationships?
Safety?
Certainty?
Do not judge yourself here. This is not a test of bravery. It is an inventory of reality.
4. Sit With the Dead
Close your eyes and imagine the people harmed by this story—not as symbols, but as human beings with ordinary lives.
Imagine their unfinished conversations. Their interrupted plans. Their families living with what cannot be undone.
Stay here longer than feels comfortable. This is where grief becomes moral knowledge.
5. Make One Binding Commitment
End the practice by writing one sentence that begins with: “Because this is true, I will…”
The action should be specific and sustainable, not heroic. Truth needs endurance more than spectacle. Place this sentence somewhere visible for the next week.
Moral courage is not the absence of fear. It is the refusal to let fear decide what is real. This practice does not ask you to save the world. It asks you to remain in right relationship with the truth, and to let that relationship shape how you live. That is how integrity survives violent times.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
January 15, 2026, 7-8pm EST - FREE Online Webinar: When the Internet Hurts: The Hidden Online Dangers Facing Our Teens and How Faith Communities Can Respond, Join me in conversation with Sharon Winkler, survivor parent and nationally respected youth online-safety advocate. Sharon’s son, Alex, died at age 17 after experiencing cyberbullying and algorithmically targeted pro-suicide content. Since then, Sharon has dedicated her life to helping parents, educators, and faith leaders recognize online dangers and build safer communities for young people. Register here.
NEW!!!! February 5, 2026 - Margaret Wheatley and and I are launching a new online course called “Leading with Spirit,” a six-session journey into soul-grounded leadership designed to deepen your trust in guidance, nurture perseverance, and rekindle imaginal wisdom for our fractured world. Take a look at the course outline. We are really excited and hope you can join! Scholarship are available if needed. Learn more here!
February 11th and 25, 2026 - Join Our “Building a Culture of Leadership Within Congregations” Cohort facilitated by Rabbi Benjamin Ross and me! A two-session course for ministers and faith leaders ready to strengthen how their congregations and ministries identify, develop, and support leaders. Learn more here.
July 19-24, 2026 - Join me and amazing co-facilitator, Victoria, on retreat in the back-country of beautiful Wyoming. The Art of Wilding is a 5-Day Expedition for Women Leaders. We will spend the week reconnecting to nature, exploring our inner landscapes for change, and engage the wisdom of spiritual teachings. Click here to learn more.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/us/prosecutors-doj-resignation-ice-shooting.html
New York Times, article from 14 January 1962.
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