Naval Academy Wisdom: Fidelity is Up; Obedience is Down

The NA parade belt buckle

To answer the question about what I’m seeing and hearing about current events from my vantage point: Honestly, it is ugly. I cannot express without sounding hyperbolic what would happen if employees obeyed all their new marching orders, but the folks I know who serve on the front lines and have not (yet) had their jobs terminated are being forced to wrestle with their values, their loyalties, and the feeling that they must choose between giving up their careers or their integrity. 

I don’t have to wonder what my late father, the Rev. Dr. Bob Walters would say about this; he often said it when asked, “What’s up?”

 

“Fidelity is up and obedience is down,” he'd respond with a mischievous grin. 

You see, my Dad was a US Naval Academy graduate who later served as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot,* and at the academy their parade belt buckles had the words Fidelity (top) and Obedience (bottom) stamped on them. "Fidelity is up, and obedience is down," they were taught to say. 

Many at the Naval Academy, Dad included, took this memory trick as a life lesson. Sometimes faithfulness to an institution requires disobeying orders that are disloyal to the true purpose of that institution. Dad indoctrinated me in this belief. And, yes, following it did get him (and me) institutionally shunned quite a few times. No regrets about any of those decisions, though. 

Dad gleaned the best parts of his military training and applied them to his missiology. Yes, he was willing to lay down his life to protect the vulnerable, but he was not seeking martyrdom. He taught me that peace and prosperity are built through sacrifice and teamwork; redemption and restorative justice through repentance, love, and solidarity. In our work we will encounter narcissists, tyrants, kleptocrats, and even sociopaths, and the more community building we can accomplish before catching their attention the better our chances of success (Hence he gave the NGO he co-founded the motto “Small footprint: Big Change”). 

 And so my beloved siblings, I’ll close with these words followed by a quote from a sermon Dad preached in 2001: 

Sometimes we leave unethical institutions in order to be part of the struggle; other times we remain in them for the very same reason.  

“Fidelity is up, and obedience is down. Fidelity, faithfulness, genuine loyalty, true love trump blind, stupid obedience every day.” -Bob Walters

*And then he became a United Methodist pastor whose primary gravesite/memorial is in the heart of the DR Congo. Those stories can be found here. 

Matthew 10:16 (NRSVUE) 

“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

A priestess in a fitness studio (Cairo, Egypt)

Last week was especially rough on my passport nation, 

My hermitage will also soon host gatherings

and I spent most of it home alone attempting to discern how to respond. Taking my own past advice, I decided to start spending less time in the apartment I call my hermitage and more time interacting with the broader community, starting by supporting healthy initiatives that bring people together. I also resolved to get more stamina-sustaining dopamine in my system through exercise and amusing activities. 

And so, I signed up for an Egyptian classical dance class at a nearby fitness studio. It was not what I was expecting. 

 The moment I walked through the door of the gym, I was greeted by Sohair—a brightly painted woman the age of a village matriarch—who said, “You must be Taylor! I somehow knew it was you!” She opened her arms wide and embraced me, kissed my cheek, looked deeply into my eyes, smiled, and embraced me again. Then she stepped back and, after examining me, selected a coin-covered belt out of her oversized bag and lovingly wrapped it around my waist. 

Our class was relatively small, but I estimated that at least six nationalities and mother tongues were present; Sohair toggled between three languages to make sure everyone felt included. We danced and shimmied to the percussive rhythms of the music, but there was more to it than any dance studio class I had ever attended. Sohair had made it feel both liturgical and liberating. Midway through she had us form a circle and take turns swirling invisible energy with our arms as one by one she invited each woman to dance in the center of the energy pool. Then she had us yell and stomp, and even shout out “Stop!” All this followed by cupping our hands and using them to smack our arms and legs, fully awakening the body. 

As we approached the end of our time together, Sohair had us put our hands on our hearts and lower abdomen and breathe deeply. Then she walked around the room, looked lovingly in the eyes of each woman, and gave us a parting embrace. 

So… did I get a good workout? Eh.. somewhat. Did I improve my dance skills? Umm.. maybe slightly.

Did I leave the gym feeling I had just participated in a sacred act of communal worship? 100% YES.

Diversity. Inclusion. Radical hospitality. Each person’s right to their own bodily autonomy. These values that I found modeled in a gym in Cairo, Egypt, are now explicitly forbidden to be expressed or lived out in all U.S. government workspaces, they are ridiculed by some major media outlets, and they are condemned in the “Christian” nationalist pulpits that heretically preach that God desires an unrepentant s@xual predator and serial embezzler to enact policies that persecute those who were already the most vulnerable among us. Siblings, we are living in pivotal times. 

 

What’s my main point today? In world where values are upside down, let us be more like Sohair. Whatever part of the community we are, let us use our gifts to create glimpses of the Kin-dom of God in the spaces we can directly help shape. Yes, we never stop resisting injustice and violence, AND we keep nourishing each other through defiantly declaring that Hate will never overpower the Kin-dom of Love.

An excerpt from this Sunday’s lectionary text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 (NRSVUE) 

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. … 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work powerful deeds? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.