HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 2, 2025 – There’s something about the term “solidarity” that makes my skin crawl. Although earlier popularized as a communist or socialist rallying cry, it’s usually trotted out today as a union or progressivist dog whistle. Cries of “Solidarity!” tend to go hand-in-hand with perceived victimhood, and being a victim is a slam-dunk payout these days, which may explain why we’re hearing solidarity more and more frequently.

But hearing it more frequently doesn’t make it any less grating to me. And since it’s one of those word trends that will likely not go away any time soon, I decided to explore my aversion of the term, aiming to dull my distaste or maybe even turn it around.

Here’s what I came up with. Standing in solidarity implies siding with or supporting a group, an organization, or an idea. I did a quick mental run-through of all the groups and organizations I interact with daily and the ideas that I entertain, and I honestly couldn’t imagine standing in solidarity with any of them. I tolerate them at best, but mostly I avoid them and dismiss them. No solidarity there. Ditto for my nation and “my people”. As a born-again believer, I have more in common with the people who lived 2000 years ago in the Middle East than I do with people living today in Canada or with the people of my heritage (German, Irish, and English). And I can’t really say that I stand in solidarity with God and Jesus because they don’t need me to side with them or support them: They’re perfect in and of themselves. If no-one at all sided with or supported God and Jesus, they’d still be perfect. They don’t need anyone’s solidarity.

And then it occurred to me who does need solidarity – we do. We in God’s Kingdom need each other’s solidarity. As born-again believers living in a world that’s hostile to everything we hold dear, we need to stand in solidarity with each other and only with each other, even if we’ve never met and don’t know each other’s names. We’re not standing in solidarity to announce our victimhood to the world or to financially benefit from it in some way. No. We’re standing in solidarity because Jesus told us that we’re to love one another, and to love another means to side with and support one another through thick and thin. So Jesus told us to stand in solidarity without actually telling us to stand in solidarity. Loving one another means standing in solidarity with our Kingdom homies, because on Earth, our Kingdom homies are the only ones we can really trust.

Seeing my fellow born-again believers as my solidarity homies has, for me, turned solidarity around to mean something good. I still cringe when I hear “solidarity” being applied in the world, but I like the idea of standing in solidarity with the Kingdom. I stand in solidarity with that idea as much as I stand in solidarity with all of you who are genuinely born-again and filled with God’s Holy Spirit.

I hope you stand in solidarity with me.