The cost of flipping empire’s tables is pretty steep for some of us born, raised and conditioned to convenience. Many of us are not so much into flipping tables at home.

Some of us Christians of a certain ilk are threatening to flip tables fueled by scripture and our righteous indignation-- referencing Jesus all the way-- and in far too many cases rightfully so. Flipping tables should be about confronting injustice and hypocrisy.

First and foremost Jesus’s table flipping was a total disruption to state and religious commerce and transactions (exploitation of the poor and ignorant), which is why he was crucified shortly afterward.

Disrupting the flow of money to the most powerful was and still is a sin in the religion of empire, as is speaking out about it.

How many of us are willing to flip the capitalist and convenience addicted tables in our own hearts and homes at the same time we’re flipping them in the streets?

Breaking the comfort and convenience of capitalism is as difficult as breaking addictions to X, Tik Tok, FB, IG, Bluesky (and dare I say, Substack?) even when we know the violations of privacy and data mining that are taking place for reasons that can't be good for “free” people.

We don’t need to be perfect (that’s wholly impossible and by design) as we flip tables, but consider this madness of comfort and convenience:

getting our coffee at Starbucks as we head out to march;

buying our poster boards and markers for our protest at Target, Walmart and Hobby Lobby;

and stopping at Chik Fil A on the way, where we place your Amazon and Whole Foods order so we will have cozy socks and hot chocolate waiting for us after a long day of marching.

In order to stop state violence against our children, immigrants, our neighbors and ourselves, we will have to crucify our habits that feed and monetize the monster we are seeking to transmute.

We need more than righteous indignation and marches. We need to inconvenience ourselves and take holidays from comfort and convenience as much as possible from corporations that support the oppression, just as people did in Montgomery and Minneapolis--and as Jesus did in Jerusalem.

Flipping tables truly starts at home.