I’m done.

I’m done trying to save the fruitless empire from being torn up by its roots and thrown into the fire. I’m done trying to convince MAGA to think. I’m done hoping for transformation from systems that have no interest in truth, only power.

For years, I stayed in the fight – hoping that if I just spoke with enough clarity, with enough factual information, enough proof that there Empire really had gone off the rails, maybe the empire would soften. Maybe “Christ”ians would listen. Maybe people I truly loved would wake up.

But, as is usual throughout history, empires – and those who lust after connection to its power, wealth, control – tend not to repent. They consume.

So I’m done. But I’m not bitter. I’m free.

Jesus Knew When It Was Time to Stop Trying

In Luke 19, Jesus approaches Jerusalem. He sees the city from up on a hill – the holy place that was supposed to be the heart of his people – and he weeps.

“If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace… But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:42)

Jesus didn’t go in guns blazing to reform the empire. He didn’t try to argue with Pilate. He didn’t start an insurrection. He wept. He named the truth. And he walked forward – toward betrayal, toward death, and toward rebirth.

Some systems are too far gone to be redeemed. Ask Jeremiah. Ask Ezekial. Ask Amos, Isaiah, Elijah. Ask Jesus. Some ears simply can no longer hear.

Weeping Over America

We live in a time when white Christian nationalism has become the religion of empire.

It blesses guns and flags. It mocks the poor and hates the foreigner. It legislates cruelty and calls it God. It follows a golden idol in a red hat and demands you bow too.

But like Jesus standing over Jerusalem, we eventually wipe our eyes and see clearly: This is not a holy city. This is not the kingdom of the heavenly realm. And our salvation isn’t coming from brilliance or a better PR campaign.

Sacred Rebellion Begins With “I’m Done”

There’s a holiness in knowing when to walk away.

I’m not saying we stop fighting or standing as allies. But we stop believing there’s a decency to be tapped in our social structure in this season. We stop begging for crumbs of decency from those who have no intention of sharing the table. We stop performing for the approval of institutions that want to erase all opposition. We stop explaining your humanity to people committed to misunderstanding it.

We just let our love for one another, as paracletes – the word used for the Holy Spirit in the Christian New Testament, which literally means “one who walks alongside” – be the loudest message we share.

I’m not called to convince the rightwing Church anymore. I’m called to tell people they don’t have to be like those who’ve kissed the ring of Caesar. I’m called to witness the sacred spirit rising from the ashes of the empire and, like Jeremiah, alert people that a future and a hope exist, even in a time of great calamity.

Like Jesus, I want to point at the temple – the center of religious power – and say “not one stone of that thing will be left on top of another.” I want to spend my energy testifying to the goodness that flows through humans, when the empire doesn’t dam the flow with indoctrination and propaganda.

I want to heal and to tell others they have permission to heal. I want to tell my story – one thread at a time – so people can know that loving yourself IS resistance to the Empire.

This is sacred rebellion: Not fueled by rage, but by release. Not driven by vengeance, but by vision. So, may this new spirit arise from the embers. A spirit of truth-telling. Of collective healing. Let queer prophets arise. And trans poets and Black elders and neurodivergent seers pointing to a better way.

We don’t have to rebuild what broke us. We don’t have to rescue what was never meant to last.

So I’m done with empire.

But I’m not done with human beings.

✨ Your Call to Sacred Rebellion

If you’re done too – done rescuing the empire. Done debating with denial – let’s walk together, as paracletes – holy spirits – walking alongside one another. We are a reconstructing community, reconstructing human beings, not angry god philosophy. And we’re sacredly leaning in together.

🔗 Subscribe to my email list for updates on events and info 🎙️ Join me live every Sunday at 9 a.m. PT on Evangelicalish 📣 Share your “I’m Done” moment using #SacredRebellion and tag me

Let the old burn. Let us rise.

If this resource spoke to you—if it made you feel seen, challenged, or just a little less alone in a world slipping further into authoritarianism—please consider becoming a paid subscriber to The Quollective. We’re not backed by billionaires or corporate sponsors. We’re funded by people like you. People who believe in truth-telling, justice, and the power of art and intellect to fight back.

Your monthly or yearly subscription helps us amplify the voices that white Christian nationalism wants to silence—historians, journalists, queer and Black creators, poets, satirists, and ex-theologians who know this beast from the inside.

If you believe in what we’re doing, don’t just read. Stand with us. [Subscribe now.]