The Rise of Neighborism

Adam Serwer recently coined the term neighborism to describe "a commitment to protecting the people around you, no matter who they are or where they came from." It stems from the beautiful resistance we've seen in Minneapolis in response to the horrific othering of our government against vulnerable people. 

Lately, I've been trying to figure out why almost all of our great stories involve people standing up to corrupt governments to protect others, yet countless people seem to be missing this reality when it's right in front of our faces in real life. Whether we are talking about Star Wars, Hunger Games, or Harry Potter, the theme is there. In fact, you'd have to work pretty hard not to find this theme in many of our great stories.

Disney recently learned this lesson in an awkward way. On January 17th, 2026, the Walt Disney Company posted a fun social media prompt on Threads: “Share a Disney quote that sums up how you’re feeling right now!”

They were not prepared for how many people were ready to deliver. Here are a few of them:

• "These white men are dangerous." Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas
• "Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not the threat of force!" Barbie, Toy Story 3
• "If you're doing nothing wrong, what is there to fear? Well, I'm fearing your definition of wrong." conversation in Andor, season 1
• "Death to tyrants!" Skippy Rabbit, Robin Hood
• "You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help." Esmeralda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• "So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause." Padme Amidala, Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith
• "Those puny ants outnumber us a hundred to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life. It's not about food, it's about keeping those ants in line." Hopper, A Bug's Life
• "Why are you threatened by anyone different from you?" Tarzan
• "It's every citizen's duty to challenge their leaders, to keep them honest, and hold them accountable if they're not." Ahsoka Tano, The Clone Wars

Within hours, Disney deleted the entire post. 

Now here's the thing... I love Disney. And part of what I love about Disney is what all of these people are referring to. They give us story after story to ignite our imaginations to what matters. Each of these posts was someone literally following the prompt and providing a quote from a Disney movie.

Which means Disney deleted a post full of quotes... from Disney movies.

Clearly, not everyone is applying these stories in the same way. One person posted the following application: "Allow me to explain to liberals. The ICE agent is Han Solo and the other guy is Greedo."

In response, a former priest offered this clarification:

Let me explain this to conservatives. ICE is the stormtroopers. Trump is Darth Vader. Putin is Palpatine. Bannon is Jabba. Miller is the little thing that lives on Jabba's belly. Good is Jyn Erso. Pretti is Cassian. Bernie Sanders is Ben Kenobi. Han is all the folks driving transport for the activists, who are Luke and Leia. And surprise, y'all lose in the end.
*Victory March and End Title*

If Disney's deleted post bothers you, how much more should it bother us when a church decides not to allow these conversations? What do we do when the gathering designed to follow Jesus decides that these conversations are too controversial and cause too much division (another reminder that polite Christianity is failing the Gospel)?

As the scholar Bart Ehrman recently wrote:

This sense of moral obligation to strangers in need is unnatural. It is not written into the human DNA nor did it exist in the ancient roots of our Western cultural heritage, in Greek civilization from the literary and philosophical greats of Homer and Plato onward or in the Roman world from its earliest history to its first Christian emperor Constantine many centuries later. The sense that anyone should help random strangers in far-away places was simply not part of the moral equation.

Why then is it part of the equation today? Why does this urge to provide assistance — for some of us quite intense, for others admittedly faint — seem like moral “common sense,” not just among religious folk but among agnostics and atheists as well, a common sense that affects not only our individual psyches and actions but also widely-held social agendas and governmental policies? ...the impulse to help strangers in need is part of our modern moral conscience because of the teachings of Jesus. My claim is that as Christianity spread throughout the ancient world after Jesus’ death, it revolutionized the understanding of ethical obligation, leading to a fundamental transformation in the moral conscience of the West.

If the teachings of Jesus laid the foundation for neighborism, then Christians should expect these conversations to be a natural part of gathering together in His name. The omission of this conversation should feel as bizarre as Disney deleting their post full of Disney quotes.

And yet this conversation seems to be glaringly overlooked in many faith communities. Nor is it universally welcomed when it is there. I was audibly called an asshole by someone who walked out of a recent sermon of mine.

This sad state of Christianity is why a friend of mine recently texted me: "New t-shirt idea… be like Jesus, not the church."

I've previously written about why we prefer theoretical neighbors, and the issue isn’t who qualifies as my neighbor. The issue is whether I am the kind of person who actually loves my neighbor. When you decide to commit to neighborism, you see the world differently. You decide that everyone is your neighbor, and you commit to protecting anyone who needs it.

You know your neighbors are the people of Minnesota, even if you live in another state or another country. 

You know your neighbors are the countless girls whose faces are obscured by a black rectangle in photos of numerous influential people (and our current president).

You know your neighbors are the undocumented people living in proximity to you. The ones our president has referred to as "animals."

You know your neighbor is the person being targeted and singled out by those in power.

If you are committed to neighborism, you will have a response when you hear someone dehumanize someone else. It does not matter how much you have in common with the person being threatened or how far away they are from you. A commitment to neighborism entails an inherent struggle against any system that oppresses people. And as we are witnessing in our real-life Disney movie, those systems are legion. In moments like these, inaction is the loudest action we can take. 

Can you see the story happening around us?

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash