Social Incoherence

In what possible way is anything in the American body politic coherent? How is anyone living in America, much less being reared in this culture's mileau able to make sense of ethics or moral grounding? 

Spirituality and morality loosely inform and interact with each other to help form a "social contract."  How is anything spinning out into our present American culture's life conducive to such a rational contract? Let me pull up three words and their Webster definitions.  

Sanctity"

Noun: "sacred or hallowed character."

Fidelity

Noun: "adherence to fact or detail." "strict observance of promises and duties." 

Mercy

Noun: "kindly forebearance shown to another." "the disposition to be compassionate or forebearing." 

Most of us have probably come across these three words more commonly in our church lives than in the vernacular of the everyday world. My perception is that they've been nearly lost in our everyday vocabulary.  Two other words that are also invisible are honor and respect, while the word truth is wildly compromsed. 

If you think about it, these six words - virtues if you will - form basic assumptions that should form the foundations of any humanitarian social contract, be it religious, social, or political.

So, I  feel that the incoherence we are experiencing with the decisions and rhetoric emanating from the leaders of our nation is largely due to their wholesale rejection of these six bedrock terms.

Perhaps the reason we more commonly bump into these words in church life is that they are tightly woven into definitions of faith and spirituality.  When national leaders abandon the basic concepts these words represent, they're, in fact, rejecting the spiritual basis inherent in our communion with humanity in general. Sadly, to make this incoherence coherent requires the rejection of an old-time life-respecting social contract that is now corrupted by wholesale idol worship of money, power, and violence, none of which Jesus lived or taught.

In realizing this, to maintain our fidelity to the Holy One, we, like Daniel and so many other Biblical characters, have to respect and honor the truth, mercy, and sanctity that faith has taught us is what holds the world together. Loving neighbor as ourselves cannot occur by locking them in a prison gulag. Healing the broken-hearted doesn't happen by bombing them. Feeding the hungry is rejected out of hand when the programs that feed the hungry are dismantled, and the money is diverted to the conquering "excursions" of the Empire.  In a very real sense, we're drifting rapidly into the same spiritual and social quagmire present in ancient Rome at the time of Jesus. And like the Romans and compromised religious hierarchies of that time, the nails and hammers to crucify mercy (and sanctity) are being primed.

So the biggest question facing us today, as people of faith, is the decision before us - as it was in First Century Rome, and in 1935 Germany - does fidelity to Christ's mercy still hold us to Jesus' healing, honor, and respect for humankind? regardless of race, gender, or creed? Or, will we be like the crowds that turned on Jesus after Palm Sunday? Do we flee and cry for a criminal Barabas to be unleashed while we watch from afar the crucifixion of the Sanctity of Life?   

     

   

Pure Love

 (I herein credit Thomas Merton with the gist of this post, the substance of which was a fresh way of thinking that I had not thought about before.  How about you?)

God, creator of all, is not in the least bit interested in the possession of anything or anyone.  Possession is not a requirement for love.  In fact, as Merton declares, 

"God saw that all things were good, and did not enjoy them.  God saw that all things were beautiful and did not want them. God's love is not like ours. God's love is unpossessive. God's love is pure because it needs nothing."  (Sign of Jonas, p 346)

Possession has become such an incredibly destructive central theme in cultural America in the past year. Love of money, love of power have become demonic idols that carry top (literally life and death) billing in the US government. I know that possessions (idols?) have always been present as an issue for humans.  But possessing has become a turbocharged value, which is tarnishing the goodness of all virtues. One overarching virtue is and has always been love. I'm not sure humans are capable of anything near "pure love," but shouldn't we at least include it in a list of things we strive for? 

A first consideration regarding loving others might start with a look at the practice of marriage.  Within the tapestry of marriage woven through the ages, it has always had as its central tenet that the couple "belongs" to one another.   The differentiation between "belonging," "exclusivity," and "owning" is exceedingly thin. Abolition & feminism have brought awareness to the evils of owning human beings. But marriage ceremonies are still rife with notions of belonging and of special rights granted to one another in a couple. I don't wish for this post to veer into the complex issues inherent in the practice of marriage, but sticking to this concept of pure love, I immediately see another connected virtue: freedom.  "Possession of another" inherently implies that one person has a say over another person's life choices.  "Pure love," however, may dictate the allowance of loving despite the choices your beloved makes. For God, this principle is wrapped in the term "God's free will."  Though we know much of what God desires and what is expected of us, we never lose God's love when we don't tow that "letter of the Law." Is God unhappy when we don't tow this line?  Almost without doubt.  And if we "love" God, then we care about God's happiness.  And therein is the balancing act that occurs on the scale of mutuality and communion with another, be that with God or another human being. 

As I began this post, I have my doubts about human pure love - love without boundaries. But I invite you into prayerful reflection about your relationship with God in Christ - a Godhead that does have pure love for you.  How do you feel about God loving you purely - without limits?  How about the idea that God does not possess you, but does expect mutuality?  What is the difference between possession and honoring or respecting? Isn't mutuality, honor, and respect a holier basis for a relationship than possession, demand, and legalisms? 

Here's hoping for healthy reflections and discoveries about your walk with the sanctity and fidelity of faith.

Mark

Community is the Way

 Parker Palmer, in his insightful book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, quotes from Howard Zinn:

The essential ingredients of all struggles for justice are human beings who, if only for a moment, if only while beset with fears, step out of line and do something, however small.  And even the smallest, most unheroic of acts adds to the store of kindling that may be ignited by some surprising circumstance into tumultuous change.

Hope in the future of the United States is the large store of kindling piling up.  The kindling is coming from millions of people who are stepping out to do hundreds of different acts that represent the essential love and care for humanity. It is coming from churches and people of faith who have always advocated for social justice, holding onto the tensions of what scripture means when it declares we are "made in the image of God."  Kindling comes from the "long arc of justice" that Martin Luther King, Jr emblazened for voting rights for all. The kindling piles up when high-conscience people witness the cruelty and deaths of good trouble-causing, compassionate people like John Lewis, Renee Good, or Alex Pretti, and then respond to protest.  Simple emails, letters, calls to government offices and representatives, and even prayer requests or study groups at your church raise awareness that lays the fire for social change.  

Parker Palmer speaks of the catalyst suffering supplies when hurting/broken hearts are embraced by a community with the capacity to embrace and bring compassion, understanding, and comprehension to transform pain into the power to create and generate solutions and resolution.  

 For far too many years, the United States has worshipped the idol of the "rugged individualist."  This insanely silly notion has left large swaths of our population as abandoned, broken orphans. The suffering of racism, sexism, classism, and militarism, to name just a few mega-causes, has left untold suffering, grief, and sorrows to foment into anger and rage that have only spurred retaliatory and vindictive - often violent - responses that have driven crime, gun deaths, stress, depression.... Much as the authoritarian government now in power is utilizing those very dysfunctional tools to control us, it is in no way spawning a future of anything but more of the same.  We cannot continue to abandon the Images of God to solitary coping but must begin activating the social animal instincts that humanity bears. Together, we must be caring for people in our communities- claiming and sharing the gifts and talents everyone brings to the table. In that sharing, the fire is laid for a closer step into the Realm of God.