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?