The day after the inauguration of the forty-sixth President. I don’t know what you saw and heard. Like four years ago, and most of my lifetime, I was uncomfortable with the religious overtones. It was a better representation of mainline Christianity. The petitions to the Divine were more inclusive than those of four years ago and less theologically Dominionism, but I was uncomfortable with the Christian-centric posture.
I’m working on kindness today.
It began in fifth grade. As a short kid with red hair, freckles, and rather big front teeth, I was an easy target for the bullies. I know that when humor, persuasion, compassion, and avoidance don’t work you have to face the bully and knock him, her, it, on its backside hard and stand over it. You have to do it in front of the crowd that benefited from the bully, was too afraid to stand up against it, and the bystanders. You need to hear the bully yell ‘uncle’ in front of everyone and show it for what it is. And then, help it up. In rare moments, you can happen along and help the bully in its, her, or his frightened moment. Sometimes the shock of being helped for no reason, and specifically when you haven’t earned help, can change the conversation and behavior. I don’t know what extending kindness to those in Congress that tried to overturn the election looks like.
I enjoy team sport and individual sport. Growing up, I played some baseball, basketball, and was on the tennis team. There were times that I was a “poor sport” when I lost. There were excuses. The ball was well off the plate, the refs were in the tank for the other team, or the dishonesty of the other player calling the lines. Early in high school I had a bad episode on the tennis court during a weekend tournament. My parents were watching. I saw them leaving as I was in mid-tirade. It didn’t stop my behavior that day. I lost in straight sets. At home my parents explained to me their feelings of embarrassment and disappointment. My mother’s favorite phrase, “I know we raised you better than that. At this age you are responsible for your behavior.” They supported my high school tennis career and encouraged me, but didn’t come to another tournament until my senior year. I don’t know what accountability looks like for those in Congress that tried to overturn the election. Do they get to just go on like nothing happened?
I like competition and collaboration. Both are important. I would like the Nation to have less “debate” and more “conversation.” The presumes good faith listening and being open to persuasion. A colleague recently noted, “It seems like no one can be persuaded. Both sides simply want to watch the other burn under the fury of God’s wrath.” I’ve not always listened well. I’ve held you to the same level of consistency and accountability as I have myself. Is that fair? The arguments, memes, and easy beer muscles of social media of this last decade have made many of us poor sports and poor fans. I’m guilty. You?
What acts of kindness have you noticed recently?
[The Daily Question, gratefulness.org. January 17, 2021]
There is the kindness of ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ And the kindness of “I was wrong, I’m sorry.” The small kindnesses that smooth our interactions and help other people feel as though you’re aware of them. These don’t cost us much, in fact, in most settings, engaging with kindness is an essential part of connection, engagement and forward motion.
And then there is the kindness of dignity. Of giving someone the benefit of the doubt. The kindness of seeing someone for the person that they are and can become, and the realization that everyone, including me and you, has a noise in our heads, a story to be told, fear to be danced with and dreams to be realized.
And there’s another: The kindness of not seeking to maximize short-term personal gain. The kindness of building something for the community, of doing work that matters, of finding a resilient, anti-selfish path forward.
Kindness isn’t always easy or obvious, because the urgent race to the bottom, to easily measured metrics and to scarcity, can distract us. But bending the arc toward justice, toward dignity and toward connection is our best way forward.
Kindness multiplies and it enables possibility. When we’re of service to people, we have the chance to make things better.
Seth Godin, January 18, 2021
“Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,
and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.” [Psalm 62:11-12]
You reap what you sow? Sometimes no. Sometimes yes. Sometimes you simply glean from the field, but you are still responsible for what you do with it.
Did you hear the youth poet laureate yesterday at the inauguration? Click here for the spoken word and to read the poem.
It’s times like these you learn to live again
It’s times like these you give and give again
It’s times like these you learn to love again
It’s times like these time and time again
Foo Fighters, “Times Like These.” Roswell, RCA. 2003.
I don’t use words like idolatry or sin very often. Those words were weaponized and still carry destructive power in some segments of Christendom. But, the meaning of those words has been watered down in religious and secular culture that they have lost their sting, stigma, and ability to change persons. Like guilt or regret, sin and idolatry are only good one time to change behavior. After that, idolatry, sin, guilt, and regret are just baggage dragged through life. Sometimes carried as penance with good intention, but instead of changing behavior they create negative self talk and a cycle that takes ever more energy, more outrage, more . . . to break the cycle. It’s times like the last five years that idolatry and sin are the best words to describe what I’m witnessing in secular and religious culture.
I’m not an evangelical christian. It seems to me an argument can be made that the theological commitments historically defining evangelicalism don’t actually apply to what evangelicalism is today. If you use the term “evangelical” as the adjective for your christian faith, I don’t mean to demean your theological perspective or journey in faith. I’m mindful of the log in my own eye. As a liberal christian, striving for consistency, I share a similar experience that the adjective “liberal” has been coopted by consumerism, profit, and politics. As it has always been, the works we do in the practice of our faith say more about our theological commitments and our image of God than our hymns, prayers, praise music, religious symbols, or adjectives that precede “christian.”
I’ve written before that a particular strain of Christianity in America presents more like the Taliban or medieval crusaders rather than followers of Jesus. There is a difference between reigning and governing within a community. Borrowing from Michael Smerconish, we need some “evidentiary thinking” in a times like these. I think an argument can be made that the storming of the Capitol on January 6th was fueled by Christian nationalism and its white identity doctrine of discovery. Christian nationalism is idolatry.
Somehow, religious freedom in this Nation has come to mean the christian right to discriminate in the practice of one’s christian faith commitments in public rather than the simple right to worship god, or not, as your faith leads. Where faith leads is the visible evidence of how one lives in community with others who may not share the same faith or vision of America. Can you imagine an America governed by Golden Rule thinking and leadership? Can you imagine a Christianity carrying the cross of the Greatest Commandment? I think that is what the writer of Galatians means by “fruits of the spirit” (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). Have we seen Golden Rule or Greatest Commandment works from the President or his enablers? Really.
I’m an ordained Protestant minister, going on 30 years, and I celebrate that there is freedom from religion in public spaces and in government in America. The deists and enlightenment thinkers that designed our Nation knew well what mixing divine right, religion, and governing could do to a nation and where it can lead. We are beginning the third decade of the 21st century, and old world struggles continue to hold humanity back. These words from the late, Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes continue to make sense to me.
Depending, then, upon how one reads and interprets, either the Bible is a textbook for the status quo, a book of quiescent pieties and promises, or it is a recipe for social change and transformation. There are churches dedicated to each point of view, each claiming its share of the good news; but what is good news for some is often bad news for somebody else. We will see how this double-edged sword of the gospel makes Jesus’ own preaching and teaching so dangerous, not only way back then but right here and now, and we will see why it is a very dangerous thing to take seriously the question “What would Jesus do?”
Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News. HarperOne
I’m a cynical GenX’r wondering, “What has become of us? What will become of us?” Care and accountability are necessary. It’s time to get out Pink Floyd’s, “The Final Cut.” The articles below addresses the variants of public Christian response to the mutiny and insurrection of some members in Congress, the sitting President, and citizens of this Nation.
Faith on the Hill
The religious composition of the 117th Congress
Pew Research
Evangelicals must denounce the Christian nationalism in Capitol riots
Opinion | Religion News Service
At the Capitol, evangelicals’ ‘Thou art the man’ moment
Opinion | Religion News Service
The Roots of Josh Hawley’s Rage
Why do so many Republicans appear to be at war with both truth and democracy?
By Katherine Stewart | New York Times
Trump-supporting Christian leaders and their Sunday messages
Mariam Fam, Elana Schor, David Crary | Religion News Service
Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think
Morgan Lee | Christianity Today
As chaos hits Capitol, people of faith respond
Jack Jenkins