Tag: Trump

Obama On Unity, Division, and Politics

All across America, in big cities and small towns, away from all the noise, the ties that bind us together are still there. We still coach Little League and look out for our elderly neighbors. We still feed the hungry, in churches and mosques and synagogues, and share the same pride when our Olympic athletes compete for the gold. (Barack Obama)

In his address to the Democratic National Convention, Obama points beyond our political divisions to aspects of our humanity that bind us together. He calls us to embrace our common humanity and reach out to each other beyond the fault lines of our politics. From our common ground, we must listen to each other for the concerns and needs that are beneath our various political positions.

He also shares what he sees as some of the causes of our divisions:

We live in a time of such confusion and rancor, with a culture that puts a premium on things that don’t last – money, fame, status, likes. We chase the approval of strangers on our phones; we build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone. We don’t trust each other as much because we don’t take the time to know each other – and in that space between us, politicians and algorithms teach us to caricature each other and troll each other and fear each other.

Obama calls us to go beneath our politics to the underlying causes of division. He names money, fame, status, approval. He implies that we put a premium on protecting ourselves from one another. From a spiritual viewpoint, he is naming pursuits that we have made central to our identity and that put us in competition with or in fear of others. We therefore tend to isolate ourselves. We “don’t take the time to know each other” or trust each other. We are ripe for manipulation from “politicians and algorithms.”

Again, from a spiritual viewpoint, our pursuits have left out love for one another. We have lost our true center in Love. Our divisiveness and our inhumanity toward others is rooted in the loss of empathy and compassion.

With love, we are able to enter into the lives of others and be open and welcoming of others whose cultures, histories, and views may differ from ours. Love is not put off by differences. Nor does it seek superiority over others or pride of place. Rather, it makes us available to others.

Jesus spoke of love in radical terms when he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” which requires us to put ourselves in the place of our neighbor, which further requires us to listen to our neighbor. It does not necessitate agreement, but it does mean we do not write off another person. Love transforms us and others—if we let it.

When it comes to leadership in our nation, we need persons who have empathy and compassion toward others without which we will only have further divisions. Those who show compassion are those who are aware of their own brokenness, who are no longer running from their own pain or providing a cover for their own insecurity.

A man who is unable to acknowledge weakness and vulnerability is dangerous in a position of leadership. If he has a practice of denying his own weakness, he will manipulate the weaknesses of others. A man who says he never asks for forgiveness has little basis for a true relationship with others. A man, who carries past hurts and grievances and lashes out, bullying and belittling others, needs healing. He does not need to be put in a position of leadership.

Donald Trump, as president, is dangerous not only for our nation but for the world, and especially for those who have been marginalized. If we know this, and as the election approaches, we must share our views of leadership with one another. Where love is the foundation of our relationships, we are able to do this without ridicule or putting down others. Love makes it possible to share from the deeper reality of our common humanity and from our most basic needs and concerns as human beings living in community.

If we have come to know love as the basis of our relationships, we must share the truth we know and do so in love for others and for our nation.

Filed under: Compassion, Humanity, LoveTagged with: , ,

The “Gospel” That Supports Trump

Pastor Robert Jeffress, an evangelical supporter of Trump, was interviewed for an opinion essay in the Washington Post. He provided us with his (and many Evangelicals) main reason for supporting Trump. He tells us “that regardless of what happens in Washington, D.C., that the general trajectory of evangelicalism is going to be downward until Christ returns.” He explains that, as he understands Scripture, things “get worse and more hostile as the culture does.” Things get less and less “evangelical-friendly or Christian-friendly.” He sees “the election of Donald Trump as maybe a respite, a pause in that. Perhaps to give Christians the ability and freedom more to share the gospel of Christ with people before the ultimate end occurs and the Lord returns.”

This is an amazing statement from someone who purports to be a Christian leader. Why is he focused on a downward trajectory for evangelicalism rather than a downward trajectory for the world (given the state of the world)? At the heart of Christian good news is that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Jesus says that he did not come into the world to condemn the world but to liberate it, and he trains his followers for the work of deliverance and healing.

And Jesus does not look for respite from the emperor or provincial leaders. When he is told that King Herod is out to kill him, he says, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.” In effect, Jesus is saying that he does not have time to pay attention to King Herod, much less cozy up to him. He has a God-given mission that concludes, as it often does for prophets, in being killed. His focus is on the world, on hurting and broken lives. He is about healing and deliverance directed outward to others. He tells his followers it has to be the same way for them: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the good news, will save it.”

Jesus does not entertain a “Christian-friendly” environment. Rather, Jesus tells his followers to expect persecution and that, therefore, they must “deny themselves, take up their cross (their suffering and death) and follow him daily.” They are not to seek to secure their lives (their Father in heaven will do that); they are to lose their lives for the sake of others receiving the good news. When they get anxious, they are reminded that their Father in heaven cares for them, and they are directed to seek first God’s reign and purpose and leave to God the kinds of things that they tend to get anxious about. They are set free to focus outward to the needs of others, even unto death.

Pastor Jeffress gives an alternate vision in which Christians, astonishingly, have to count on someone like Donald Trump to give them a respite, while Trump’s actions and that of our government, cause great hurt and death to others. This view eliminates the true mission and witness of Jesus’s followers. And an alternate “gospel of Christ” gets promulgated.

So, what is this alternate gospel? What kind of gospel seeks a “respite” for ourselves while putting up with degrading, demeaning language directed to others, often to the most vulnerable among us? What kind of gospel provides personal respite while allowing children to be separated from their parents at the border? What kind of gospel makes room for the consistent demeaning of people fleeing from great danger to seek asylum? What kind of gospel has nothing to say to the racist actions of a president who sets a tone for the country? What kind of gospel provides respite for white followers of Jesus while making room for demeaning, dangerous language directed to black and brown people? What kind of gospel has us so absorbed with our own condition that we minimize the impact of the rhetoric and actions of this president on others, or simply do not care enough to pay attention to the effects of his actions on others? What kind of gospel does not call us to confront the lies and deceit and injustices?

A “gospel” that puts up with so much pain and hurt at the expense of others while providing “respite” for Christians, has hidden idolatries that “accepting Christ” apparently does little to disclose. This “gospel,” rather than calling for repentance, carves out a place for the idolatry of nation and race, as well as other idols our culture worships such as our comfort, pleasure, possessions, and power. It allows for a form of “Christianity” whose message, in many aspects, is nationalist and often implicitly white nationalist. It is idolatrous. Oblivious to the idols that enslave us, we enjoy our worship and our thoughts about God’s grace toward ourselves while maintaining all manner of self-righteous and destructive attitudes toward others. We may even disregard repentance altogether. This “gospel” may leave us “unaware that the kindness of God would lead [us] to repentance.”(St. Paul) We may go around saying, “I accept Christ. I accept Christ,” as if that were the end of the matter.

The truly good news that Jesus proclaims is that the reign of God is near and is a gift and is available to all. Therefore, Jesus tells us to turn (repent) from our idols (our allegiances that are false to our true selves) and enter into God’s reign. Under God’s reign, we receive the freedom of the children of God—the kind of freedom we see in Jesus, the child of God. In Jesus, we see freedom from being directed by fears, including the fear of others; we see freedom to show mercy, to do justice, to love others. When we begin to experience God’s reign, we discover a very different kind of governing from that of the nations of the world, and we become witnesses in word and action to God’s ways of governing. We are witnesses by our compassion and mercy toward others, our welcome of those different from us, our work for justice, and our being instruments of God’s healing in the world.

Filed under: Grace, Justice, Love, Society, WitnessTagged with: , ,

Getting Real About Racism

In response to recent racist tweets from President Trump, many of his supporters have reiterated his claim that what he was communicating was not racist. Trump tells us that there is not a “racist bone in his body.” Even though Trump’s racist expressions are blazingly obvious, he and these supporters operate in denial.

Anyone who has become increasingly aware of their own dishonesty, will not find this denial surprising. If we have become mindful of our inner life, our feelings, attitudes and motivations and have been willing to examine and confront fear, envy, jealousy, selfishness, prejudice, lust, greed, and so on, we have recognized also how hidden these things are until we are willing to be self-aware. The more we grow in mindfulness, the more we see that to which we were previously blind. We find ourselves on a journey of coming out of denial.

Racism, like any sin, hides until we are open to the Spirit of truth and willing to confront it. In the same way that no one escapes sin, no one escapes racism. Growing up in a racist society, we are all under the influence of and affected by racism. We may be affected in different ways (dependent on whether we grew up white or as a person of color), but we are all affected. Coming to recognize our own racism, or how racism has hurt and diminished us, happens as we are increasingly aware of our inner selves.

Our inner life, of course, affects our outer actions. If we do not recognize racism in ourselves, or its effects, we will still act out of that inner reality and rationalize our actions. When we do begin to see, and as our insight grows, we gain clarity with what is occurring, not only within us but, around us. We see with increasing clarity and subtlety the racism in our society. We become open to hearing from those who have been affected by racism. We seek those who give voice to their experience. We find that we need the voices of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. We need what they see from the vantage point of their experiences in the United States of America.

We need not, however, be surprised at the degree of blindness present in our society. How can we be surprised, when we ourselves have had the experience of going from blindness to sight (a journey on which we must continue). If we do not recognize that gaining insight into ourselves is a gift—a matter of grace, then we become self-righteous and judgmental, unable to reach out to others with our witness. We write them off as if they were incapable of change. (We can be grateful that God does not write us off.) If we have changed we know that change is available to others as well.

To put this in the language of recovery from addiction: If we are recovering racists, we go to other racists with something like a 12 step program which starts with coming out of denial: “We admitted we were powerless over racism—that our lives had become unmanageable” when it came to seeing the needs and hurts of others and having empathy and compassion. And we “turned our will and our lives over to God,” to the Source and Mystery of our lives, to the gracious Presence.

Paul, in Romans 8, reminds us to be mindful of the Spirit. “To set the mind on the flesh (disoriented attitudes, desires, and values) is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” In the Spirit there is oneness. The dividing walls come down. We cannot simply continue to justify our divisive attitudes and rationalize our motivations of fear, resentment, and prejudice. We can no longer construct a religious facade over these elements of our inner life, nor give support to them in our social life.

The unexamined self is capable of a great deal of ignorance and hurt, and without the Spirit of truth, we operate unaware of what drives our actions. We operate blindly and full of our rationalizations (all of which appear good to us). As we read in the Gospel of John, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:13) With the Spirit, there is openness and receptivity for what is true and real. We are given eyes to see and ears to hear, which is where all change starts. The Spirit (and this openness) will lead us to be witnesses and agents of change in our society.

Filed under: Healing, Mindfulness, Racism, Spirit, WitnessTagged with: , , , ,

Witness in a Time of Social Breakdown and Hypocrisy

An article in The Nation, Yes, Donald Trump Is Making White People More Hateful:
A new study finds empirical evidence of the “Trump Effect,” by Joshua Holland, concludes with the following words:

“It appears that both are true: Obama’s election activated white voters’ racial grievances and anxieties about being displaced by other groups. But it was Trump’s nasty rhetoric that gave them permission to say what they might have kept quiet out loud – and in some cases, to act on those feelings.”

I am reminded of St. Paul’s words: “The law was our disciplinarian until Christ came.”[Galatians 3:24]

We must not underestimate the power of a nation’s laws and its social norms. Before a person discovers the power of grace, it is often society’s norms that provide the boundaries for behavior. On the other hand, we must also not overestimate the power of laws and social norms. We have seen how lies and propaganda can undermine norms and move nations to authoritarian rule and even genocide. The genocide in Nazi Germany and the genocide in Rwanda are examples. The rhetoric that dehumanizes and appeals to hate paves the way.

Furthermore, laws and norms, in relation to human behavior, always have the weakness of being too general to help us in our everyday situations, in our relationships with partners, coworkers, friends, and enemies. They also prove weak when there is a daily onslaught of lies coming against them. And, of course, there have always been unjust laws.

And yet the law, as weak as it is, does have a disciplinarian effect and, therefore, provides some degree of social order. But that is until grace (the experience of God’s liberating presence) comes into our lives and we experience the Spirit. Paul is quite radical here: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.”[Galatians 5:18] This is because the Spirit produces what the law cannot: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.”[Galatians 5:22-23]

If we have come to experience grace and to live in some measure from the Source of all life, then we are called to be witnesses to that reality and to speak and act beyond what the law provides. At this time, in these United States of America, when the law is being undermined and social norms are further weakened, we must declare the larger reality: what is on the heart of God as we are coming to know it. We must embody and give witness to the matters Jesus says get neglected: Doing justice, loving mercy and living faithfully. We have to call for justice in specific ways to correspond to specific injustices. We must demonstrate mercy in specific situations where people are being demeaned and judged. And we must do this faithfully, trusting in God, walking humbly with our God.

We must do this in an age of hypocrisy when it is easy to be a Christian without Christ, to name the name, but not live in the reality. Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.” I have often read comments by those who identify themselves as “unbelievers” and yet who call “Christians” to account on the basis of what Jesus has said. Many who do not name the name of Christ can see the falsehood of those who name the name but do not live the life.

In a time of breakdown in the so-called “rule of law” and in social norms, our nation is in need of witnesses to that which comes from grace: the call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

Filed under: Grace, WitnessTagged with: , , ,

Evangelical Support for Trump and Following Jesus

Eighty percent of white evangelicals support Trump. Why? An evangelical faith adviser to Trump says the number one reason is “religious liberty.” The issue of abortion is number two.

Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, in a PBS News Hour interview, explains:

“Evangelicals experienced or felt that, in the past number of years, the past 10 years, issues of religious liberty, issues of advancing their Judeo-Christian value systems stood…threatened. Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, Supreme Court cases that to evangelicals infringed their ability to advance the Gospel of Jesus. So, all of a sudden, we have President Donald Trump, and the public policy initiatives as it pertains to faith is much more favorable to the evangelical community indeed.”

Christianity, as a religion, has had a privileged place in American society, from having chaplains for the House of Representatives to special tax breaks for clergy. Above all, Christians, along with other religions, have been legally free to worship and free to share their message with others. They must proclaim their message, however, in the midst of many other competing messages and at times in hostile environments. That is to be expected.

But compare that to the experience of Christians in the second century, when Justin Martyr pleaded with the Roman emperor, that Christians be judged justly, not merely because they went by the name Christian. Justin was addressing a situation where going by the name of Christ brought on persecution and even death. Justin himself was martyred. The issue was life and death. Even so, Christians continued to share the gospel and to serve. They had learned that they could do all things through the One who strengthened them and could proclaim the gospel in all circumstances. (Paul, in one of his imprisonments, writes that everyone guarding him was hearing the gospel.)

So, what is this concern for religious liberty on the part of “evangelicals” today? What more, in the way of liberty, is being expected from a highly secularized or “pagan” society? Apparently, the expectation is for a government that will make advancing our “Judeo-Christian value systems” less threatened, by carving out special laws that make room for our ability to take stands according to our peculiar consciences without any loss or discomfort.

I suspect that Pastor Rodriguez represents the evangelical community with some accuracy when he says that the number one white evangelical reason for voting for Trump is “public policy initiatives” that are “much more favorable to the evangelical community.” I also suspect that there are other underlying and hidden reasons. Trump’s appeal to racist and anti-immigrant attitudes is a significant factor, as it is in the general white populous. But the ostensible admission that “public policy initiatives” favorable to the evangelical community is the number one reason for continued support of Trump is surprising, given that it comes from those who say they are followers of Jesus who said, “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”[Matthew 16:25]

Jesus’ followers, rather than securing their positions, are called to lose their lives in order to serve. From a place of humility, we are empowered to do what Jesus did: Declare God’s reign which manifests itself in compassion for those who are “harassed like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus went to those who carried heavy burdens in order to liberate them, and he spoke against those in power who added to their burdens. Jesus ate with sinners, welcomed the outcast, healed the sick and brought good news to the poor. Jesus’ focus was not on obtaining and holding on to a place of privilege. He “didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.”[Mark 10:45]

It would seem that those who go by the name of Christ, who experience God’s governance, would make their number one issue when voting for a leader, the care and uplift of others, especially the “least among us.” It would not be about themselves and gaining or holding on to a privileged position. It would be about the refugee, the hungry, the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the life of the born as well as the unborn. It would seek leaders with some measure of compassion. When Christianity is true to its roots in Christ, it serves others, giving its life for others. It forgets itself and focuses on others, serving them with the good news in word and deed.

Filed under: Faith, Justice, Serving, WitnessTagged with: ,