Ponderings

On November 5th, in the year of our Lord 2008, the sun will rise on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. In the early morning light, brave hearts will absorb the remnants of a historic battlefield, an election like no other in our lifetimes. The only remaining world superpower, bruised and bloody but still standing, will have elected a new president.

The only certitude as the new day dawns is the presence of winners and losers.

The pollsters are working double time not only collecting data but trying to interpret the data so as to successfully predict the winner. The lottery may be a safer bet. The American people are incredibly frustrated and amazingly fickle. Again we find ourselves divided down the middle with race and class playing outsized roles as the young college kids vie with Joe six-pack for the heartland.

Although the contentiousness of this election cycle seems unique, historians remind us that there is nothing new under the sun. David Mc McCullough’s brilliant work, John Adams, made even more accessible by HBO’s dramatization, was a prescient reminder that the constitutional democracy that we assume to be normative was in fact a bold experiment just two centuries ago. Even in its inception, the dark underbelly of human avarice was palpable, an underbelly which has developed thick calluses over the ensuring decades. Winners were chosen not necessarily on leadership skill but more substantively on political connectedness; not for the good of the whole but for the advancement of self-interest. This grand experiment that we call American democracy was never pure, but it was effective.

Given the ‘kitchen sink’ mentality that now passes for campaigning, even the effectiveness of the system comes into question. In an age of instant communication where the primary messages are barbed pointed fingers, what was designed to be a discourse of ideas has devolved into a propaganda contest. To be sure there are important ideas and fundamental values at issue during this, and indeed every, election cycle. Although there are substantive similarities between the positions of the two presidential candidates, they represent two distinctive trajectories for our nation and, with slightly more than half of us in support, our nation will follow only one of them. Such a victory rings hallow.

As a theologian, I am struck by the disconnect between our better human impulses and the system into which we have settled. What was once a bold experiment has become an antiquated institution. With the bypass equipment of digitization, we have ended up with something that more closely resembles Frankenstein than our Founding Fathers. We are a people desperately in need of a new generation of creative minds to begin to discern patterns of governance for a digital age.

As the election draws ever closer, so too the inevitability of the grief work on November 5th for half of us. May the half that is celebrating have the wisdom to also include prayers for healing. May we all, winners and losers, pause on Wednesday morning with prayers for renewed vision.

It’s never good news when your community makes the CNN daily headline, and today was no exception. An HIV scare at a “suburban St. Louis high school” has caused the nation to catch their breath, once again looking at St. Louis in disbelief.

After reading the article at CNN, I was pretty confused. The information was inflammatory but scanty. I flipped to the Post Dispatch website (stltoday.com) for a more detailed report. Silence. Some silences feel more ominous than others. There were no headers on the story so I searched for “HIV” and found a story from last week about HIV testing at Normandy High School. Apparently the story had already come and gone from the front page of our consciousness.

The actual infection rate at the school is unknown, what is known is that health officials for undisclosed reasons believe that many of the students may have been exposed to the infection. Health officials are therefore encouraging widespread (confidential) testing to limit further exposure and to offer proactive treatment.

HIV/AIDS was a deadly plague that came of age at the same time as I, some twenty years ago. Then we knew it to mean almost certain and gruesome death. Over the years, scientists have found no vaccine and no cure but huge strides have been made in both the prevention of the disease and the treatment. It is now a chronic illness that, with access to medical care, can often be successfully managed.

A disease that is spread through body fluids, the most vulnerable populations continue to be those without access to prevention and treatment. Without access to even basic information and health care, the disease has ravaged huge swaths of the African continent. So too this pernicious disease continues to ravage the poorest neighborhoods of our American cities.

Normandy has some of these neighborhoods. The median household income in Normandy is just half of what it is county wide. Poverty is prevalent with 65% of the high school students and 80% of the junior high having eligibility for the federal “free lunch” program. Given the susceptibility of economically vulnerable populations, the HIV scare in Normandy should not be a surprise. What is surprising is how in the matter of two decades we have ghettoized a hideous public health scourge.

HIV/AIDS continues to be a major public health conundrum with no simple solutions. Comprehensive sex education would go a long way to preventing the sexual spread of the disease and needle exchange programs have proven to reduce the spread of the disease among IV drug users; tragically both of these interventions have been stalled by so the called Christian community. We have denied education and preventative measures to our children in an attempt to force compliance with a particular moral code, a ruthless choice that is literally killing our children.

WWJD? Consistently Jesus moved beyond the simple mores of the moral code to offer real healing to the people. In his name, we can do no less. The very least we can do is offer the best of our education and prevention tools to all of our children, including condoms and needles, today. Tomorrow is too late.

As our congregation shifted from one governing structure to another, our then-president’s (Wynn Miller) mantra was “breathe”. Even as we teased him unmercifully about the advice, we were aware that the simplicity belies a deeper truth. As I listened to the presidential debates last night, I thought a little breathing might have been helpful.

Given the avalanche of bad news that awaits us each time we read the paper, we probably could all use a little breathing.

Pondering the news, I find myself wanting to offer some sage advice. I want to have a plan of action or at least to see some semblance of a path. In an election season, clearly we have much to do in terms of campaign activity. Yet in many of our families, we will cancel each other’s votes at the polls. Although I have a very clear vision of the best choice, I am humbled to realize that people of good faith are campaigning on both sides. Perhaps clear, my vision is nonetheless limited.

The same is true for any of the issues we face as a people, as a local community and as a nation. Good people of faith see the same issues from different perspectives and reach different conclusions. All the more troubling is the realization that I could be wrong. Even if I had sage advice to offer, which I don’t, I would be loathe to offer it.

Which brings me back to breathing. Being mindful of the breath that enters my lungs, I slow down. Remembering to exhale, I begin to relax. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the world didn’t end when it collapsed. Jesus didn’t have answers for the Pharisees so I can quit trying. Breathing, slowly and mindfully. What are my choices today? What are my options for making a positive difference in the world today? What are the values that I bring to this day? What candle is in front of me at this moment?

Centered and breathing, I can light one candle. And lighting one candle is all we are ever expected to do.

Reading the news in an election cycle is not for the faint of heart. I admit that I lost my stomach for the political season before the primaries were over. Once the ads went negative, I tuned out. Admittedly, I am a wimp.

Attempting to remain somewhat sane in an insane sea without going to shore, I have attempted to read an array of sources from the Huffington Post to Fox News, from the New York Times to Aljazeera. Although an economic neophyte, I have tried to read the daily news of the unraveling economy with intention while dodging the mud fight that is always a paragraph behind.

Coming of age with Ronald Reagan the rise of the Moral Majority, religiously tinged political rhetoric is not new to me. What is new is the level of hatefulness and the loss of all semblance of decorum. When our political rallies become feeding frenzies for hate-filled rhetoric, we have gone too far. When the charged rhetoric from the podium unleashes chants from the floor for murder, it is too late to hide behind the banner of free speech.

www.truthdig.com

To be sure we are a fearful people and it is our fear that opens our hearts and minds to the swirling public sewer of negativity. Our scientific minds have now so far outpaced our moral ones that we have neither the scientific vocabulary nor the moral sensitivity to have a responsible conversation about the essence of life. We can start life in test tubes and keep hearts beating with machinery, but we have no clue about when the spirit enters and leaves. In lieu of wisdom, we purchase packages of soundbytes from one side or the other to hurl across the divide. Instead of discourse, we create discord. In this cultural context of fast paced shallow conversation, we find both a presidential campaign, an endless war, and a tanking economy. The result is not pretty. The toxic stream unleashed in recent weeks will not assuage our fear, it is in fact a heady fertilizer that puts our fears into hyper drive, turning our fears into potent landmines.

Although I was not a fan at the time, I’m beginning to see greater wisdom in the simplicity of Nancy Reagan’s, “Just say ‘no’.” To be sure, the problems we face far exceed any soundbyte including this one. Still, the first step to breaking the alcoholic cycle is to stop drinking. So too with the toxic waste destroying our public discourse. Just say no.

Between now and the election, I would suggest that if a negative commercial comes on the television, turn it off. If attending a rally that becomes negative, go home. If your friend or neighbor begins to tell you what’s wrong with this candidate or that, change the subject. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Now, more than ever, we need a return to the basic rules of kindness that govern the kindergarten playground.

Turning off all the negativity may well leave a void, but it is in this void that our still speaking God can be heard.

For the next month, there is one place safe from the fray, your local 12 Step group. The 10th Tradition in AA (and all of the related groups) is a clear mandate to steer clear: “Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.” Refusing to enter the debate, refusing to entertain even a sharing of perspectives, local groups are able to remain safe space for everyone and focus on the business of healing.

The welcome reprieve of such safe space leaves me wondering about the role of the church. Last weekend churches in 20 states participated in an event organized by the Alliance Defense Fund called “Freedom in the Pulpit” in which their pastors delivered sermons admonishing votes for particular candidates. The event was intended to highlight their opposition to the 1954 law that links a church’s tax exempt status to their neutrality regarding political candidates. Churches can of course discuss issues without jeopardizing their tax status, and many ministers use the pulpit to endorse issues that are candidate specific.

Most of us abhor the notion that any pastor would deign to claim God’s choice during an election. It is therefore tempting to suggest that the church, like our 12 step programs, ought to steer clear of politics. Unfortunately, I am not convinced that our mission allows us that choice. Though not overtly partisan, the gospel is inherently political. Invariably those who are serious about following Jesus find themselves immersed in the issues of the day. As our culture wars have raged, the neutrality of the church has crumbled and the role of the church using pivotal wedge issues cannot be underestimated.

Our mission at Evangelical UCC is: “Following the God made known in the life and teachings of Jesus, we gather as an Open and Affirming community, to worship, learn and serve.” Committed to being Open and Affirming, we cannot turn a deaf ear to the cries for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage (found in the Republican Party Platform). Gathered to worship, learn and serve, we cannot turn a blind eye to the urban battlefields of our abandoned drug war in the name of being “tough on crime” (found in the Democratic Party Platform). Believing Jesus, we cannot pretend that any candidate or party or even nation-state is divine. To embody our mission is to have conversations that engage the issues of our current day, conversations that foster the dawning of the God’s peace and justice.

As we enter these waters, we are wise to be cautious. The undertow is strong and the current rapid. We are tempted to stay on the shore or cling to that which appears to be buoyant. Wedge issues appear deceptively like life boats, but beware. Their sharp edges gouge with wicked fury. If we decide to play in the water, we should do so with intentionality and humility. Perhaps if we remember no other commandments, we would do well to repeat the first one daily: “You shall have no other Gods.” Certainly elephants and donkeys are idols that have no place in our churches. But beyond the idols, a life of faith is lived in a real world that calls us into voting booths on November 4th. Gathered as a community, we need to practice talking about what these means for our faith.

Before coming to church, though, we might want to attend a 12 Step meeting.