*[In these perilous times for our nation I recall the words of Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller on January 6, 1946. The “Then they came” poem speaks to the silence of the German church during the rise of Nazism. Below is a poetic rendering of the original.]
“First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me”
Saturday September 7th, 2024 the Chicago Cubs vs. the New York Yankees and it is a lovely day. Well mostly. My daughter Lydia, and her spouse Tom, have taken Elaine and me to the game. So many good memories at Wrigley.
A favorite Cub player is on the field at first base. It’s Anthony Rizzo. But wait, he’s in a Yankee uniform! Whoops. That 2016 World Series champion team (Contreras, Lester, Bryant, Fowler, Pena, Ross, Russell, Baez, Hendricks, Schwarber, Szczur, Almora, and more) have all been blown away to other teams – or retirement. That team was dispersed, suffering with a bad case of the “Ricketts” (family team owners). Okay, I know things didn’t go so well in 2017 when many of these champs were still in Chicago. Still, the Cubs are the Cubs. Why pass over a foolish trade when it is available?
Among the over 40,200 in attendance are Kerry Wood and Rick Sudcliffe! They were keepers, good to see on the big screen. When Rizzo comes to bat for the first time there is a prolonged ovation. NICE. Still, it is a bit unnerving to realize that many, maybe half of the crowd standing and cheering are wearing Yankees gear. Rizzo tips his hat several times. Nice – but so many Yankee fans?
One reason is because of another Yankee player, a little fella named Aaron Judge. He is a giant among other players, at a muscle bound 6’7”. His .321 batting average and 51 home runs also dwarf others. So, Yankee fans have come to see JUDGE and rizzo. I am prepared not to like Aaron Judge despite hearing all the stories speaking of him as a genuinely good guy. On the field and with the crowd he displays this good spirit and warm demeanor. I soften in my judgements about Judge. He is a nice guy.
In the sixth inning, Judge is walked. There are a series of other events I choose not to remember – a hit, stolen bases, and then a long fly ball to center field. The inning is ending! But no. The ball falls from the glove of a not to be named Cub and the Yankees take a 1-0 lead. The Yankee who hit that long fly, that should have been caught? You have already guessed. It was Antony Rizzo!
Is this what spoiled my otherwise wonderful afternoon at Wrigley? Well, no, I have suffered worse. (Insert your worst memory here.) In the fourth inning the four Yankee fans directly in front of us return from the concession stand. Like Aaron Judge, they seem nicer people than one would otherwise expect from Big Apple supporters. What spoiled it all was the desecration these Yankee fans brought on to Wrigley field. There they were with hotdogs (not even brats) and covering each of the dogs was, yes… it is tragic… large dollops of ketchup! Any respectable fan at Wrigley knows this is in bad form.
It is such inconsiderate etiquette! Ketchup at Wrigley? It is like me trying to speak French in a French restaurant or mentioning the Northern Illinois football win over the Irish on Saturday in South Bend. Just bad, inconsiderate form among decent folks
The game ended with the Yankees winning 2-0. There was some redemption. Cubs beat the Yankees the next day to prevent a sweep by a score of 2-1! Still, the image of ketchup on a hotdog at Wrigley can spoil a summer.
So-called Christian Nationalism appears to have mushroomed in our body politic. Books like Taking Back America for God (Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry) and The Kingdom, The Power and The Glory (Tim Alberta) document the spread and extent of this ideology across American faith communities. Is this new? Or is it reappearing after years buried in the subsoils of our common life?
Do your recall the l-o-n-g word Antidisestablishmentarianism? In elementary school I learned it was the longest word in the English language. Well, not quite. At only 28 letters, it now is said to be the fourth longest. I won’t try to spell or pronounce the top three. The folks at Merriam-Webster say it doesn’t qualify for a dictionary; it is so little used. Okay – but I have burned too many brain cells learning to spell it. Antidisestablishmentarianism arises from historic struggles in Britain over the role of religion in government. This word argues religion (the Church of England in this case) should receive special government benefits, support, patronage.
Increasingly unmerited claims that the United States was to be an exclusive Christian Nation are made. Stephen Wolfe’s book The Case for Christian Nationalism, widely read and oft cited, is a core effort in this “restorationist” project. This desire to return a simplistic narrative about our nation’s founding, our diverse communities of faith, and multiple cultural expressions is misleading, even antithetical to what Jefferson referred to as our “Great Experiment.” In fact, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (known as the Establishment clause) opens with the words, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Something fresh, never seen before, was being birthed with the American experiment. Something untethered to a monarch, or a single faith tradition was begun.
Evangelical scholar Kevin DeYoung acknowledges an understandable hunger among some Christians for something like Christian Nationalism; however, after reviewing Wolfe’s book, he concludes “Biblical instincts are better than nationalist ones, and the ethos of the Christian Nationalism project fails the biblical smell test.”
DeYoung offers a clear window on the rootage of Wolfe’s narrowly drawn and grievance informed “research” as he writes “The message—that ethnicities shouldn’t mix, that heretics can be killed, that violent revolution is already justified, and that what our nation needs is a charismatic Caesar-like leader to raise our consciousness and galvanize the will of the people—may bear resemblance to certain blood-and-soil nationalisms of the 19th and 20th centuries, but it’s not a nationalism that honors and represents the name of Christ.” He concludes“Christian Nationalism isn’t the answer the church or our nation needs.” (DeYoung, Kevin, “The Rise of Right-Wing Wokeism”, Christian Living, Nov. 28,2022)
As a teenager, in the early 1960s, I recall sermons warning if John Kennedy were elected, our first Roman Catholic President, he would receive orders directly from the Pope and the Vatican. Fortunately, a majority of U.S. voters didn’t buy that argument. Today, the benefits of Kennedy’s presidency and the tragedy of his assassination continues to shape and haunt our national self-understanding.
In my early adulthood (late 1960s and early 1970s), I heard the black evangelist Tom Skinner preach. He said “All the pictures of Christ were pictures of an Anglo-Saxon, middle-class, Protestant Republican. There is no way that I can relate to that kind of Christ.” (See Jamar Tisby, Footnotes, October 24, 2023.). Skinner painted the image of a white Jesus wrapped in an American flag. He was saying “the Jesus long marketed by the American church wasn’t a faithful representation of the Jesus of the Gospels.” Teaching in a United Methodist school in the Republic of Panama in these years further sharpened my awareness. Skinner was right.
Today’s Christian Nationalism continues to market a fraudulent version of the Christ. It is often linked to the “great replacement” theory that rests on the notion that immigrants and nonwhite, nonChristian persons (especially “Jewish elites”), are engaged in an international plot to take power away from those with birthright privilege in the United States. Do you remember the torchlight parade and the chant “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017? Such entitlement beliefs are not only profoundly racist and antisemitic, but they are also neither faithful to U.S. history nor the Christian message.
Whether as Christians or patriotic Americans, or both, how shall we respond?
My friend, Lovett H. Weems, has outlined seven strategies “for responding to Christian Nationalism in measured and faithful ways.” (Leading Amidst Christian Nationalism, LEADING IDEAS, Lewis Center for Church Leadership, June 25, 2024). Weems offers a helpful overview especially reflecting on the church’s historic endorsement of a civil religion. He is clear about the dangerous ties to the racist agenda of many that Christian Nationalism brings. The strategies offered start with “Be Cautious” and conclude with advice to “Understand the broader social, historical and political landscape.” In between are calls to love of country, to be humble, to stay positive and focused, and to remind others that Christians are called to give witness. These are more a starting point than a guide.
Missed is an awareness of the multiple and diverse contexts and callings of Christian congregations. Few people understand this more than Weems. In many places a more robust response is appropriate. The cautious tone of these “strategies” reflects the tendency of many denominational leaders in recent years to avoid conflict. It reminds one of the crouching stances that have marked too many “leaders” in handling the recent divisions in United Methodism. Perhaps it is, as Weems admits, a “soft civil religion,” but it can none-the-less be misunderstood as a draping of the American flag across the shoulders of the cautious contemporary U.S. church. I suspect the author knows the suggestions offered focus more on what should be avoided and miss some options of what Can Be Done to faithfully respond to Christian Nationalism.
In future days I will offer what I believe may be more effectual responses. I close remembering the words of British Methodist leader Donald English when he said, “The world has enough salesmen of the Gospel. What we need is more free samples.”
It was Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who in speaking of her father, Teddy, said he wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening. I first heard this from my friend Thomas Lane Butts, a remarkable United Methodist pastor from Monroeville, Alabama. Yes, that Monroeville! In fact, over the decades Tom would have breakfast every week, at Hardees fast food restaurant, with Harper Lee. Yes, that Harper Lee!
It took a while to discover that Tom, who would often speak of “a bride at every wedding and corpse at every funeral,” had borrowed and reshaped the quote to his purpose. I remember Tom’s sonorous southern cadence as he would identify some attention-starved politician, bishop, power hungry legislator, university administrator or professor, or pompous preacher or rabbi, as one who fit the category.
My prayers in recent months often have been that a narcissism-neutralizer could be invented. It could be marketed as a humility-pepper-spray and deodorize any power-hungry-stench. I have prayed that an election, a court verdict, a news editorial, an honest phone call from a friend, a speeding ticket, a failed speech, or a glance in some other “reality mirror” might burst all pomposity balloons. I’ve looked in a few such mirrors myself over the years. I recall the Sunday I thought I had preached a fine sermon, and a woman took my hand at the door and said, “Every sermon you preach is better than the next.” Great timing – a glance in the reality mirror. I was remembering the true meaning and joy of worship.
My dream of some ego-adjusting-comeuppance is likely not to happen… probably can’t happen given all that is at play in our day. Our national-body-politic, gerrymandered-legislatures, embattled-universities, overly-cautious-conflicted-churches, profit-only-driven-corporations, or ideologically-ensconced-media-enterprises are in their own protective enclosures.
In the meantime, sadly, attention is taken from those who genuinely deserve our honor, memorials, respect and shared joy. Here is an invitation to you to join in remembering and celebrating those who have died, those getting married and all those we name as children of God.
Plastics are overwhelming our earth. Micro-plastic pollution is found in our drinking water, our food and even in our own blood streams. Every piece of plastic ever made is STILL in our environment. Amazing.
Today is also the beginning of Passover, Pesach. A time of remembering. A time to retell the story of what we are called to do and who we are to become as God’s people. It is a retelling of the escape from captivity. It is a time to reconsider where we have been and where we are going.Can we remember, turn around and move in another direction?
We have been living in a captivity to our hungers for extracted wealth from our earth, a tragic environmental Ponzi scheme, a plundering of nature — a using resources which should be set aside for our children and grand children. This over-exploitation has been increasing each year. We in the United States lead in extractive exploitation. If the entire world lived as we do it would take the resources of FIVE EARTHS to provide sufficiency.
We face the question today, how then shall we proceed?
Enter Wes Jackson — someone who has been thinking about this dilemma for four decades. Jackson is co-founder of the Land Institute in Salinas Kansas. Elaine and I stopped to visit back in 2019. I had read his work. I knew of his friendship with Wendell Berry; and, I confess to being more than a little star struck. After all Wes was one of the early recipients of a MacArthur Fellowship. I expected our visit to last an hour and then be on my way.
Wes Jackson and his “computer” July 2019
We talked through the entire morning and toured the institute research facilities and farm research plots in Salinas. (Other research goes on around the world where institute scientists are working to discover new paths of regenerative agriculture.)
I found in Wes a friend… and mentor — someone with a deep concern, clarity about his vocation and a surprising light-heartedness. He confessed the dilemmas we all face. The human contradictions faced as we move from our extractive and fossil-fuel based systems. We laughed often; spoke of authors who had influenced us (Ivan Illich, Walter Brueggemann) and spoke of the need for a broader dialogue between science and religion. I loved it when Wes brought out his “computer” to take notes. It turned out to be his old Underwood typewriter!
Wes Jackson was more than a farmer and scientist. He is a person who has done his theological reflection about our creatureliness and relationship with the ecosphere. There were more than two dozen scientists and interns at The Land Institute seeking to establish perennial polycultures, developing perennial grains, legumes and oilseed varieties that can be grown together replicating the patterns evident in native ecosystems.
Wes Jackson at Land Institute, July 2019
We stopped on a hillside and Jackson pointed out the native prairie grasses and the cultivated fields below. “Modern agriculture” he argued has been moving in ever more destructive ways for the past 10,000 years. The Green Revolution, and the heavy use of nitrogen fertilizers, did produce more in the short term; however at the same time they were depleting the resources of our soil, water and fossil fuels ever more rapidly.
In late June, we will come to Earth Overshoot Day. The day we have used up the energy needed to see us through a year without extracting more. It is a day when we can admit our captivity to oil and gas — and their extract — plastics. Forgive my saying it, but it is about theology. It is about who we are and where we are headed as we live before a God and who asks us to continue in the co-creation of our planet.
I give thanks for the true “master theologians” of our time like Wes Jackson. He told me he had been “excommunicated” from his United Methodist Church in Kansas several years earlier by a pastor who considered him a heretic. On this Earth Day, I wish the church had more heretics like him. Maybe with time it will. Whatever your theology — or even if you have none — let’s work to make this happen sooner rather than later.
This is also the beginning of Passover 2024. Pesach — a time to remember who we are and what it means to live with responsibility for our actions.
Changes in our behaviors must come if our grandchildren are to receive the gifts of this wonderful planet with which we have been blessed. We are using up our natural resources 1.75 times faster than they can be replenished!
I work up this morning, birds chirping outside. Good thing. It “beats the options” as they say. Sorting through “news” of the day, I read a strange, recurring theme – one word repeated in many places. The word? WOKE. It has been used in disparaging ways for a few years. In government, education, religion, and more there are warnings of the dangers of “woke-ness.”
Dozens of arguments in recent months seem to begin and end with stressing the dangers of being “woke.” Nothing much more. Just a label, a four-letter word that carries a dumptruck load of fear and grievance. Here are a few examples from this past week:
Bill Barr, former U.S. Attorney General, warns of “wokeness” as a reason he would support the former president, that grievance-filled ghost of an administration-past. Mr. Barr earlier called him “a grotesque embarrassment” but one idea had tipped the scales, had caused him to reverse. It was a concern about being W-O-K-E!
After 92% of the Indiana University faculty voted “no confidence” in President Pamela Whitten, sadly, the response from many was the claim this was ALL about “woke-ism in the academy.”
Well documented and tragic reports of the destruction coral reefs around the globe are presented. Sure enough, there it is – responses calling it “woke science.”
Pope Francis is viewed favorably by 3/4ths of American Catholics, even so, there are disgruntled ones, some bishops and cardinals, who call him the “woke pope.”
The newly formed “Global Methodists” are issuing warnings that upcoming United Methodist General Conference will be overrun by persons with “woke theologies.”
There is, of course, a history of how this word has evolved in use. For some it is a verb, as in the past tense of “wake.” Here it means to be alert, aware, attentive. A decade or more ago scholars began to employ it as an adjective common in African-American vernacular speech, as in an awareness of racial discrimination and prejudice. This was the threat – and the opportunity – presented to many who didn’t want to be awakened to the racism in our society.
The word was repurposed, turned inside out and upside down. It became a quick way to avoid dealing with the realities of discrimination in our society. It is a way to flood the zone with smoke – to hide and obscure the need for conversion. It gained currency as a powerful “code word” allowing the user to avoid thought or conversation. It avoids the hopes for a civil society. Rather than being alert to a new day, experience or danger, it is turned into a verbal cudgel. It becomes an imprecise way to avoid facing our nation’s history and bigotry. An avoidance mechanism. Our nation’s original sin of racism is dodged by using a single word. Nice trick – avoid and redirect the word as a weapon.
Critiquing something as “woke” is lazy. It is a way to obscure, suppress, and avoid any call to rethink the old assumptions and categories. It demonstrates that change is always resisted; it is difficult. What’s the old saw? Only a baby with a wet diaper is comfortable with change.
For a fine reflection on a Biblical way of understanding the importance of “woke” as a spiritual activity, look to Dr. William Lawrence’s, “When the Church Woke.” Bill, former dean of the Perkins School of Theology, points to the Biblical call for wokeness – it is about conversion, metanoia, deep personal and social change.
Glad I woke up this morning. I am reminded of Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
As with many things, one can choose the lazy path of chirping out the fearful words, “woke, woke” and avoid an honest, healthy way forward. Instead, one can let the smoke clear and choose to be woke in “hope, hope” shaped by active care for others and for the healthy and honest ways forward.
Perhaps I was six or seven when the question first came. What is “good” about Good Friday? Our lives are full of questions; or at least mine is. These days most of my questions are about more mundane things, like “How did those spots get on my shirt or on my necktie?” Any man over seventy-five will understand.
After more than seven decades, the more profound and intellectually jarring theological question about the goodness of Good Friday still stirs in my spirit. I don’t have the one right, true answer as many of my conservative friends suggest they have. The soup stains on my necktie are so much more easily explained.
Other friends, more secular searchers, ask, “Why a focus on the cross? Isn’t there a better, less violent, symbol?” Without answering, I think of all the modern-day crosses people bare. I have been with families after a painful death, a murder, a rape, or a drowning. There are realities of starvation, war, captivity, and financial ruin. Abuse and discrimination are crosses of a different sort. Sin is woven within the human condition. Evil is present. No matter our desires for something less violent and more velvet — there is brutality and death.
Catehdral de San Isidore in Argentina
I recall the historic theories of the atonement. Jesus’s death is portrayed as Ransom, Substitute (suffers for), Penal (suffers instead), Example, and Victor. Each theory today is understood in decidedly individualistic ways. It is a quid pro quo formula as in Jesus did this and I get some reward. Such theology appears deeply embedded in St. Paul’s perspective (I Corinthians 15 or II Corinthians 5).
It was my beloved New Testament professor, Robert Lyon, who challenged me to think beyond this; to think more deeply and widely. The word study he assigned me was on the word λύτρον, meaning either redemption or ransom (Mark 10:45 and Matthew 20:28). I can still see the twinkle in Bob’s eye as he said, “And the context? Who is this ransom for and why? What is the larger Biblical frame?” These were the years of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights struggles over racism and sexism. Bob wasn’t dismissing classic atonement theories out of hand; he was asking for more – for a deeper grasp of the whole of the scriptural story. What does “ransom” have to do with justice? What if this is bigger than an individualistic transactional act? What if it is transformational for the entirety of God’s purposes? What if it is not primarily about one’s personal “free of sin” credit card? What if it is for ALL and for the entire Creation!
Walter Brueggemann suggests we speak of the execution of Jesus rather than his crucifixion. ALL THINGS are seen as potentially redeemed and redeemable: corrupt institutions, the violence of every empire, the despoiling of creation. Brueggeman speaks of God’s purposes as displayed in the life of Jesus as prophetic imagination. He speaks of “the alternative world that God has promised, and that God is birthing before our very eyes.
For me, even with food stains on my shirt, the questions in my spirit find greater meaning. This is the GOOD in Good Friday – God’s promise displayed for all persons and all creation. If we have eyes to see it and the will to live into it.
Headlines from Bloomington, Indiana – Ides of March, 2024
Local woman wears a hardhat when outside in her yard; permanent jewelry store opens; wheelchairs available in state parks; and, seven in ten (7 in 10) pregnant women test positive for toxin found in weed killers.
Story one: Angela Connor, 64, has been doing battle with a pair of red shouldered hawks in her back yard. For over a year, the protective raptors have dive bombed down attacking her from behind when she is gardening. After suffering several attacks and lacerations from their talons a friend offered a remedy of sorts. “For some reason they don’t attack the white DeWalt hard hat” when I wear it she said.
Story two: “Permanent Jewelry Store opens in the Mall.” Is it the jewelry that is permanent? or is the store? I suspect neither. Perhaps my epistemological understanding of “permanence” needs an update.
Story three: Motorized wheelchairs are now available for free in many Indiana state parks. Good news. Thanks to the ADA this may be a permanent option — for a while at least!
Story four: Speaking of permanence and mobility, recent research finds four times more amounts of the poison dicamba in the urine of pregnant woman than was present ten years ago. In Indiana, we value healthy corn and soybean crops, (5.4 and 5.5 million acres respectively) and our lovely lawns. Are we choosing healthy corn and weed-free-yards over healthy children? Weed killer residue is carried in wind and water miles away from where it was applied.
Summary: I’m glad (sorta) that raptors are protected by federal law; in the future my impermanent body may still see natural beauty via a motorized convenience; I pray we learn to value healthy soybeans less and healthy children more. And, amid this cavalcade of news, I failed to mention the governor authorizes carrying of firearms in State House. That’s the news that’s “printed to fit” the majority sentiments from Indiana today.
Tears fall from her chin; she carries a never ending uneasiness. Ashamed she waits. In a nearby cell, he fidgets, knees bouncing uncontrollably, repentant without a path to forgiveness, he waits for a phone call. Both have made serious mistakes. Life-altering condemnation results, closing off future options. I do not know these two personally, but I can “see” them sitting alone, or with a cellmate, or standing in shackles in a courtroom. Such scenes continue across my state and our nation. Each person has a name, a history, a family, friends, and enemies waiting on the outside.
They have “done harm.” Some crimes are extremely serious, I understand. Much of the damage, however, has been done to themselves and their loved ones. This self-harm is often rooted in addiction or psychological illness. Some are dangerous to themselves and others. Sometimes, not always, these who sit and wait have journeyed through poverty, homelessness and/or abuse. We all lose. In Indiana alone the estimates are that opioid addictions cost the state between $4 billion and $5 billion in lost revenue, incarceration, and recovery expenses every year.
I write of “Rush County” jail more as metaphor than the actual place. There is a Rush County; Rushville, Indiana is the county seat. It is grand old town, where Wendell Willkie headquartered his 1940 campaign as the Republican candidate for the President. It is east and south of Indianapolis. Traveling south and east it is on the way to Cincinnati. With a population of roughly 6,200, it is like hundreds of towns dealing with the scourge of addiction and other illness. It is a symbol that across the board, once arrested, so many are rushed to vilification, only to languish in jail. It is quick judgement and slow justice. The wheels of our legal system grind ever more slowly as so many weep and wait for that phone call.
In Monroe County, my home, our jail is a disgrace – overcrowded, unhealthy, and understaffed. Monroe is regarded as one of the most progressive counties in Indiana, yet every month seems to find another incident reflecting the horrors of our jail. We have a fast train into jail and a slow walk to trial. This, despite a sheriff, judges and commissioners who diligently seek to change the situation and build a safer facility. It is already too late for so many.
Our county jail is only a few blocks from where I live. Walking along the sidewalk paralleling the jail I see scrawled messages in chalk or paint. These are messages of hope, love and encouragement to prisoners who can look out and see what friends and family have written.
Over my decades as a pastor, I have met with, walked alongside, and known far too many who are like the two persons imagined in the opening paragraph. I do not know names of those currently in Rush – or Monroe – County facilities. I do know these are not only imaginary. These exist, just as surely as you do, good reader. I know parents and spouses, children today who have loved ones being held, awaiting trial.
I may not know or understand all the “crimes,” but I do know there are currently over a half-million such persons held in over 5,000 local jails and youth detention centers in the U.S. There are another 1.5 to 2 million persons held in state and federal prisons. Our nation consistently has the highest incarceration rates in the world. Our practices still have the mark of primitive and counterproductive logic. It is built on monistic, either-or understandings of human behavior and psychology. It is not far removed from shameful practices of shunning, exclusion, and projecting our fears on the most vulnerable among us. Are there evil actors? – yes, of course. Might our systematic response be greatly flawed? – yes, of course.
Frankly, much of what continues is often based on simplistic theologies of good and evil that are subject to manipulation and misuse by the wealthy and powerful. We have become experts at isolation and seem to know very little about restoration. Our young believe our systems are rigged in favor of the wealthy. Are they not? I find myself thinking of the families who see loved ones locked up for minor crimes of addiction, while at the same time watch a former President of the U.S. use his power and wealth to manipulate the current court systems to avoid trials and dodge accountability.
We spend more than $182 billion on incarceration each year in the United States. Increasingly this is built on “for profit” prisons, that turn incarceration into a profit-making venture with the inmates as customers-without-a-choice facing exorbitant expenses for phone calls or other prison “benefits.”
I am far from being an expert on how to best address these concerns. There are many acronyms for efforts underway, already proposed and practiced. Over the years I have seen us turn to more flexible sentencing, home confinement, halfway houses, drug courts, mental health courts, restorative justice and/or restitution options, community service, etc. It is a complex system, filled with obstacles and some more enlightened practices. My appreciation for conscientious judges, defense and prosecuting attorneys, sheriffs, jail and police officers is enormous. I am grateful for, and applaud, all those who are pushing for reform, for a better way. Still, too many languish behind bars, weeping alone and waiting for that phone call.
Full text of Bloomington Rotary Reflection Notes 2-7-24 (Parts were edited out at presentation for brevity.)
Mark Twain once said: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
There is another side to this wisdom. For me, now that I am in my late 70s, I am often surprised by how little I know. Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson have written we need to often add an “Ignorance-based world view.” Philosophers call this the Principle of Clarity. The administration of Indiana University would benefit from a familiarity with this Principle of Clarity. Clearly the administration’s failure to support the Kinsey Institute and canceling of the exhibition of Palestinian artist Samia Halaby at the last minute after months of planning demonstrate an abandonment of Academic Freedom that is dependent on open conversation and dialogue.
I mention Wes Jackson in honor of our speaker today who, of course, offers much valued alternative perspectives on agriculture. Wes is a geneticist, farmer, winner of MacArthur Genius award for research on perennial polycultures at The Land Institute in Salina Kansas.
As we enter Black History month while facing continuing racism exhibited by candidates for the highest offices in our nation and in a world filled with violent problems that seem intractable, there is need for open-minded clarity. If you are like me, it is too easy to live in an information bubble, supported by confirmation biases. Without looking at events from multiple perspectives, it becomes easier to argue than to respectfully disagree. It leaves us in zero-sum worlds where an understanding the opposite person’s perspective and experiences are disregarded.
Last week, Traci Jovanovic offered a helpful word about knowledge of others related to the war in Gaza. It caused me to think of my second visit (of what I think are now six trips) to Israel/Palestine; this in the 1988. Mickey Mauer invited many civic, corporate, and religious leaders from Indianapolis. We met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in political, economic, and educational arenas. Near the end of trip, several of the Indy leaders held an unscheduled meeting seeking to come up with a solution they could offer after hearing from a few of the many sides in the region. It was 40th anniversary of State of Israel and in the early years of First Intifada.
My friends, these leaders, were going to suggest ways to fix things. After a few minutes, feeling discouraged by the well-intentioned naivete of some, I left the meeting and sat in the bar with our Israeli tour guide and Palestinian bus driver. We chuckled together about the well-meaning effort to find easy solutions to struggles that had gone on for decades, centuries, well… millennia. Indiana Jones movies were popular in those years. I recall the Palestinian bus driver saying, with a wink to the Israeli tour guide, “Well, maybe these Indiana Joneses can solve things. I wonder have they fixed all the problems in Indiana?”
Humility is a virtue that is enhanced by honoring the Principle of Clarity. For those of us who are Christians, it is worth noting that the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem have been entrusted to Muslim families for hundreds of years because the various “Christian” denominations and sects struggle and disagree over who should have what spaces in the church. Alas.
One of my friends over the years was Palestinian Christian Rev. Alex Awad. He worked with United Methodists who visited the region, was pastor of the East Jerusalem Baptist Church and taught at the Bethlehem Bible College. Several years ago, Rev. Awad suggested that perhaps the future will need something more connected at the grass roots, something deeper than politics. He said, “People must start dreaming about Palestinian and Jewish children playing together without refugee camps, segregation walls and tanks. Then we can truly call it a Holy Land.”
Israeli peace activist Amos Oz has written “I believe that if one person is watching a huge calamity, let’s say a conflagration, a fire, there are always three options. 1. Run away; 2. Write a very angry letter or hold a demonstration; 3. Bring a bucket of water and throw it on the fire, and if you don’t have a bucket, bring a glass, and if you don’t have a glass, use a teaspoon, everyone has a teaspoon.” In his book “How to Change the World” Oz suggests everyone can join The Order of the Teaspoon.
I am glad there are some people in this room working to find BIG SOLUTIONS to war and violence. There are also small things we can do, right here, now, at home. Welcoming the immigrant, finding shelter for the unhoused, saying no to racial prejudice and discrimination, seeking to mitigate domestic violence and gun play on our streets.
Jon Paul Dilts heads our club’s peace building committee. He reminded me that February is Rotary’s “Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention Month.” The February issue of Rotary Magazine offers several grass roots ways to seek clarity – to work across differences. Much of the brokenness in our world has been ongoing for centuries, millennia. Big steps and small ones toward peace are required.
I close with the wisdom of my friend Wes Jackson who said, “If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.”
Hands of the Strong 