We See The Lies, We see where we are, Now What?
Where do we go from here?
Last summer, I had the wonderful chance to go back to the places I grew up, the place I loved the most and chose to live for a time, in the Southwest of the United Kingdom. I have a special place there, where I walk, and at the end of my meanderings through glorious sunny hills, speckled with spots of rain, I sat down on the hill underneath the American Museum at Claverton Down, looking over nature towards the small village in the distance.
That was a precious time of healing for me, because not only was I home, I called home. I saw my kids, I spoke to my husband, and I shared that moment with them, even though they couldn't be with me in person. We were together in spirit. I am so thankful I had that closure to my missionary kid and student life in England. It gave me perspective of where I had been, where I was, and where I was going.
We need such moments in life: times we can assess what has formed us into who we are, and times to assess what needs to change in our lives. This can be painful, but it is necessary for growth. It is also a special and restful process, when we can see how much God is doing and how God has blessed us. I believe we are at a similar place in our nation at the time of writing. It is painful, bittersweet, and full of promise. It's up to us what we do with it.
You see, it’s all very well to pinpoint bad ideas, offer repudiations and practical responses as solutions, but even voting for good leaders who would take into consideration these things is not going to save US.
We need a better Way than the direction we've been heading.
Please don't tune out due to my spiritual language here, I’m not going to say we all need to “get saved” or something. Clearly that has not healed our nation, and in many places, Christianity has genuinely made things far worse for people. These are realities the Christians must reckon with, and the American people are free to examine them honestly.
The solution I would propose is this: we need, as a people, to learn to love, forgive, walk in repentance, and set clear boundaries with the unrepentant who do harm to neighbor, as well as accept that we were not united as equals from our founding, and find ways to remedy that reality in the present, for the future.
The bottom line in all I’ve seen is we need to get honest as a community, and those who refuse to be honest need to be firmly and gently held accountable for it.
Here’s what I see: we are not united because a significant proportion of US are not willing to change, and there are some among us, particularly of the evangelical variety, who seem fine with not repenting, but bizarrely like to demand forgiveness and reconciliation despite this. We need a return to freedom to talk frankly about character issues in relationship, be honest about how the US was set up by racist colonizers, and an integrity that acknowledges we can’t change the past but we damn well have got to deal with it in community. We need to get to a point where we really are equal and where injustices have been equitably addressed. It’s not that hard to diagnose the obvious. But what are we going to do now to change our world?
I almost didn't know where to start today, given the nastiness of the Christian fundamentalist community that I see. The narcissistic foolishness that opens churches despite the risk of harm to local communities is a good explainer of how Christians could justify voting for a narcissistic abuser.
If we are going to heal as a nation, we can't keep tolerating narcissists as if their opinions and character are good for society. Not even if they scream religious freedom. We don't have to take away their rights to shun men like these, who lead people astray and do harm in their community. They can be ignored, marginalized, rebuked, and sidelined. Cancel culture was made for them, and it is righteous to remove ourselves and our attention from abusers.
Leave blind guides- don't even dignify them.
Formulas won't save US any more than the right leader can save US from ourselves, but I would suggest healing starts with expecting repentance from those who do harm- repentance or at minimum the insistence on change before any kind of relationship. THEN healing comes when we are able to grieve, without being kicked when we are down or expected to forgive the unrepentant or platform people who have not earned it by virtue of their love and leadership ability.
Our repentance as a nation is also needed, and this looks like acknowledging the grief of our native peoples, our Black population, acknowledging the sins of our forefathers who enslaved human beings, refusing to go on about abortion from a position of superiority, instead, learning to weep with those who weep. What we need in America is not found in many Christian circles, because it starts with basic and genuine empathy. It starts by seeing all people as human and worthy of dignity, to the point that it would be unacceptable to add to pain when someone is already in pain.
I've seen such cruelty from the American evangelicals and they must be rebuked, not coddled. I've seen them argue over the stupidest nonsense, while the world literally burns. "They must be silenced, because they are teaching things that ought not to be taught and throwing whole households into disarray." That's where we are with them. They are not leaders we must heed. It's time to lead ourselves instead.
It starts with repentance: that means change. Until Americans as a culture are dignifying all human lives, we are in danger. As long as some lives are worth less than others because they are poorer and not lucky enough to have been born here, or don't fit the conservative preferences for gender or sexuality, we have not repented and will continue to experience problems.
A lot of folks are focusing on stupid stuff and trivia while a lot of others are in real pain. That pain can't be fixed by emotional or intellectual assent to the evangelical gospel. That pain must be met with genuine love.
Where do we go from here?
We rebuke the loveless and we walk in love. Doesn't matter what the fundamentalists say or what they do to bring people down, nor what unjust laws they support, nor what kind of lawless thugs they cheer on our streets. We the people, Christian or otherwise, can love one another. We also do not need to tolerate or dignify those who refuse to love their neighbor. We have the freedom to walk away from those folks firmly and peacefully. Let no one shame you for this.
Let US seek peace and pursue it, doing everything in love.
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