My church--I will not tell you where--sponsored what came to be a three-part lecture from a known author about, well, I'm not sure. I think it was about being a citizen and professing one's faith. She's a well-known writer on gratitude, which of course we should all have. But I'm not sure she should have been called in to discuss the impact of politics.
The presentation rambled and wandered and did not reach a significant conclusion. The pastor thanked her for sharing her wisdom. I did not feel wiser. The pastor, I think, wants to dabble in politics without going real deep. You can't have it both ways, though.
It was a nice try, but all I really now know is that the author used to be a well-known young Republican in Arizona. Now she's seen the light, I guess. She certainly voted for Joe Biden.
She tried to equate, I think, being a good churchgoer with community, which according to her blended into political participation. I think. Except the vitality of democracy depends on voting, not belonging to a church, too. The two are not the same. They will never be.
I belong to a church because of spiritual choice, not to enhance my citizen chops. Yes, I think that a majority of the members share my political beliefs, or close to it, and that makes me more comfortable, so perhaps my tribalism is showing. I do know that if the opposite was true, I would go looking for another church. I don't have to tolerate people, at least a majority of them, who live in a world they have concocted, one they prefer, one that doesn't exist except in their own minds.
Within gatherings I prefer to attend, I would rather talk to others who believe facts and science and progress and what the Constitution really means--that within it, once again I say this, the original document (Article VI) notes that no religious test is necessary to hold public office. It was put there for a reason: That our religiosity is diverse and can't be centered on any one faith. Neither should it, though a disturbing number want it to be so.
Sorry, but we live in a secular state. Nobody's bible dictates how the government functions. The Constitution does, and should.
I know that an attitude like mine violates what Christianity is supposed to be--tolerating others with differing viewpoints. But politics crosses a territory, and then I get to discriminate if I want. Those on the other side of the fence can be obnoxiously condescending and cling to a belief that includes rigidity and answers already provided. I don't think that way and don't have to. I don't have to listen to it, either. I think it does damage to our political life and culture. And it annoys me.
I can go to church all the time, feel good about belonging to it, and never vote. I can vote every time and be an atheist. If one influences the other, so be it. But the influence isn't solid, directly connected, or implicit.
The author said that her former church in Alexandria, Virginia, used to be flag-waving and conservative as any other church could be. She said that there was a pro-Reagan sign put up amidst the three typically symbolic crosses on a church lawn in the 1980s. That should never have happened, but she did not discuss rise of the Moral Majority that provided an excuse for it, that has to a large extent led us to someone who now openly manipulates the attachment of beliefs to personal loyalty, who held a bible upside down (great, inadvertent symbolism) to somehow try to counteract protestors against black people being murdered by police. That so many people were taken with it simply says that, as we have seen so much recently, people can attach religious devotion to any other pursuit and justify it. There is enough in the Christian bible to find something there out of context.
Then the same people changed their minds, she said, and began to promote liberal causes some ten years later. She suggested, therefore, that we don't give up on people who think differently than us, that someday they will come around. Thing is, it was a congregation with the same name but were they the same people? I wonder. And isn't that what some of them are thinking?
That it happened to her in Alexandria, Virginia, means that, as we have seen, Virginia has turned on itself and is now remarkably blue. There has been no discussion during the campaign that it is even close to carrying for 45. He's not campaigning there.
What happened in Alexandria happened in many areas within the state, and the city itself has gone from a nearly rural exurb to a genuine suburb of Washington, DC, with lots of old and new money combining. Ironically, the District is the safest, most idyllic place for liberals to function. No doubt they spilled over into Alexandria, a short Metro stop away. I'm more confident that's what happened to that congregation.
Then take Wisconsin. It is the poster child for Republican gerrymandering, both federal and state. It protects itself against a blue majority. The Republican-held legislature hasn't met since April. April. No discussion. No proposals, No legislation. Nothing.
The attitude of the Wisconsin Republican Party toward the pandemic has become filled with despair and complete acceptance of helplessness, connected with religion: "God is in control." Don't give up? That's what giving up means to them: Connect it with religion, and you can excuse not wearing masks or following a governor's executive order. You can justify the utter irresponsibility. Now, Wisconsin's percentage of positive testing has hit an all-time high. God's in charge here. We can't help it.
We must be really bad people, I guess. Or there are too many stupid, stubborn people who won't wear masks. Either way, Wisconsin's infection rate is at an all-time high.
There is a guy running for the state legislature in the Minocqua area--"up north" as the locals put it--who has simply decided not to waste his time trying to convince those who oppose him; they aren't worth the effort (saw this on Facebook). The author we heard should talk to him. He has concluded, as I have, that it is useless to talk to people with such a conjured sense of reality. To be persuaded, one must agree non a basic set of facts that are undeniable. They don't.
The author believes that politics comes from community. I disagree. Community, in its essence, emerges from consensus--unarguable conclusions about the state of things, from which all can move together in harmony. We are not at that moment. Politics, in its purest form, is a competition for access to power. If one side doesn't think it can achieve that, it is forced to compromise to get part of what it wants.
The Constitutional Convention, if one reads about it, is a perfect example of that. The splitting of legislative power between the states and the people, the Senate and the House, was a workmanlike conclusion made after days of deadlock. No consensus could be reached. It had to be addressed. The legislature was a white elephant, completely useless. The nation could not move forward without major adjustments.
Nobody wanted to compromise. They had to. It is not preferable; consensus is. But when there's no general agreement, politics takes over. Deals are made. People exhale and move on.
I don't want my church to be that kind of place. I want to think about spiritual things there, things nobody needs to argue about. I want them to be separate from political matters of state and locality. Jefferson was right about that "wall of separation": it serves the polity correctly and prevents the state from establishing religion--any religion. They saw the problem back then. It was simpler to wall religion off, lest it infect political thinking.
But 45 milks religion to appeal to emotion and personal loyalty, even though he's clearly not religious. Michael Cohen said as much in his book: 45 plays along with the faith healers to get their vote and those of their adherents. He has appointed a handmaiden to the Supreme Court for exactly that reason. He doesn't mean or follow any of it. Too many people are too easily taken in by it.
We should be smarter than that. Joe Biden is a practicing Catholic, but he can separate political issues from beliefs. So could just about every other president we've ever had.
It's another way Joe Biden is simply normal and 45 isn't. Your vote should be obvious. Please do so if you haven't already.
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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