Seek Wisdom

God does not require His people to vote for Donald Trump.

In fact, I believe the opposite is true. 

I've been steeped in Proverbs since first or second grade. I memorized verses from Proverbs at the small fundamentalist camp where I spent my summers. I've reread the 31 chapters multiple times, sometimes spending a month reading a chapter each morning. 

The themes of Proverbs are clear: Seek wisdom. Avoid mockers and fools. Hold fast to truth. Don't fall prey to liars.  

I've had trouble reading Proverbs since 2015. That was the year I saw people I'd long loved and respected declaring allegiance to a man who, to me, epitomizes the proverbial fool. 

Just a small sampling:

• How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? (1:32)
• Whoever conceals hatred with lying lips and spreads slander is a fool. (10:18)
  
• The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. (12:15)
  
• Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult. (12:16)
• A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them. (14:3)
• It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. (20:3)
• Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end. (29:11)

There's endless evidence of Trump's lies, anger, mockery, insults and slander. No need to share that here. The wise can find it easily. Those not interested have already shut their ears. 

In the years since the 2016 election, I've had friends and family tell me "I know Donald Trump isn't always a good person, but God is using him to save our country."

I know the Old Testament described evil kings God used to punish his people. I'm not aware of any time when God used evil kings to save them. I've heard the suggestion that Trump is like King Cyrus. Cyrus was a pagan king (meaning he wasn't an Israelite) but was known as benevolent, compassionate, and sypathetic to the Hebrew faith. 

I'm not aware of any scripture that suggests God affirms our action in appointing evil leaders. In fact, the warnings are clear: stay away from fools. Their folly is a trap that will drag you into danger.

Back to Proverbs:

• Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm. (13:20
  
• Stay away from a fool, for you will not find knowledge on their lips. (14:7)
  
• Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool bent on folly. (17:12)
  
• Sending a message by the hands of a fool is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison. (26:6)

On Friday I happened on an interview between Marty Moss Coane of our local NPR station and Francis Collins, head of the NIH through four presidencies. I've done interviews myself with Moss Coane and find her a thoughtful questioner. I heard Francis Collins speak at a youth convention not long after he completed oversight of the Human Genome Program. The entire interview is worth hearing. It's a gentle, respectful conversation between a self-proclaimed atheist journalist and an internationally respected Christian scientist. The occasion for the interview was Collin's new book: The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust

Here's a sad statistic that jumped out at me in that conversation: between June of 2021 and March of 2022, 234,000 American deaths could have been prevented by free, readily-available vaccinations. That's over a quarter of a million people who died because of misinformation and casual lies. Folly on an unprecedented scale. Still unacknowledged. Still unaddressed. 

God does not require his people to vote for Donald Trump. He DOES require us to practice wisdom, to see the difference between lies and falsehood, to avoid mockers and fools. 

My husband Whitney has been listening to the Audible version of Liz Cheney's new book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning. I've long admired Cheney for her courage at the Republican Vice-Chair of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. She has been consistent in her insistence on accuracy about what happened, who was responsible, and what that means for our nation. despite death threats and political fallout in her latest run for office. As she said in her opening remarks at the first Select Committee hearing:

Donald Trump and his advisors knew that he had, in fact, lost the election. But, despite this, President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information – to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him. This was not true. . . .

President Trump ignored the rulings of our nation’s courts, he ignored his own campaign leadership, his White House staff, many Republican state officials, he ignored the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump invested millions of dollars of campaign funds purposely spreading false information, running ads he knew were false, and convincing millions of Americans that the election was corrupt and he was the true President. As you will see, this misinformation campaign provoked the violence on January 6th. . . . 

It was only after multiple hours of violence that President Trump finally released a video instructing the riotous mob to leave, and as he did so, he said to them: “We love you. You’re very special.” 

I'm troubled by pastors who say "all Christians must vote for Donald Trump." Is there anything in his example we would wish for our children or grandchildren?

I'm saddened when I hear Christians talk about radical Democrats closing churches and persecuting Christians. No one is closing churches. No one is persecuting Christians.

The greatest threat I see to American Christianity is abject hypocrisy and tragic folly. (Check Trumpism Is Emptying Churches. From what I can see, it's true).

A vote to oppose Trump is not an endorsement of his opponent, or of the Democratic platform. It's a vote to preserve the rule of law, and the peaceful transfer of power. And a repudiation of lies, folly and disrespect for law. 

Here's what Liz Cheney said earlier this month when she announced that she would vote for Kamala Harris:

“As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

We all have a role to play in this strange election season. Our children and grandchildren will wonder who we voted for. Non-Christians watching will wonder who we applauded. 

If we embrace folly, we'll continue to face the tragic consequences: lives lost, our nation in danger. The witness of American Christians damaged for generations. 

Only wisdom will save us. As Proverbs 2:12-15 tells us:

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, 
from men whose words are perverse, 
who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, 

who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, 

whose paths are crooked and devious in their ways. 

Here are some Christian groups speaking out against Donald Trump. 
This isn't an endorsement, but an invitation to consider:

• Vote Common Good
• Evangelicals for Democracy
• Faithful America
• Evangelicals for Harris
• Christians for Kamala 

Xenos: Us vs Them

One summer on family vacation, a grandson decided we should have a family Olympics to mirror the games unfolding that summer in Brazil.

The team names: Us and Them.

We had lots of amusing conversations and plenty of confusion. I remember asking repeatedly: "Am I an Us or a Them?" I think I was a Them, but still not quite sure.

When it comes to immigration: are we an Us, or a Them? 

I was 12 or 13 when I stumbled on the poem "Outwitted," by Edward Markham, a little known American poet born in Oregon in 1852: 

He drew a circle that shut me out--

Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:
         We drew a circle that took him in!

I copied it and memorized it quickly. Not so much because of the idea of heretic or rebel, but because I was captured by the idea that the circles others draw can be overcome by wider, intentional circles of love.

I believed it then. I believe it now. 

I've been saddened to hear Christian friends speak about immigrants as a dangerous "them", threatening and endangering a self-protective "us."

I've known many immigrants, from all corners of the globe. I've never felt threatened by any. Instead I'm grateful:

• For Hudson, the Ugandan refugee who helped me with my West Philly community garden, then came and shared the produce for dinner.
• For the Hmong families who joined our church and invited my husband and me to a celebration dinner in honor of a daughter they named after our own first daughter.
• For Tran, the Vietnamese refugee who helped me lead our Brownies in their camping trips, sitting by the fire after the girls were asleep, sharing stories of her years in a refugee camp. 
• For the immigrants I see in our church every week, adding their rich perspective to conversations over shared Sunday lunches. 

Some came through international refugee programs. Some won the immigration lottery. Some had work that paved the way to green cards. 

Others? I never ask. Current US avenues toward legal immigration are messy, broken, and in great need of reform. 

The Bible has much to say about our welcome of the exile, the stranger, the immigrant, the unknown "them." A quick review of the most forceful:

“You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien; for you were aliens in the land ” (Exodus 22:21)

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:34)

For the Lord your God...loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.  You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
(Deuteronomy 10:19:

‘Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’
(Deuteronomy 27:19)

Old Testament passages suggest that when it comes to "strangers," we are all in that group, and should treat others as we would like to be treated. 

Jesus makes the case even stronger: our acceptance of strangers is equal to our acceptance of him. Our denial of stranger is a denial of him and ample cause for his own denial of us. 

Read Matthew 25:31-46 carefully, prayerfully. Jesus challenged the "us" and "them" of the people who considered themselves chosen. He said there would come a a day of judgment that would not go as they expected. 

The word “xenos” in the original Greek, translated “stranger” in the Matthew passage, could also be translated foreigner, alien, sojourner, guest. It's the root of the word “xenophobia”: fear and hatred of strangers, foreigners, anything strange or foreign. 

Treatment of the "xenos", Jesus said, is the same as treatment of Jesus himself. 

There are plenty of arguments to be made for welcoming immigrants. 

Our economy has for centuries been dependent on immigrant labor, work ethic, ingenuity. 

Opposing arguments about immigrant crime have no basis in fact. For decades studies on the issue have shown immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes. Undocumented immigrants in particular do all they can to avoid any encounter with law enforcement. 

Non-citizens voting? The Heritage Foundation leaves no rock unturned in efforts to prove wide-scale illegal voting, but review of their data "shows just how extraordinarily rare noncitizen voting truly is."

The World Relief Corporation of the National Association of Evangelicals provides a six-session study: Discovering and Living God's Heart for Immigrants: A Guide to Welcoming the Stranger.  The study addresses issues raised above and more. 

But for Christians, our response to immigrants, legal or otherwise, ,can't be based on economic questions, protection of "our" way of life, or judgment of the motives of the strangers struggling to join us. Jesus suggests none of that matters. The deeper issue is love of neighbor: the command second only to love of God himself. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if churches spreading alarm about "illegal aliens" would take time to learn the facts and see what God has to say? 

If you're interested in learning more, spend some time with that World Relief study guide. 

If you hear people talk about "illegals," dangerous aliens, our borders overrun: ask for facts, sources, and offer that study guide. Or invite friends of family to read that Matthew 25 passage together. 

What I see in the Matthew 25 discussion of sheep and goats is Jesus' rebuke of the self-important, self-protective "us" vs "them." I hear him saying "don't assume you're the insiders, the chosen. You may be surprised."

The divisions will not go well for those most eager to divide. Jesus stands with the "them": the strangers, the foreigners, the "illegals", the xenos: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me."

Earlier posts on this subject: 

• Welcome the Stranger, January 28, 2024
  
• Walls, Welcome, Mercy, Law Sunday, August 28, 2016
  
• Epiphany and Filoxenia: Entertaining Angels, January 4, 2015

A movie that helped me see this more clearly: The Visitor 

A song that captures the questions of us and them. Who are the citizens? Where do we belong?

Sacred Solidarity

Happy Labor Day.

I've spent time this weekend thinking and praying about workers, Labor Day, and the strange political landscape we live in. 

I'm troubled at the way some politicians cater to foreign investors and their wealthiest donors.

The Trump tax cuts are failing badly,
Washington Post, May 31, 2019

I'm offended by assumptions that poverty is always the result of laziness. 

I'm saddened by Christians who celebrate and admire a presidential candidate born to excessive wealth, whose business model depends heavily on cheating workers, creditors, and political supporters. 

Looking back through earlier posts, I discovered I've written quite a lot about workers, wage theft and Labor Day. No need to repeat all that. The links are below. 

What's your own theology of work? Grace? God's provision for the poor?

The Bible has far more to say on this issue than on other topics most Christians I know prefer to focus on. There's certainly far more about wealth, poverty, work and treatment of workers than we hear about in our Sunday services. This weekend I stumbled on a website called The Theology of Work, and a page titled What Does the Bible Say About Wealth and Provision? It's long, but worth some study.  

Here's the section that most caught my attention:

We Are to Change the Organizations and Structures of Society

Christians are called to work not only at the small enterprise and person-to-person level in seeking to alleviate poverty, but also at the macro or structural level. The world contains resources enough to meet everyone’s needs. But the social, political and economic motivation and means to do so have never come together on a global scale. This too is a form of human sin and error. We are to be involved in changing the organizations and systems of provision and wealth in our societies. Although we may feel too small and insignificant, too far removed from the halls of power in our society, God has a habit of using outsiders and insignificant people to bring great economic changes in societies.

My own involvement in PA politics was a direct result of time spent with friends born into poverty, struggling to find a way out and too often trapped by structural roadblocks. I am still deeply involved with some of those friends, but after years of looking for ways to help on a personal level, I found myself challenged to look at political structures that cater to the wealthiest among us and fail our poorest children. 
It's interesting to consider that Jesus, the center of the Christian faith, was born in a carpenter's family, lived his early years as a refugee, surrounded himself with fishermen, and chose to die on a cross between two thieves. 

The Labor Cross, Fritz Eichenberg, 1954

In the Catholic faith the word "solidarity" is used often to describe Jesus' actions toward us and our required actions toward others. Just as Christ chose to embed himself in human form, chose to take on our troubles and live among us, Catholic teaching on solidarity insists we're called to do the same for others.

From Pope Francis: 

Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means combatting the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labor rights. It means confronting the destructive effects of the empire of money. (Pope Francis, On Fraternity and Social Friendship [Fratelli Tutti], no. 116)

Here's another way to approach it, from the United Church of Christ's Witness for Justice: 

To build solidarity is to entangle ourselves more deeply in the vulnerabilities of the world produced by injustice.  

I like that word "entangle." It's messy. It suggests we find ourselves caught and held together in ways we can't control. 

This Labor Day weekend, while thinking about the needs of workers, I've been fielding calls from a younger friend whose car died on Friday and whose family depends on her getting to work on Tuesday. "Entangled" suggests her problem is also mine. 

Jesus entangled his life with his friends and followers. So much so that he gave his life for them and all who follow after.

I have lots of questions. Not many answers:

• What does it mean for us to entangle our lives with workers struggling to build a sustainable life in an economy that rewards some people richly and leaves others struggling to survive?
• How can we travel through this world in ways that encourage and enrich the poorest, weariest workers we encounter?
• Where can our own actions, our votes, our voices, help end structural injustice? 
• How can we shop, travel, worship, give in ways that benefit workers most in need of help. rather than the wealthy who already have far more than they need?

I think maybe the first step in all of that is to make sure we step outside our safe bubble of belief and behavior, to know workers in different walks of life, different economic circumstances. Ideally, our congregations are places where that can happen. If not, maybe that's the first place to start. 

Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Collect for Labor Day, Book of Common Prayer p 261)

Earlier posts about work, workers and Labor Day

• Work, September 5, 2011
  
• How Much Does Justice Cost? September 1, 2013
• What Are Workers Worth? September 1, 2014
  
• Solidarity Forever: Love, Labor, Unions, September 6, 2015
• Workers and their Wages, September 4, 2016
• Labor Day Lament, Monday, September 7, 2020

Celebrating Summer Socialism

I've been trying hard this summer to spend more time outside. Life is short, summers are even shorter, and there are birds to see, trails to hike and a beautiful lake to kayak on just minutes from my house. 

Yesterday, skimming along on Marsh Creek Lake, I found myself thinking of how much I have to be thankful for and how my pleasure is multiplied by knowing the beauty around me is shared with many others. 

The lake itself is a reservoir created to provide water to communities in northern Chester County. It also helps moderate flooding in communities downriver on the beautiful Brandywine. The state park that surrounds the lake provides a summer day camp for local kids, boat rentals from spring through fall, fishing, a pool, lots of trails for hikers, bikers and horses, and a beautiful spot where on any pleasant evening there are lots of folks gathering to watch the sun set across the lake. 

The lake and the land surrounding it, all 1,784 acres, are owned by the people of Pennsylvania. From what I can tell, that's a form of socialism. 

Here's the Encyclopedia Britannica definition:

"Socialism, social and economic  doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another."

I've been thinking about socialism because last week former President Trump, campaigning here in Pennsylvania, called Kamala Harris an "incompetent socialist lunatic."  I'm not a fan of language that treats mental illness lightly, and I think there's plenty of evidence of Harris' competence, but for now my concern is the misuse of the word "socialist". 

I've been called a socialist myself in my work with Fair Districts PA. For a while I had a very active troll who regularly accused me of being "a radical libtard socialist commie." Socialism and communism are not the same, but it appears the terms are used interchangeably by people more interested in hurling insults than having a reasonable conversation. 

Both socialism and communism are broad, imprecise terms, as is capitalism. In reality there's no completely capitalist country and no completely socialist country. Most are somewhere on a continuum. Finland and Sweden are described as socialist nations, but spend time there and you'll see plenty of private businesses, lots of privately owned homes, cars, and boats, and all the individual freedoms we enjoy here in the US. And while the US is described as a capitalist country, about 28% of US land is publicly owned and more than 4/5ths of US adults were educated in public schools. 

I wrote about socialism, What We Share, back in November 2020, just after the last presidential election. I was puzzled at the great outcry of fear that the Biden-Harris administration would destroy our country with dangerous socialism. 

Since then a record-breaking number of new businesses have launched in what the Commerce Institute describes as an "entrepreneurial awakening." 

Forbes, one of the most trusted business magazines in the world, says the US economy is much stronger now than it was at the height of those warnings of socialist doom just four years ago. As of May 2024, these are the highlights of the Forbe's assessment, 

• Job stability is more pronounced than before the pandemic
• More workers receive substantial wage gains
• Household wealth far outpaces income
• Homeownership has expanded
• Households face lower debt burdens

From what I can tell, capitalism has done just fine under the Biden-Harris administration. At a June 2024 press conference on the US economy, Kristalina Gerogieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said

the U.S. economy .. .  has been remarkably strong. Activity and employment have exceeded expectations and the disinflation process has proven less costly than most feared.  The U.S. is the only G-20 economy whose GDP level now exceeds the pre-Pandemic level. 

The real question in our political debates, covered by distracting cries of "socialism," is this: who is the public-private continuum designed to benefit most? 

I remember seeing a short video clip from Elizabeth Warren a decade or more ago.  She was suggesting millionaires pay their fair share. And immediately attacked as a socialist. That label stuck but was never true. 

Socialism, taken too far, can be harmful. The same is true of unfettered capitalism. 

It's the fear surrounding socialism that puzzles me, the unfounded accusations, and  the weird idea that any policy that helps us all will ruin our economy. 

No doubt we'll be hearing plenty of accusations of socialism in the days ahead.  

What do people mean when they say it?

What policies are they objecting to? And why?

I'm not an economist, but I'll likely be looking more closely at economic policy as we move toward November. 

As I wrote in my post in 2020: 

There is no perfect economic structure. No perfect political system. Every human institution can fall prey to thugs, con artists, powerful, greedy people looking out for their own good.

But there will always be things we share.

Our lives are better, our communities safer, thanks to politicians who braved accusations of socialism to create social security, worker protections, regulations that protect our air and water. 

I'm thankful for them, and for others who initiated national and state parks, conservation areas, public libraries, safe, well-designed highways. 

Join me in enjoying those shared public goods in these last sweet days of summer.

And join me in pushing back against misleading, fear-based accusations.

                                      

Some earlier posts on money, budgets and economic policy: 

• Thoughts in the Presence of Fear, September 18, 2011
• What Matters, December 30, 2012
• Seeking Justice, January 20, 2013
• God's Economy: Muchness and Delight, May 24, 2015
• God’s Economy: What You Count, May 31, 2015
• What We Share, November 15, 2020,

Bad Faith Documentary / Good Faith Podcast

I recently attended a screening of a documentary called Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Unholy War on Democracy. I'd been hearing more and more about Project 2025, and praying more and more about the disconnect between what I read in my Bible every morning and what I hear from some Christian friends, relatives, and leaders. The film seemed a chance to gain some perspective, gather some facts, maybe see a way forward.

Ten minutes in I pulled out my cellphone and started taking notes:

Weyrich
Rushdooney
oil barons
T Cullen Davis
Elimination of corporate taxes
Shadow Nation ...

Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, Revolution of Values:
"The worst evils never present themselves as evil. They always present themselves as good."

By the end of the 88 minute documentary, I had scores of little notes typed into the notes app on my phone. My head was reeling. I felt a bit sick, a bit like crying. 

It was all so familiar, yet so very twisted. I've been in church, almost every Sunday, my entire life. My husband Whitney has worked in Christian ministry since he was 22. He retired last fall but even now he's consulting with an international ministry.

Those were people we know, quoting verses we've read, in support of destroying our nation. 

Sounds extreme? Here are my notes from a clip with Ken Peters, pastor of the Patriot Church in Knoxville, Tennessee:

The leftists are coming.
Good cannot unify with evil.
We're going into civil war.
Every home should have as many guns as possible.  

Steve Schmidt, a former Republican political strategist who worked with President George W Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Senator John McCain, warned that an autocratic end of democracy as we've know it is closer than we realize: 

What always happens, when you look at autocratic movements, is one guy is not enough to give it lift.
Is there a charismatic leader with the capacity to build a cult of personality? 100%. Donald Trump did that.

But that's not enough for an autocratic movement. You need to have a propaganda arm, and they have it.

But that's not enough. You need to have the cynicism of the elites, the most highly educated people in the country . . . who look at all of this and say "I can ride that tiger. I can manipulate these rubes who actually like this guy, to my own advantage."
Because at the core of an autocratic movement is no morality. In fact, it's immorality. Or amorality. Because it's about power.

And in pursuit of that power, history teaches us, terrible terrible things happen. 

I was so troubled by what I saw that I asked Whitney to watch it with me at home. So on Sunday evening we watched it together, then spent our normal Sunday evening prayer time praying for our nation, our churches, our family members caught in the web of anger, lies and power. 

Old Testament lament involved wearing rags and ashes, wailing loudly, going hungry. That's a bit how I feel every time I think of the content of that film.
But then I remember a comment from Rev. William Barber, minister, activist, leader of the New Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. Barber was one of the strongest voices in the film speaking out against Christian nationalism, yet also the one with the strongest message of hope. I went back again to capture what he said: 

I believe we're in the moment right now that's prime for a movement that leads us into a resurrection of America. And I believe if we do it right with love and justice many of the people who have put on Christian nationalism will take it off, will get born again, will see the gospel and its truth, and that's what gives me hope, even in America. 

I'm not an optimist, no, no. I'm full of Christian hope, which looks at the despair, and at the destruction, and at the denial, and at the deception and says they are real, but they don't have to have the last say.

 Is that possible? What would love and justice and hope look like in such a dangerous, divided time?

I've just started reading a book from InterVarsity Press, Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, by Caleb E Campbell. Campbell was once a neo-Nazi white nationalist, now pastor of a large non-denominational church in Phoenix, Arizona. He describes Christian nationalism as "the Leviathan, the ancient mythical sea monster that lives in the disordered abyss . . . a vivid symbol for cosmic chaos and the evil power that oppose the loving, orderly ways of God." 

I'll be writing in future posts about Campbell's ideas for a faithful, loving, hopeful way forward. But this week, I'm sharing a podcast I stumbled on, a conversation between Campbell and Curtis Chang, host of the Good Faith podcast and founder of  Redeeming Babel, begun in 2019 "to address three underlying theological problems driving the chaos and confusion of our current world": 

a mistaken spirituality of anxiety (interior)
a missing theology of organizations (institutional)
a misshapen approach to politics (societal)

Campbell describes the growing challenge of Christian nationalism in his community, his church. He describes the seductive invitation to "fight fire with fire" by picking up the sword:

"turn the other cheek only works, only gets you so far. Now we've got to play by their rules. And so they put down the way of the Messiah and pick up Machiavelli and say "the ends justify the means."

I've heard that when people I love explain their vote for Donald Trump. "Sure he's a mocking narcissist, a liar, a serial adulterer. But God can use him to fight fire with fire. And if guns are needed, well . . . didn't God call his people to pick up their swords and fight?"

There is dangerous division in our churches, our families, our communities.  

In the months ahead, that division will likely grow. 
I know thoughtful, well-informed people working hard to prevent potential chaos in the days ahead. Many of them worry that the violence of January 6 might be just a hint of what could come next. 
What's my role in this strange season in the life of our nation, and our Christian churches?

What's your role?

In the closing pages of Disarming Leviathan, Campbell says his book is not an invitation to engage in the culture wars surrounding us. "It is refusing to fight the war altogether, to lay down the way of the sword and pick up the way of the cross."

What does the way of the cross look like?

Campbell suggests spiritual formation, love and belonging, prayer, humble subversion.

I look forward to learning and sharing more. And I join William Barber in his prayer of hope:

I'm not an optimist, no, no. I'm full of Christian hope, which looks at the despair, and at the destruction, and at the denial, and at the deception and says they are real, but they don't have to have the last say.

 

𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘

Byron Borger of Hearts and Minds bookstore in York PA, offered a long, thoughtful review of Disarming Leviathan in his July 30 Booknotes. He's also offering a 20% discount- so please consider supporting his work and his faithful witness in that very divided county. 
Yes- I've posted in the past about the work of hope. Maintaining hope is a Biblical mandate and a continuing challenge. 

Defiant, Persistent, Prophetic Hope, July 2018
What I'd Give: Resolute Hope, January 2016
Perplexed, but still hopeful, January 2012

I've also posted my views of Donald Trump, some shared before he was elected president, some after. I pray for his safety and repentance but will never, ever understand how a follower of Christ could claim that God instructs his people to vote for someone so quick to mock and so very slow to listen.

Memory, Lament, Prayer, May 2017
Women's Voices, January 2017 
Maintain Justice, October 2016
Defending the Indefensible, October 2016
Workers and their Wages, September 2016
Election Fraud and Rigged Elections, August 2016

Embracing Equity: Project 2025 and PA School Funding

Lately I've been stumbling over references to something called Project 2025. I'm not big into conspiracy theories, so didn't pay much attention until I saw repeated mentions and warnings from columnists I respect. This week I tracked down the 900+ page Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, released in April,
2023. As the introduction explains:

The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative‌ Administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025. ...

History teaches that a President’s power to implement an agenda is at its apex during the Administration’s opening days. To execute requires a well-conceived, coordinated, unified plan and a trained and committed cadre of personnel to implement it... 

For conservatives to have a fighting chance to take on the Administrative State and reform our federal government, the work must start now. 

From start to finish, the Project 2025 mandate sets up an us-vs-them dynamic that mischaracterizes opponents and politicizes long-standing areas of settled bipartisan policy. The forward summary sets the tone: 

Contemporary elites ... repurposed the worst ingredients of 1970s “radical chic” to build the totalitarian cult known today as “The Great Awokening" .... The bad news today is that our political establishment and cultural elite have once again driven America toward decline. The good news is that we know the way out even though the challenges today are not what they were in the 1970s. Conservatives should be confident that we can rescue our kids, reclaim our culture, revive our economy, and defeat the anti-American Left—at home and abroad. We did it before and will do it again.

Over 400 individuals, from dozens of conservative foundations and other institutions, contributed to detailed plans to dismantle federal infrastructure and roll back efforts to promote equity and inclusion. The word equity appears throughout the document as a prime indicator of "woke" agendas in schools, land conservation, military oversight, health care, even the Treasury Department.

I'm doubtful I'll read the entire 900 some pages, but the parts I have read suggest the authors believe "equity" is an anti-Christian, anti-conservative, radical, racist, destructive concept.

What's so bad about equity? Here's a derisive summary from one of the contributing organizations, the Center for Renewing America: 

Equity: A forced equality of outcomes and a rejection of equality of opportunity. Equity contradicts the basic constitutional promise of equality under the law and instead requires identity-based prioritization (oppressed) or discrimination (oppressor) in hiring, distribution of benefits, services, government contracts, and any aspect of society where opportunity, resources, and power can be redistributed. 

The document would suggest that equity was a fairly recent evil, launched in the radical seventies but brought to fruition by Barack Obama and, even more, by President Joe Biden.

But here's what I read in Psalm 99:4 this morning (scholar-endorsed NIV translation):

The King is mighty, he loves justice—
    you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
    what is just and right.

The Hebrew word translated here as "equity" is meyshar (מֵישָׁר) an architectural term sometimes translated as level, at other times translated as fair. 

It's hard to be 100% certain of the translation of ancient words from a culture far different from our own. But read the prophetic books with a halfway open mind and you'll see very quickly that part of God's covenant involves treating others as we would want to be treated and ensuring that the least among us are provided for. 

Woe to those who mistreatment the poor, the defenseless, the needy, the stranger.

Woe to those who deprive workers their due, or hoard resources while others go hungry. 

That sounds like equity to me. Yet any hint of a leveled playing field seems offensive to the authors of Project 2025. 

I'll likely be writing more about Project 2025 and prophetic words that apply to current politics, but for today, to bring this closer to home: I've been grieving and praying this week about Pennsylvania budget discussions. The budget deadline was June 30. A final budget has yet to appear.

PA has had decades of inequitable, inadequate funding. A seven year school funding lawsuit ended over a year ago with a Commonwealth Court judge decision that current funding levels are inadequate and unlawful. A proposed budget would take partial steps toward a long-overdue remedy, but some PA leaders are holding out for a new voucher program, more money for tax credit scholarships, and a decrease in PA's flat income tax that would benefit PA's wealthiest earners while doing little to help lower wage earners. 

Press statements and social media posts rejecting proposed increases in funding insist instead on school choice and parent empowerment. 

Project 2025 lists that as the first agenda item in the section on education:

Advancing education freedom. Empowering families to choose among a diverse set of education options is key to reform and improved outcomes, and it can be achieved without establishing a new federal program. For example, portability of existing federal education spending to fund families directly or allowing federal tax credits to encourage voluntary contributions to K–12 education savings accounts managed by charitable nonprofits, could significantly advance education choice. (p322)

That all sounds great for hearts shaped by privilege and power. 

My own heart was shaped by loss, need and a deep gratitude for God's love for the poor and powerless.

I know, from my own experience and that of low-income friends: public funding of school choice may work well for families with two educated parents, ability to research and choose the best (elite) options, and finances available to make up the difference between funds provided and total funds needed.

Choice doesn't work so well for poor rural families where even the local public schools are a long bus ride away.

Or in regions where the only "choices" are small religious schools taught by uncertified teachers.

Or for English language learners whose parents don't speak English. 

Choice has little to offer special needs children rejected by private schools that can say "we don't serve kids like these."

It doesn't work well for children whose parents or guardians have no background or bandwidth to seek out options or fulfill private school requirements of volunteer hours.

There's plenty of evidence about the failures of vouchers and misuse of public dollars to provide parents with school choice. 

And when it comes to budget bottom lines? 

Every dollar spent on private school choice is a dollar less for Pennsylvania's hundreds of underfunded public schools. Many don't have libraries, auditoriums, music and art programs, full-time counselors or after school programs. 

Parents, teachers and PA school boards have been crying out for years for adequate, equitable school funding. Will they be heard this year, after decades of being ignored?

For today, NOW, as budget discussions continue, I ask your prayer. 

For wisdom for Pennsylvania's legislative leaders as they finalize the budget, for equity and justice in their school funding decisions, and, for us all, to see our own part in embracing equity and ensuring a more just future for every child, no matter who their parents are.