1st Corinthians 13:4-7 New International Version (NIV)
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it
is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in
evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always
hopes, always perseveres.
A Problem Stated
The recent confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Donald
Trump’s choice to be an associate Justice on the Supreme Court, presents one
more example of the immoral and uncivil as white male patriarchy, i.e., white
men with power, seek to do all they can to regain white male dominance after
eight years of Barack Obama, the first black President of the United
States. More than just a reaction to the
Obama Administrations policies, the Trump presidency is a rejection of those
policies as a means to push back and reclaim an ideology of whiteness as a
dominant policy position. All administrations pursue their own policies
doctrines, and agendas, yet the Trump administration has gone so far to the
extreme right that its policies present a moral deficit, as it rapes the heart
and soul of the republic. The Trump
administration is purely an uncivil reaction to an administration which, for
the most part, had a profoundly ethical and civil discourse on politics. This was and is different from an
administration full of scandals, unethical practices and an indecent discourse
on politics. I would venture to say that
the Trump administration is the most nasty, corrupt administration I’ve seen in
my lifetime, even compared with Nixon and Watergate.
Of course, his supporters, the 30% or so of the electorate
will be with him even if, as he says, he shoots somebody on fifth avenue,
preferably in New York City. They believe and follow him as their messiah
noting that a few books such as Trump Prophesies by Mark Taylor are big sellers
on Amazon. For them, he can do no wrong.
I suppose his supporters feel some type of vindication after eight years of a
Black Man as President in the White House. Indeed, this is racism although only
a fool, the KKK, white nationalist or neo Nazi’s would admit it. This has been bad for the Democratic Party as
it lost over 1000 seats in legislatures across the country. Additionally, to make matters worse, the 30%
feel they were betrayed once again by the neo liberal politics of the Democrats
as they ran a White Woman after having a Black Man as President. I suppose if
Hillary Clinton had won the plantation, at some level would have been in
tatters.
Donald Trump is a product of betrayal and messiness by the
Democrats and other neo-liberal and progressive groups. I don’t think the Democrats had a way out,
particularly after their emails were hacked by the Russians at the behest of
the Trump campaign. Of course, unlike
the criminal operatives, in this era of the internet and Facebook, covered
their tracks well. What I mean by betrayal is that the Democrats political sin
was to run a Black man for president.
After 231 years of white male presidents any imagination or thought of a
Black Man being president beyond the shadows of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, segregation,
discrimination, a Civil Rights Movement and an assassination of a King were just
too much to bare for a white population indoctrinated as such. White male presidents
represented the power structure and the majority as ordained, in the minds of
the 30% by their god, bringing about a reflection on James Cone’s “The Cross
and the Lynching Tree.”[1]
Barack Obama, for all the good he did,
was perceived as a betrayal of those racial values Trump’s 30% believes
in. This was, for the 30%, ultimately a
perceived betrayal by the Democratic party to complicated, complex, and truncated
American values.
Because of a perceived betrayal Trump is allowed, even
encouraged by Fox, the first, at least in my recollection, propaganda media
machine and other media to be uncivil and undignified lacking any moral
compass. Yet we must not forget that all
of the networks, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox gave Mr. Trump $2 Billion Worth
of Free Media.[2] This comes after Les Moonves, Chairman of CBS
said, “It may not be good for America but it’s damn good for CBS.” For those old enough to remember Norman Lear’s,
“All in the Family”, he is Archie Bunker.
He is the real Archie Bunker the world has past by. This may be the reason so many folks like
him. He is their favorite sitcom
character. This would be funny, but it’s
for real, he is the U.S. President.
Of course, the Democratic party, with all its shortcomings,
typical of any human institutions, did have the courage and wherewithal to run
a Black Man and win two terms, this cannot be dismissed or discounted, as many
have ignored for commentaries on white fragility and power. On the other hand,
the Republican party would seem to have been weak on these matters and was ripe
for revenge politics as well as a politics of fragility, betrayal and
extremism. For a party which considered itself the standard bearer of
conservative religion, values voters and family values, i.e., Focus on the
Family, many wonder what happened to the morality and ethics of the Republican
party. White supremacy, white entitlement
and privilege has hallowed out the Republican party to a point where even
William F. Buckley would have left the Grand Old Party. To an extent, and this refers to the
constitution, the democracy and the republic, the Republican Party has also been
an actor of betrayal, but to a higher cause and promise which is the North Star
of nations and movements. To betray or resist unrighteousness becomes a love of
righteousness and the ground of hope.
While race and racism are an obvious challenge the deeper
more systemic issues which become the catalyst is the migration of wealth beginning
in the 1970’s[3] to
the 1% of the American population. It
now owns 99% of American wealth. This small group of families shape and contour
the politics and economy as fits their hopes, dreams and aspirations as
capitalism promotes. Particularly in
regard to the computer chip as the new means of production and the necessity of
fewer and fewer human beings to participate in the means of production. It is interesting that a correlation exists
between the struggle for black freedom and changes in means of production
beyond Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. Simply put, there are economic, political,
social and cultural implications stemming from black freedom which becomes a
cause of tensions bringing about a demise of hope in many as the worse of
humanity comes out.
Amidst a demise of hope, many people have given their last
for love of righteousness and in so doing betrayed unrighteousness. They have a
hope deep within their soul, motivating heart, mind and flesh, undergirded by grace,
holding steady a nation seemingly divided. Each of us must lean into this hope
as never before. This hope, the hope of
the ancestors, is the hope which resists the betrayal of righteousness and
love. It is a hope which hears those who have experienced injustice. This hope
becomes an invitation to address the concerns of the disinherited, the
dispossessed, the cries of children separated from their mothers and fathers,
those in housing crisis and those who are homeless, and those in the Muslim
Community who long for rest and peace, to name a few. It is the Trump
administration, the present iteration of the Republican party, not to let the
Democratic party of the hook, which represents a diminution of sorts as it
seemingly denies or rejects a higher calling which will overcome a fractured
politics. It is this higher calling that overcomes our present political
tribalism.
The history of the United States, at some point, was bound
to engage this present situation of tribalism. This seems to be recurring theme
of the American narrative, i.e., the American civil war, April 1861 to April
1865. It was, in my humble opinion, unavoidable. After generations of
enslavement, discrimination and oppression heaped upon a great, teaming and
sacred, even holy humanity, under the guise of a democracy and capitalism used
as a means to ensure primarily white male domination, the people, primarily the
indigenous community, women, black people, people of color, progressive whites,
and those of the LGBTQ community, anyone not oriented to the patriarchy of Mr.
Trump, VP Mike Pence, Sen. Orin Hatch, and just anointed associate Justice
Kavanaugh, have risen against this generational injustice. The narrative that
has victimized countless numbers of people now feels victimized.
According to a New York Times article of October 10, 2018,
written by Charles Blow, a New York Times Opinion Columnist entitled, White Male Victimization Anxiety, Trump represents all the
white men who feel they’re losing ground, the
ability to abuse, dominate, and oppress. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/opinion/trump-white-male-victimization.html, Trump, and I would add Kavanaugh’s
angry testimony in defense of his reputation regarding accusations of sexual
abuse by Christine Blasey Ford, represent “white male victimization syndrome”[4]
that has consumed modern American conservatism. White men who have for years
been the ones who have victimized women and minorities, now say they are
victimized when those who have been victimized by white men, and I would add
their systems, like the women who cornered Sen. Jeff Flake speak out. The
abuser now says that he is the abused when the one he abused speaks out saying,
no more. Yes, this is as strange as it
sounds
A Remedy to the
Problem
At this point coming from a perspective of the Beloved
Community, I would like to offer a possible remedy to the problem of tribalism
and the competing narratives which represent flesh and blood people, the
sacredness, even the holiness of God. I would like to offer hope, as a
self-interest of strategic hospitality and to attain allegiance, more so
loyalty, to that higher calling which persists in the soul of humanity, even as
humanity, the sacredness and holiness of God is disabled in the face of profound
injustice. And what is that higher calling but love, yes love. Love must have it say amidst a necessary hospitality,
the welcoming of righteousness, humbleness and grace into the heart of the
people of a nation deluded by its own image.
I feel at times that love is thought of as shallow, not firm
or strong in its approach, that it suffers at the hand of the abuser without
recourse. This is an interpretation of love, yet this interpretation has taken
on a type of truth not bathed in divine grace and mercy. Truth is, love is so, oh so much more. It is,
quite simply, the most intimate affair of divine cosmic intent. The love I
write of here is that love which maintains the movement of planets, instilling
the gravity which becomes the ground traversed. Yes, it is at times sacrificial
and it does suffer yet it is profoundly joyful and charismatic amidst
relational and interrelatedness yielding transformation as a byproduct of
cosmic mystical proportions of the soul. One cannot experience this love and
not be changed, transformed, made new. This love overcomes the hatred, stigma,
disdain and vile which inhabits the land. This love is not naivete about matters
of spirit and flesh, more so this love is engaged in persistence as love will have the final say in all things.
Considering this love, the question is, “How do we
love?” How do we live this love?
I would never presume to have the answers, in fact answers
tend to be fleeting on the matter of love. I will say that this love begins as
we first care for ourselves and others. As we begin to look at difference as an
enabler of those things precious, sacred, and divinely human. Our allegiance no
longer being to money, profit, intentional blindness and absence or risk
management to domination, that which is the root of evil, more so our first
allegiance is to love, and for this love we give our all. We must be consumed
by God’s love as opposed to the affairs of economy and thus become a new
creation, one which gives life to the human community and thus in the final
analysis to the earth and cosmos itself.
If we desire healing for the earth and ourselves as inhabitants and
offspring of the earth, a conclusion of wars, tribalism, global warming,
poverty, homelessness and the homeless crisis, love must be our highest
allegiance.
Love then should compel a reflection on actions past,
present and future to sincerely address the trajectory of human affairs. Coming
from a perspective of love those reflections, as a means toward justice will,
at points, impinge on the credibility of men such as Trump, Kavanaugh and white
males in general, yet grace, should bring about a new creation, an enlightened
soul which no longer views wealth from a materialistic aspect which defines
success as domination but a view which receives the highest success as love. I
think what I am calling for here is a politics of love, yes, real love. What I
advocate for is a politics which teaches people how to love, how to care and
how to build up the human community. It is a politics intent on caring for the
least of these regardless of status.
A politics of care for the least of these is
rooted in love for the other as in Jesus Christ and seeks to ascertain the
highest nobility of human aspirations. This politics is not about power and
influence as such, more so it is about grace and mercy moving as constituents
of the highest nobility.
[1]
James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, (Maryknoll Publishing, New York)
[2] $2
Billion Worth of Free Media for Donald Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html
accessed October 13, 2018.
[3] A
Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality accessed October 13,
2018.
[4]
Charles Blow, White Male Victimization Anxiety, Trump represents all the white
men who feel they’re losing ground https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/opinion/trump-white-male-victimization.html
accessed October 11, 2018.
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