It’s What I Say
I used to despair at my loss of hair,
But I have learned the lesson Trump has dumped.
If I say, “Bald I ain’t.”
I ain’t!And I have divined,
No team of mine,
Regardless the score or the truth
Can ever possibly lose.
Month: November 2020
Readings in the Heart of Spiritual Politics
Larry Hart
This brief post suggest three books which I hope might prove helpful to you in reflecting on the crises of our time and “the heart of spiritual politics.” The first is my new book, Advent Meditations for a World on the Brink. The other two are by Pope Francis and deal with some of the largest issues of our day.
Advent Meditations
First of all, then, I am letting friends and contacts know I have just published a book of advent meditations on the internet that can be downloaded for free by going to the website of which this blog is an extension (the way of the awakening heart––larry hart) and clicking on the book menu.
Advent Meditations for a World on the Brink is about hope in a world that although created good and beautiful, is often full of difficulty and discouragement; and, now seems poised on the brink of apocalyptic catastrophe. The Biblical text for each meditation looks at those historical and linguistic elements that help shape its meaning, and that assist us in understanding the questions that swirl around messianic prophecy, the nativity, and how to live in a world on the brink. More important, it encourages personal involvement with the texts. There are four chapters with questions for individual and group reflection and an addendum exploring the New Testament’s sometimes puzzling use of messianic prophecy. Individuals or groups using World on the Brink for study and reflection are welcome to contact me regarding questions they may have either directly or through my website. Although this work is copyrighted you are free to print it out. The first Sunday of Advent is November 29th so that by reading leisurely (two to four pages a day) you should be able to easily cover a chapter a week, ending by Christmas day.
Two Encyclicals
I have been reading Pope Francis’s recent encyclical Fratelli Tutti. It is a wise and generous letter written not only for bishops as its designation as an encyclical would indicate, but as its title suggests, for all humanity. I am reading it, of course, in English as a book (Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. In its writing Francis resorts frequently to the use of the older word “charity” (caritas) for love. By “charity” Francis means what Christians understand as that form of love known in the original Greek New Testament as ἀγάπη, agapē. He says, “This charity, which is the heart of spiritual politics, is always a preferential love shown to those in greatest need; it undergirds everything we do on their behalf. It sees paths open up that are different from those of a soulless pragmatism. This gaze,” he goes on to observe, “is at the heart of the authentic spirit of politics (84-85).”
In a society in which people have lost the theological or philosophical ability to distinguish spiritual religion from religious institutions; or, indeed the capacity to grasp the distinction between secular and sacred, the idea of politics with an authentic Christian spirituality at its heart may seem a strange concept. It is however a stream of thought, or perhaps better an awareness, with it source in antiquity and traveling to and through the present. Politics, the art and wisdom of a community or polis (literally the city or city state) of achieving the highest possible good for both the community as a whole and its individual members. No wisdom tradition, no religion of depth, no authentic way has conceived of political and spiritual practice as two separate things.
I highly recommend you read Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity, and Social Friendship as well as, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. In this latter encyclical, actually prior in time, the pope critiques consumerism, irresponsible development, climate change, and the degradation of the environment. In Fratelli Tutti he focuses on contemporary social and economic problems and encourages an ideal world of human “fraternity” in which the goal is not unending growth in consumerism and unimaginable wealth for the very few, but sustainability for all which requires caring for the earth as our common home.
Christian Conscience and the Election
Larry Hart
I read the other day where 800 well known Christian evangelicals (including Billy Graham’s granddaughter and Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine) had signed a letter urging people to vote for Joe Biden. I regret very much that I did not have the opportunity to sign it myself; however, since I am neither an evangelical (I am a Christian and quite orthodox but not evangelical) nor of any account, not being asked was entirely understandable. So, I thought while no one who even knows me remotely has any doubt how I have voted, it appropriate to nevertheless take this last opportunity the day before the presidential election to urge everyone I know to vote for Joe Biden. Actually, more than appropriate I consider it a moral obligation. Here in brief, then, is why I do so.
At one time it was common for seminaries to make a distinction between “Practical Theology” and “Academic Theology.” Even as a student this never really made sense to me. For one thing it creates a false dichotomy between thought and action––a notion entirely foreign to the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 6:45). Beyond that it contributes to a compartmentalization of life that allows people to believe that if they are scrupulously moral, “super Christian,” in certain narrowly defined matters they are following Christ even though in other ways they are heartless and dishonest. It is this sort of ignorant thinking that leads people like Robert Jeffress, Pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Jerry Falwell, Jr., the now disgraced president of a fundamentalist university, and Franklin Graham, the hereditary oligarch of the Billy Graham Empire, to assert that Christians should vote for Donald Trump because of his policies although they cannot approve of his moral character. But to reiterate; act and thought cannot be separated. Bad character inevitably leads to bad policy––’by their fruit. . .”
For me, then, to talk about voting for Trump because of his policies is utter nonsense. Which policies, I wonder, would those be: Ripping children from their parents knowing, and not caring, they would never be reunited? Starving the elderly and children? Destroying the environment? Working to deny the poor and vulnerable adequate health care? Promoting racism and violence? Or, perhaps the policy of callousness so costly in human life here during the COVID 19 pandemic.
The mega church pastors who argue that a president’s character is irrelevant are simply wrong, and it is their own lack of character, craving for status, and financial greed that has led them to be so egregiously wrong. It is not simply that Trump is a bad character, but that he is void of any character in the positive sense of the word. It is not so much that he is immoral but that he is amoral. There is no questioning voice within him, nothing that calls him to goodness or ordinary human decency, much less to follow Christ’s cardinal imperatives of love, mercy, and kindness.
But the total absence of spiritual and moral character is not Donald Trump’s only disqualifying deficiency. He simply has not the competency for the work. The number of people of serious achievement who have worked around and with him in just the last four years who have found his intellectual capacity, education, and experience woefully lacking is astounding. It is this gross incompetency coupled with lack of character, and absence of human feeling, that renders him, in the words of his own family, such a “dangerous man.” As a general rule it can be somewhat dangerous to have a brain surgeon rebuild your car’s engine; or, a mechanic operate to remove a cancer from your brain––especially if neither has your genuine best interest at heart.
In short, Christian conscience and common sense compel me to encourage you in this way. My effort may of course be entirely futile––even among professed believers. As I recall something like 86% of German Christians and clergy were ardent supporters of Adolph Hitler. Nevertheless, this is the direction, whether embraced by few or many, in which I urge you.
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