Signs of our time, hope for our future

Political signs are sprouting up in the neighborhoods around our retirement community, but not here, in our senior citizen neighborhood.

We are not permitted to place political or “social” signs anywhere on campus where they may be seen from the outside, including in the windows of the ranch home in which we live. The official justification for the prohibition is that allowing such signs would jeopardize our community’s non-profit status.

As I have been riding my bike through those surrounding neighborhoods, I’ve kept an informal tab of the signs in their lawns. Trump signs made a showing months ago (some had never come down!), and gradually have continued to increase along with other Republican party signs. Willoughby is an overwhelmingly Republican community, so that is no surprise.

More recently, Democratic party signs have begun to appear. There were not many Biden-Harris signs up before the party changed its ticket. Now Harris-Walz signs are beginning to show, still in the minority, but enough to lift my heart as I pedal by.

“Down-ballot” candidate signs are joining the fray. Bernie Moreno signs supporting his run for U.S. Senate are now being countered by Sherrod Brown signs as he seeks to hold on to his seat. Local and statehouse signs are in abundance, as well as Ohio Supreme Court signs. So far I’ve seen no signs related to the November ballot issue that would amend the Ohio State Constitution to reign in partisan gerrymandering, but I expect them to begin appearing soon.

It is a wondrous thing to ride slowly down an American street and ponder those signs and to try to imagine the people who might live in the houses that display them. I suspect none of the usual partisan stereotypes fits most of those residents.

I also wonder how neighbors with competing signs are getting along with each other. Political yard signs allow you to announce your preferences without directly confronting your neighbor with it. I suspect many of us like to display signs not only to influence others (which they may or may not do), but to take our stand in a relatively safe way.

I write “safe” because there’s little evidence people actually attack or try to harm neighbors or the property of neighbors with whom they differ. Neighbors may acknowledge their different perspectives without discussing them, or they may decide not to talk to one another, at least for a while. It’s an old tradition: I will let you know where I stand, but I want to keep my telling you one step removed from an actual interaction with you. I think that’s okay.

I also think it’s okay not to have a sign at all in your yard, which is true of the vast majority of yards in these neighborhoods. The private relationship between a voter and their ballot is not up for debate.

Riding my bike past all those signs makes me a little sad and a little angry, because posting them is a right that my retirement community is intent upon denying me. I may or may not choose to hang a sign in my window, but knowing I cannot do so deprives me of a liberty I’ve assumed for my entire lifetime.

As I said, the official reason for the sign prohibition is our community’s tax exempt status. Several of us believe this is as bogus argument: a sign in the window of the house I inhabit is obviously a statement of my position, not the position of the owner of the community itself.

Another justification that has been suggested is that our administration wants us to be one big happy family enjoying our retirement years in tranquility and harmony, safe from the decisions and divisions that troubled our lives up until this time. It’s as if being old means we can  no longer make our own decisions about how much difference and challenge we can stand, as if we need kept safe from feeling anything unpleasant or controversial.

Then, there’s marketing. It has been reported that there was at least one incident a few years ago (when signs were still permitted on our windows) wherein a prospective resident was turned off on us by them. I don’t know if it was political signs in general or signs for particular candidates that soured them on us.

I can understand that happening given reports that some Americans are choosing what state they will live in at least in part according to the political leanings of that state. On the other hand, political signs in our windows demonstrate this is a community that is alive and passionate about things that matter, things we are not somehow too old to concern ourselves with.

In an time when each party is out to convince the electorate that a victory by the other party would end our democracy (if not our country itself), political signs in yards are reassuring. Americans can still state their preferences freely and openly and, I continue to hope, safely. We are still one nation, often quietly seeking to influence one another but always committed to living together, no matter who wins our elections, and no matter how old we are.

And yes, even senior citizens are still citizens!

I really want to know what these Trump signs mean.

 

“Trump…Save America,” a yard sign implores.

And I wonder…save America from what? For what? Or for whom?

And, is Donald Trump responsible for salvation the way, say, Jesus Christ is held to be?

Another sign: “Trump…Take America Back”

But, back from what? Or from whom? And, once taken back, do what with America?

And what will the America taken back look like when he is done with it?

(Surely it’s not just, “Take America backwards,” is it?)

Please finish these sign-slogans for me, especially if you have these signs in your yard. I want to read the words that you hear coming after them. Thank you.

Happy Labor Day!

 

We have enjoyed a wonderful summer, despite the heat, humidity, and lack of helpful rains. Our lives are good, and on Labor Day I give thanks for all workers whose dedication to their jobs helps make our lives so easy and comfortable. May they enjoy the rewards of just wages and benefits, safe working conditions, accessible health care, and much-deserved time off--the necessary compensations that truly express society's appreciation to those whose work it depends upon.

Beware of piety for show

Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name.
   Your kingdom come.
   Your will be done,
     on earth as it is in heaven.
   Give us this day our daily bread.
   And forgive us our debts,
     as we also have forgiven our debtors.
   And do not bring us to the time of trial,
     but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.   --Jesus, in Matthew 6

More policy proposals, fewer personal attacks, please!

It will not surprise those who read this blog to learn that I support the Harris-Walz ticket for President and Vice President, Sherrod Brown for re-election to the Senate from Ohio, and Democrats all down the ballot. There are so many things the Trump-controlled Republican Party stands with with which I do not agree that I have no choice. Fortunately, I agree with most of what the Democratic Party stands for so I am happy to cast my ballot for Democrats in November.

Party politics is a challenge for me because I am not a fan of simplistic slogans and empty promises, and that’s what both parties seem to thrive on. Nor do I like fear-mongering and name-calling. I try myself not to engage in them, and I appreciate it when people treat me and my convictions with respect in return.

Though I support Democrats 100% this time around, I have found their convention to be filled with more noise than substance. I’d like more specifics about things like climate change, foreign policy, budgets, and gun legislation. But I know TV’s audience is easily bored, so I am not the person to consult about what works to capture and sustain interest.

I offer a special tip of the Guardian’s cap to Tim Walz for keeping his excellent acceptance speech mercifully short. Would that all the speakers learned that lesson!

Two Trump-sponsored emails lodge in my spam filter today, both signed by Mr. Trump himself, both asking for money.

This morning Mr. Trump noted that he is to sentenced in a month, and said: “But the fight is far from over. In just one month, all hell breaks loose when I’m sentenced by a corrupt judge-DESPITE NO CRIME!” Is it merely a prediction that all hell will break loose, or is it a call to arms?

Then, this afternoon, he promised that, “Together, we will DEMOLISH THE DEEP STATE and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Demolition is violent, and produces nothing but rubble. Can Mr. Trump tell us what we will put in the place of this deep state? My experience with Mr. Trump is that he is much better at destruction than at construction when it comes to governing.

Mr. Trump’s very own words make it easy for me to vote Democratic. I am an American patriot; I believe in the rule of law.

Calm before the storm?

 

I took a short bike ride late this afternoon through the neighborhood just east of our home. It’s a neighborhood I’ve ridden through many times over the last four years, so I know it quite well.

I was struck by an eerie calm as I rode into its web of streets, a calm such as I imagine one experiences in a hurricane’s eye. It’s always fairly quiet in that serene neighborhood, but this quiet was different…no breeze, no sound, no movement…none at all.

I live just a few miles from the south shore of the lake named Eire, where we’ve been through a few days of alternating sun and showers. It’s humid, and when the sun shines, it’s very warm. Then, thick clouds move in to tease us with a few drops of rain, and it’s still very warm.

For a few moments a few hours ago,I felt as if I was in between things bigger than I, bigger than the neighborhood, bigger than life itself. Like being in the eye of a storm of cosmic proportions.

A thought passed through my mind: what if every single person on earth could enter a place of calm, even if it’s an eerie calm, as quiet as this? Am I not indeed blessed, though for reasons I will never understand?

As I rode through the meandering streets, I noticed a few new Kamala Harris and Sherrod Brown signs springing up on lawns. They were joining the Donald Trump and Bernie Moreno signs that have been there for several weeks already, and which still are in the majority. Made my Democratic heart leap!

But what storms will follow this moment of calm? Perhaps next week’s convention in Chicago, and very likely the whole cataclysm of words and promises and events that will culminate in November’s election. I was in a calm destined not to last forever, heading toward a storm that may last the rest of my life.

And the old, once-popular, now sort of hokey-sounding prayer-song seeped through my helmet into my head: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”

Indeed.

(As I post this, it is finally raining the kind of rain we need. May it keep at it for several hours.)

Lord, I want to be a Christian, but…

Some followers of Jesus of Nazareth want to turn our United States of America into a “Christian nation.” By that they mean a nation that explicitly orders its life by a set of Christian principles and norms as determined and enforced by certain Christians.

            As a clergy member of the American Presbyterian/Reformed branch of the Christian Church, I am troubled by any program to impose some form of Christianity upon all 330+ million Americans. Our denomination has honored the constitutional and historical separation of church and state. For most Presbyterian Americans I know, a “wall” between church and state describes how the two institutions should relate to each other.

Recently, while I was thinking about church and state, an African American spiritual came to mind: “Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart.” And I found myself following that expression of desire with what I do not desire: “but I don’t want to live in a Christian nation.”

Questions about faith are intensely personal, especially for adolescents. They were as close to me as my beating teen-aged heart when I sang that spiritual around church camp fires decades ago. In my life-long search for answers, I found encouragement from friends who wanted to become more loving, holy, and Jesus-like Christians. Mine was a personal search carried out in a community of searchers and finders, a worldwide community called “the Church of Jesus Christ.”

I never considered that my search for my heart’s desire could be addressed by political powers or forces. I never felt the slightest inclination to ask the help of any branch of government at any level to help me figure out who I was, religiously or otherwise.

I still want to be a Christian, a faithful follower of Jesus. But I can only honestly pursue this desire in a religiously neutral and free nation where I can make my religious choices and carry out my religious commitments independent of, and at times in tension with, state influence.

I would not want our free nation to become a Christian nation—even if its Christianity were the sort of Christianity I espouse. Even if it were dominated by Christians governing according to the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) instead of according to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), I would not want it.

I oppose posting the Beatitudes in public schools with as much vigor as I oppose displaying the Commandments in them. Whether a religion of law or a religion of blessedness, it should not be promoted even indirectly, and certainly not in public educations’ classrooms. No particular religious faith should be supported in any way by the state or by the state’s tax dollars.

Remember how horrified we were when the mullahs took control of Iran? Those who want some so-called Christian equivalent to prevail in the USA will become our home-grown mullahs, wielding political power to make everyone conform to their lifestyles and values. They will visit oppression, hatred, recrimination, and punishment upon those who do not meet their standards.

Of course, there is a relationship between ethics and justice derived from religious convictions and political activity. We can bring our religious passion for the good to the public square for consideration by the people. But the people decide, via our system of government, what is best for us all as a nation. Such decision-making should not be forced upon us by the political power of religious organizations or by presumed revelations of divine will.

We Americans are not perfect, but the best of us have wanted us to be a welcoming homeland for all, without regard to religious persuasion or lack thereof. To abandon that ideal is to tear at the heart of who we are.