Pray for peace

 

Tomorrow when you go to church--or if you don't go to church, wherever you go to think about the world beyond your front door--pray for true and lasting peace. This weary world needs it. This wounded planet weeps for it. And pray for peacemakers, in short supply when and where most needed. Thank you.

A Thanksgiving Prayer

 

A General Thanksgiving, from The Book of Common Prayer

Let us give thanks to God our Father for all his gifts so freely bestowed upon us.

For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and sky and sea.
We thank you, Lord.

For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women,
revealing the image of Christ,
We thank you, Lord.

For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and
our friends,
We thank you, Lord.

For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve,
We thank you, Lord.

For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play,
We thank you, Lord.

For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering
and faithful in adversity,
We thank you, Lord.

For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice,
We thank you, Lord.

For the communion of saints, in all times and places,
We thank you, Lord.

Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and
promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord;
To him be praise and glory, with you, O Father, and the
Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

Light that never fades

 

O Light that never fades, as the light of day now streams through these windows and floods this room, so let me open to Thee the windows of my heart, that all my life may be filled by the radiance of Thy presence. Let no corner of my being be unillumined by the light of Thy countenance. Let there be nothing within me to darken the brightness of the day. Let the Spirit of Him whose life was the light of all rule within my heart till eventide. Amen.

(John Baillie)

Truth shared

Sy Safransky is the founder and editor emeritus of The Sun, which publishes essays, stories, poems, etc., by current writers. The October, 2024 issue carries an essay he wrote in 1986, “Enemies of Freedom.” In it, Safransky recalls an incident from years earlier when the “liberal arts college dedicated to the habits of freedom” he attended banned a Communist from speaking on campus. Here us a paragraph in which he reflects not he meaning of freedom. I especially like the John Adams quote with which he concludes.

“I began to consider more keenly the perils of limiting dissent in a democracy, of skimping on freedom as if there where only so much to go around. The real patriots, it seemed to me, weren’t those who insisted that truth, their truth, had to be defended at any cost—or who suggested, with a wink at history, that our rights would best be protected by stripping us of a few. Democracy asks for a sturdier faith, asks us to trust that in the free discussion of ideas, truth will more often than not win out. What a dangerous notion, to those who pride above all else security and a predictable tomorrow. It is, after all, as risky as love! Yet, miraculously, among people of different backgrounds and temperaments, different races and religions—people as different as you and I—the spirit of truth somehow prevails. Not my truth or your truth, but something shared, an understanding among equals, at once mystical and practical, that allows us to live together. Like a friendship or a marriage, democracy depends on communication and trust; yes, we know the risks. ‘Virtue,’ as John Adams observed, ‘is not always amiable.’ If we’re free to love, we’re free to hate—free to be Communists and Nazis and Democrats and Republicans and every kind of fool. Adams also wisely advised, ‘There’s a danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with the power to endanger the public liberty.’”

In the evening we shall be examined on love, by Thomas Centolella

In the evening, we shall be examined on love.

And it won’t be multiple choice,

though some of us would prefer it that way.

Neither will be it be essay, which tempts us to run on

when we should be sticking to the point, if not together.

In the evening there will be implications

our fear will turn to complications. No cheating,

we’ll be told, and we’ll try to figure the cost of being true

to ourselves. In the evening, when the sky has turned

that certain blue, blue of exam books, blue of no more

daily evasions, we shall climb the hill as the light empties

and park our tired bodies on a bench above the city

and try to fill in the blanks. And we won’t be tested

like defendants on trial, cross-examined

till one of us breaks down, guilty as charged. No,

in the evening, after the day has refused to testify,

we shall be examined on Love, like students

who don’t recall signing up for the course

and now must take their orals, forced to speak for once

from the heart and not off the top of their heads.

And when the evening is over and it’s late,

the student body asleep, even the great teachers

retired for the night, we shall stay up

and run back over the questions, each in our own way:

what’s true, what’s false, what unknown quantity

will balance the equation, what it would mean many years from now

to look back and know

We did not fail.

The title/first line of this poem by American poet Thomas Centolella is a quote from late-16th-century mystic John of the Cross. It speaks to me today.

In the need of prayer...

I am grateful for all the day-after-the-election postings by Facebook friends offering hope and encouragement. I am striving to remember our Christian faith that, when all is complete, joy will transcend anger, love will overcome fear, community will replace division, and life will defeat death. I’ve preached those things, and I trust them.

But I also fear that we who do believe such positive things are entering a period of protracted struggle against the inhumane “principalities and powers of this present age.” I hope I am up to the challenges of our times.

Meantime, Thursday I will have surgery to remove what is, I hope, a benign mass on my left parotid (salivary) gland. It unsettles me to think about the surgeon making an incision just in front of my left ear lobe down to my neck, but that is what must happen to take care of this thing.

I will be asleep, of course. I trust I will wake up from my surgery, ready to do what I can do to heal.

We who are disappointed in how many of our fellow Americans voted yesterday may need to rest up to prepare for what’s ahead. To let others care for us the way our posts are caring for one another, so we can be strengthened to do whatever we can do to get us well.

I hope and pray our nation will wake up to the power of compassion and justice, and exercise them toward full health. And, I ask you to direct your good thoughts and/or prayers my way tomorrow as well. Thanks.

Competing yard signs; competing visions for our future

 

There’s a yard sign nearby that reads, “Trump…the Revenge Tour.” It suggests that a second Trump administration would be about visiting revenge on his enemies, real or imagined.

Lest we think that sign sounds more extreme that it really means, consider that last week Mr. Trump suggested that Liz Cheney belongs in front of a firing squad. His increasingly spiteful rhetoric tells us what would be on his mind if he moves back into the Oval Office.

Kamala Harris’s rhetoric makes it clear that governing our nation will be on her mind as our president. Many do not like her or her specific policies, but no one cannot deny the fact that she has never made so direct an attack on the very foundations of our republic as Mr. Trump and his allies are making over and over again.

Another nearby yard sign reads, “Harris for President…obviously.” The choice tomorrow is obvious to all who hold our country and its future dear.

Questions as November 7 approaches

 

Elon Musk warns that it’s going to hurt to get our nation’s financial house in order, doing it the way he wants to do it. I can sort of understand that, but I cannot accept it if more hurt is imposed on people who are hurting already, or on people just a paycheck or two away from hurting. And will his plan hurt the middle class, whose votes everyone wants? We deserve to know. Plus, I will not accept it if people in the top 1 or 2% are not also hurt—and I mean hurt, not just inconvenienced—by it. How will Mr. Musks plan hurt Mr. Musk? Tell me that, and I might be more interested in what he has to say.

The Haslam family has made billions off its chain of truck stops, enough to buy the Cleveland Browns several years ago. They have given over $6 million in the past couple of years to mostly conservative, Republican causes and candidates. At the same time, they are looking for a billion or two of tax money to build a new stadium for their Browns. Let me get this straight: they are looking for tax money from politicians who are for lower taxes and fiscal conservatism in order to subsidize their own enterprise?

One weather-caused disaster does not prove the entire climate is changing, but when such disasters start to add up, one on top of another, it may occur to those who are paying attention that something is not right. But adding up is what is happening…powerful storms, extended droughts, record high temperatures, nearly snowless Cleveland winters…and everyone knows it. It’s exactly what climate scientists have told us would happen. They have told us why it is happening, too. Why on earth would we even come close to electing a government that runs on climate change denial?

An essay on political name-calling

 

This morning's news is filled with self-righteous charges of name-calling flying back and forth between people who seem to enjoy name-calling. Whatever really was said, or was intended to be said, if it sounds even a little bit like name-calling, the other side (both sides) is on it with fury: "How dare you...!" 

 "The pot calls the kettle black," and the kettle responds in kind.

It's exhausting and demeaning, this style of politics. It won't do any good for me to call for a stop to it. I'd like to think we are better than this, but we aren't. Calling our adversary hurtful names just feels too good to abandon the practice.

My unplanned response to Donald Trump's rally yesterday

I just read about Mr. Trump's Madison Square Garden rally yesterday, and think the following, which I drafted last night, is as good a response to it as any. Maybe if some who spoke there had been in church with me yesterday, they'd have changed their tune...one can always hope!

We heard a great sermon yesterday morning about the ingathering God of the Christian scriptures. About the God who would rather gather us into one than scatter us into many. About the God who calls all people to be more gatherers than scatterers, who rejoices when the lost come home and the whole family celebrates with them. (I've moved beyond the sermon itself, but I was inspired.)

Leaders who want to bring people together around common issues and concerns seem to me to be a reflection of the God I heard proclaimed this morning. Leaders who want to scatter us into our various tribes seem not to be. People who want to be gathered and in community seem to me to be responding to this God more truly than are people who thrive on being scattered and isolated.

We must be careful, however, not to get derailed. When Martin Luther King, Jr., was preaching reconciliation of races in the beloved community, many accused him of being divisive. But, sounding divisive in the search of being truly reconciled is often a necessary step on the way to a healed community. It is not an end in itself, but a rough spot on the way to human wholeness. King's dream was not about divisions, but about a unity beyond all of our divisions. Dare our land still dream that dream?

Lord, show us all how to be a more faithful ingatherers of the human family, even when some accuse us of creating division. Teach us what to say and do to help create your beloved community. Amen.

Elon made me do it

I am voting this fall for the Harris-Walz ticket, for Sherrod Brown for Ohio’s United States Senator, and for Democrats down the entire ballot. I urge you to do the same wherever you live.

I am making this announcement (which will probably come as no surprise to anyone) at this time because Elon Musk is all in for Trump, MAGA, and the rest. I have neither Musk’s gazzilions nor his power nor his ego, but I am no less a citizen of these United States than he is. He has his reasons, and I have mine. He uses his voice, and I will use mine.

My reasons for supporting Harris and all are many. But I will keep this simple.

First, I like the kind of leadership she will exercise and many of the things she stands for and has promised to try to do when she occupies the Oval Office. Most important, I believe she will exercise power within the boundaries of our Constitution.

But second, I am absolutely certain that Mr. Trump and his allies will irreparably compromise our democracy if they are returned to power. Mr. Trump and his supporters at Project 2025 and elsewhere have plainly told us what they will do given another chance at it. Every day they tell us more, and it gets more extreme by the moment.

Let me ask you this: no matter how much you agree with the MAGA movement’s positions on the economy, or abortion, or Israel, or whatever else is important to you, is it worth abandoning over two centuries’ worth of American democratic government and replacing it with one man/one party rule? If it is, then have at it.

But if what matters to you is the United States of America and the republic for which (our flag) stands, then I cannot see how you can support Mr. Trump and the rest. If this election grants them total, unchecked power to do what they what to achieve the things you want, then the next thing they will do is to use that same power to do things you do not want, and perhaps against you yourself. History shows that that is how power works when it knows no limits. Always.

So, I am voting this fall for the Harris-Walz ticket, for Sherrod Brown for Ohio’s United States Senator, and for Democrats down the entire ballot. I urge you to do the same wherever you live.

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.