What We Say

"The President is an apostate...an imposter...he is ruining the country....he is aiding our enemies....the President is a traitor"   So said the newspapers of our first President George Washington.1

During the Civil War the media said of President Abraham Lincoln, he was "an ape....a baboon...a buffoon...a clown....a usurper....a traitor....a tyrant....a monster....a charlatan...a bully.  His home town newspaper the Illinois State Register wrote, "How the greatest butchers of antiquity sink into insignificance when their crimes are contrasted with those of Abraham Lincoln."2

In recent weeks there has been a lot of concern about how we talk about and to each other in this country.  And there should be.  There has been much soul searching about our choice of words and the demeanor of our conversation about those with whom we disagree.

It’s easy and convenient to bash the media's passion for sensational conflict.  The print, television, radio and internet outlets are full of opportunities for pundits and prognosticators to yell at each other, not just disagreeing but questioning the opposition's worth as human beings.   Considering what our heroes Washington and Lincoln faced from the media of their day should we take comfort knowing that such language is nothing new in America?

Or….as my father would constantly remind me as I railed against the programing on the radio and television stations he would manage over a very successful 50 year career in broadcasting, "Mark you need to look in the mirror.  You the viewer determine what we put on the air.  You the viewer have all the power and it is there at the end of your fingertips.  If you don't like what you're hearing or seeing, turn it off or change the channel.  If people don't want to see or hear what we are programming we will know right away and change for we make it our business to broadcast what people want."

If that is the case what does the popularity of media conflict programming say about us and our desire to listen to and watch people yell at each other and put each other down as human beings?

More than a political or civic issue, the Christian tradition would suggest that how we talk to and about each other is a spiritual matter; "...let everyone be quick to listen and slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness…” (James 1:22-23) The old Arabic saying echoes this theme; "We were born with two ears and one tongue.  We should listen twice as much as we speak!"

Jesus insisted that how we treat each other is how we treat God; that's true in our families, that is true in our communities, that is true in the church.   How we speak to and about each other has everything to do with our spirituality; about the kids at school that don’t have friends and are unpopular; about the rumors and gossip we pass between ourselves at work, at school, at church or at home; about other members of our family.

Such an ethic might never make in in the media climate today but imagine what it would do for our families....our church...for our country.

1              George Washington's Legacy of Leadership,  A Ward Burian, Morgan James, 2007, p. 252

                George Washington, William Roscoe Thayer, Nabu Press, 2010, p. 219

                George Washington and the Origin of the American Presidency, Rozell, Pederson & Williams, Praeger,

                2000, pp. 189-190

2              Presidential Anecdotes, Paul F. Boller, ed., Penguin, 1981, pp. 122-146

The List

Richard Lawrence (1835 attempt on President Andrew Jackson)

John Wilkes Booth (1865 assassinated President Abraham Lincoln)

Charles J. Guiteau (1881 assassinated President James Garfield)

Leon Czolgosz (1901 assassinated President William McKinley)

John Schrank (1912 attempt on President Theodore Roosevelt)

Carl Weiss (1935 assassinated US Senator Huey Long)

Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola (1950 attempt on President Harry S. Truman)

Richard Paul Pavlick (December 12, 1960 attempt on President elect John F. Kennedy)

Lee Harvey Oswald (1963 assassinated President John F. Kennedy)

Norman Butler, Thomas Johnson and Talmadge Hayer (1965 assassinated Malcolm X)

James Earl Ray (1968 assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Sirhan Sirhan (1968 assassinated US Senator Robert F. Kennedy)

Arthur Bremer (1972 attempt on Presidential candidate George Wallace)

Samuel Byck (1974 attempt on President Richard Nixon, with hijacked plane to crash                into White House)

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (1975 attempt on President Gerald Ford)

Sara Jane More (1975 attempt on President Gerald Ford)

Dan White (1978 assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk)

John Hinckley (1981 attempt on President Ronald Reagan)

Casey Brezik (2010 attempt on Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, with knife)

Jared Lee Loughner (2011 attempt on US Representative Gabrielle Giffords)

The list is long.  Our nation has a long history of violence against its elected leaders, not to mention threats of violence and intimidation which are a daily occurrence for many of them.   Whether motivated by politics or insanity the assassins are mostly male and almost always use a gun.  

The events on January 8th, 2011 with the murder of 6 and the wounding of 14 during Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' "meet and greet" at a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona will occasion lots of soul searching. There will be all sorts of theorizing and analysis of this violence and there should be.  Does it reflect something wrong in our nation or our times?  Is there something we can change to prevent such mindless violence in the future?   Is there something wrong with us, inherent in our system, in ourselves?

Yet "the list" would suggest such a tragedy is not unique to our times.  Expanding it across history and national boundaries "the list" would be much, much longer.   Compared to much of the rest of the world our political process in the USA is extraordinarily peaceful and just.   This is not to diminish this most recent attack, nor to suggest that our political system is perfect.

Which may be why the assault on Representative Giffords so grieves the vast majority of us.  This is not the way it’s supposed to be in America.  We are better than this.   We resolve our politics with debate and at the ballot.   We've learned from our past.  Right?

We may have a long way to go to reach the dream of America, "land of the free, home of the brave".  There is no excuse for political violence but the power-mad, greedy and twisted seem always to find one.  

Where is God in such a world? 

We find God in the commitment to service, the faith and the courage of the three strangers who wrestled Jared Lee Loughner to the ground as he reached for another magazine of bullets; in Christina-Taylor Green the nine year old killed at the scene who recently elected to her student council wanted to learn more about public service; in Dorwin Stoddard (76) an active church leader who died protecting his wife from the bullets; in the emergency first responders, police, paramedics and Emergency Room personnel who saved lives that day and are dedicated to doing it again and again, each and every day.

For those of us who follow the teachings of a crucified God....assassinated by the political processes of Empire and religion...we know that the violence inflicted by "the list" and the agents of power and greed who continue to use political violence will never get the last word.    There are 2.2 billion followers of Jesus today.  How many even remember Pontus Pilate?

In our grief and anger over the events in Tucson let's not forget the thousands of average citizens who serve this nation in elected office who put themselves out into the public they serve with the desire to make our communities a better place.   Their politics may be right or wrong.  We may agree or disagree with their ideology and goals.  If we don't like them we can always vote them out of office.   Regardless, every one of us needs to pray for their success, health and safety.

Non Judgmental God

For those of us whose favorite Bible verse is “God is love” (I John 4:16) we tend to see the entire Canon of 66 books of the Protestant scripture through it as if the lens of a set of eyeglasses.  In so doing we ignore or dismiss a host of texts that suggest anything different than the unconditional, unqualified love of God.  Such as….

“Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14)

“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him…”  (Psalm 103:11)

 “….if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9)

“The Lord watches over all who love him but all the wicked he will destroy.” (Psalm 145:20)

Does every person receive God’s blessing and favor (salvation) or only those who believe (fear)?   Does God love some people more than others; “whom he favors”?   Is God’s love unqualified?  And if it isn’t what disqualifies you?

Most of us wrestle with these questions at some point or another as we get to know the Bible.

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) would suggest that God does not approve of lying, stealing, adultery or murder to name a few things.  Much of the Hebrew scripture will go on to define all sorts of behaviors that God finds offensive from shaving your beard (Leviticus 19:27) to sex with animals (Leviticus 18:23) to using false weight scales in the marketplace in order to cheat the buyer (Proverbs 11:1, Amos 8:5).  But then the New Testament ends with a list of those who will not get into heaven but will be thrown into the eternal fires of hell (Revelations 21:8).  The “God of wrath and judgment” isn’t only found in what we call the Old Testament. 

Based on verses in the Bible not everyone gets into heaven. (I Corinthians 6:9-10) That certainly doesn’t fit into our contemporary and commonly held theology of an all loving, all inclusive, all tolerant Divinity.  In the Biblical tradition sinners are punished (Exodus 32:25-28, Acts 5:1-11) and the evil destroyed (I Kings 18:20-40, Mark 13:19-20) In the Biblical tradition there are plenty of suggestions that we are going to get exactly what we deserve.  God destroys the earth with a flood (Genesis 7-9).   At the end of time we shall be held accountable for our actions in life (Revelations 21:12).  The apostle Paul concludes “You shall reap what you sow” (Galatians 6:7-9).     

But there is a parallel tradition as well throughout the Canon; you are not going to get what you deserve; mercy.

Abraham and Yahweh bargain over the fate of Sodom, God willing to bend his punishment if Abraham can find a few good men (Genesis 18:22-33, unfortunately he can’t!).  God sends Jonah to prophecy to the evil city Nineveh a word of judgment but holds out the possibility of forgiveness if they repent.  Just the thought of God sparing the evil Ninevites makes the prophet run away on a ship, through the belly of a whale, out into a desert to die.   When a merciful God spares the city “and all its animals” it drives Jonah to despair (Jonah4:8). 

In Hebrew scripture and New Testament we encounter a God looking for any excuse to forgive and begin the relationship over again; “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  He will not always accuse nor will he keep his anger forever.  He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”  (Psalm 103:8-10).  The ultimate expression of which is found on the cross “Father forgive them for they know not what they do…” (Luke 23:34).

As well as making the case that we are going to get what we deserve in and after life, it would seem that the Biblical tradition also asserts that we are not going to get what we deserve.  Even more confusing, if not amazing, is that the same source insists we are going to get exactly what we don’t deserve; grace.

Esau forgives Jacob (Genesis 33).  Elijah feeds a starving gentile widow and her son (I Kings 17:8-24).  Having betrayed every aspect of the Covenant with Yahweh God offers Israel a new one, a Covenant of the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-33).  Jesus preaches that the farmer should pay the worker a daily wage even if the worker has only been there an hour (Matthew 20:1-f).  Jesus heals without condition, prior to any confession of faith (Luke 13:10-17, John 9:1-F).  Jesus teaches that an insulted father welcomes the wayward son home with open arms (Luke 15:11-24).   Jesus insists that a gentile harlot so shamed that she gathers water in the hottest time of day rather than meet her peers at the well, a woman still living in sin, is offered eternal life (John 4).  Women and children, considered second class citizens and little more than the property of the male head of household, are honored as examples of faith (Matthew 19:14, John 12:1-8).  Samaritans dismissed as unclean by the pious of the day are held up as the true righteous (Luke 10:25-37); if we would love God we would love neighbor and it turns out everyone is a neighbor even the ones we’ve been taught to hate and exclude.

Judgment, mercy and grace run throughout the Judeo-Christian tradition. Which thread compels our attention, frames our interpretation and is the focus of our application probably says more about us than it does about God.  It would seem that from the Biblical tradition at least God is willing to hold those three themes in tension at the same time.   Which says a lot more about God than it does about us who so often seek to land on the theme of our choice to the exclusion of others in order to win a debate or justify a bias.