I have been shocked (perhaps naively) by the recent acts of
violence in the United States; specifically, first, the home-grown terrorism of
the bombs mailed to prominent members of the Democratic Party as well as CNN
personalities who Donald Trump repeated call “fake news”, and second, the mass
murder at the Synagogue. The suspects in each of these cases were
apparently influenced by the statements of Donald Trump. It is important
to note that they are still suspects who are not guilty until they have due
process. However, it is undeniable that
Donald Trump has done a great deal to increase the further divide in a much-divided
country and has set groups of people against others. I specifically say groups as much of what he
says is categorizing people not as individuals but as classes and races and
groups such as transgendered.
This morning I read a fascinating article which was posted
by Lorna Harris on her Facebook wall. As
an aside, I finally discovered what the Facebook Wall is having heard people refer
to it for years and not understanding it is just when you post something on
your Facebook Page. But I digress. The article is entitled “Silence in the face
of evil” by Alan Bean and can be found
at https://baptistnews.com/article/silence-in-the-face-of-evil-learning-from-an-obscure-schoolteacher-who-urged-karl-barth-and-other-theologians-to-stand-in-solidarity-with-the-jews-in-nazi-Germany/?fbclid=IwAR2Q0rSXvzH_BLsTwZ8vYE21DgNHO0CXotE03r84wOinuUnRk5qw4xWlVNQ#.W9ci3WhKiUn
The link is good summary of the subject and speaks of
someone in pre-WW2 Germany, Elisabeth Schmitz, who encouraged Protestant leaders
such as Martin Niemöller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth to speak out
directly against Hitler and Nazi actions before the war. The author relates the silence of Protestant
leaders in pre-war Germany to what is happening in the United States today and criticizes
the religious leaders who support the President, “Trump is idolized by
one-third of the American population because he never mentions these realities.
In fact, he buries the guardians of memory under an avalanche of invective. The
German Church never acknowledged her (the churches) complicity with the
National Socialists, and the white churches of America are equally resistant to
truth.”
I am currently re-reading The Cry for Myth by Rollo May. In his analysis of the classic novel, The Great
Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the myth behind it, he argues that the Fitzgerald
was writing about the emptiness of the Jazz Age and that, “behind our loneliness
was the lack of authentic caring.” May notes
that Fitzgerald uses the “careless” on almost every page of the novel. He further holds that, “The word “care” should
be taken in its literal meaning: the ability of people to have compassion, to
communicate on deeper levels and to love each other…Tom and Daisy has no sense
of mercy, which expresses care and usually can be counted on to mitigate human
cruelty.”
May holds that the central theme of the novel is loneliness. Jay Gatsby was a “the proto-type of loneliness.” He was a self-made person and, “like all self-made
persons, he was cut off inwardly from and deep relationship.” This, it seems to me, to be exactly what and who
Donald Trump is. He revels in the persona
of the self-made man who achieved all he did himself with just a small million-dollar
loan from his father which, of course, he repaid. The recent revelation that he received
inestimably more (as least monetarily) from his father belies that foundation
of the Donald Trump myth. \
Trump is decidedly, in my mind, at base a lonely person who
must who seeks continually to be complemented outrageously by those around him
and to receive adulation by the adoring crowds at the endless rallies that have
continually been held since his election.
So, what is the response to what we see going on in the United
States. First, we have to realize it is not just in the United States. The seeds of what is being harvested there are
here in Canada and in the world today.
We must base our response on love which is the foundation of caring;
caring for others and for the world. We
are called as Christians to love our neighbours and, more to the point, to love
our enemies as impossible as that seems.
To love someone does not mean to blindly accept whatever they say or
do. We must show the love of Christ in
our prayers and actions; it is not enough to hold them in “our thoughts and
prayers” as is so often the response by those in leadership in our
countries. Prayers must be followed by
actions. We need to speak out when laws
are passed to divide rather than show caring for those who are on the margins
of society such as the decision there will be no more safe injection sites in
Ontario.
We are each on a journey, as I sign off each of these
musings. We are each on a journey but we do not journey
alone. We are on a journey where it is
possible to care for one another or to live out or a sense of loneliness and
futility as Jay Gatsby did. It is up to
each of us what that journey will be.
May
it be blessed.
