The United States seems
to be creeping towards becoming a totalitarian country. This movement is being (and has always been) fueled by an ideology that
favors whites over people of color, guns over lives, fundamentalism over
grace, fear over love, and the maintaining and increase of profit over everything
else.
Because
our country has lived in (relative) peace since 1945 many of us have grown
inured to the lessons of history. Totalitarianism and mob rule happened in 18th century
France, Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The
turning in and turning on of friends, family members, and neighbors happened in
those times and places, not in America (forgetting the less-violent, but no less
real Red Scare of the 1950s). Most of the world’s collapse of governments and
the ensuing insanity happened “there and then” and it could not possibly happen
here and now.
Because
our country has lived in (relative) prosperity we are certain the conditions of
Ethiopia, Central and South, America, southern Asia, or Haiti could never
happen here, not realizing that those conditions are created not just by
politics, but also by exploitation of the weak, the poor, the racially
marginalized, and by environmental changes that could alter life as we know it
in a heartbeat.
We decry abortion but not the economic and social conditions that make abortion a viable option. We want the baby to be born but we defend its death as an adult in routine traffic stops, while sleeping, jogging, or even a trip to the grocery store. My faith teaches me to oppose the ending of life before it begins, but ignores the means and conditions in how it lives or how it ends. We say “Blue Lives Matter” but apparently not when a Blue Life is ended by a white life with a semi-automatic weapon. But we do send “thoughts and prayers.” Equally frightening, a trend is occurring (actually re-occurring) to suppress voter rights and to make it illegal to even give water for those waiting in line, thus ignoring and contradicting Jesus’s own words, “When I was thirsty you gave me something to drink.”[1]
The faith I embraced for so many years, Evangelical Christianity, a faith I thought to be based on love, grace, inclusivity, has a dark counterpart. Historian Will Durant said of it, “It’s done devilish things, but it’s been basically beautiful.”[2]
Jimmy Carter wrote, “(T)he greatest challenge we face is the growing chasm between the rich and poor people on earth. There is not only a great disparity between the two, but the gap is steadily widening.”[3]
Totalitarianism
has only increased the conditions of injustice, racism, and wealth disparity.
Ultimately it has also damaged and destroyed its most fervent supporters. It is
based on, above all else, fear, fear there will not be enough money, land or
resources for all of us. The answers are complex and not easily reached, but
perhaps we can start with the admonition of the ancient Hebrew prophet Micah:
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
