We are historically conscious people. We realize that the present and the future come to us out of our past. What happened yesterday — and what we did yesterday — shapes what happens today. What happens today, of course, shapes tomorrow.
We move along as we grow and change. In 1942, T. S. Eliot (1888 – 1965) wrote the following words in his poem Little Gidding: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” Eliot’s words inspired my blog “Another Voice” which I launched in 2010. My focus, as an historical theologian, has been contemporary religious and ethical issues. I am not all-knowing and readily admit that I am not infallible, but I do try to stay alert to new biblical and historical discoveries, and my eyes open to what is happening today.
A friendly reader suggested, once again, that I “avoid politics and stick to theology.” I understand his concern, but I would also stress that our contemporary Christian responsibility is to be critical observers about all aspects of our shared human life. Politics, especially today, warrants critical observation and commentary from a Christian values perspective.
So, we move on into the New Year…
In 2024, I hope that with all our voices we can discover the truth that is so often hidden or totally distorted in news reports, far-right and far-left political and religious rhetoric, and in social media. I am thinking right now, for example, about the billionaire megalomaniac who bought Twitter in October 2022 and transformed it into “X” which quickly became a haven for disinformation, white supremacism, and Neo-Nazi sympathizers.
Yes, we need to work together to combat ignorance. But as the Irish playwright and political activist, George Bernard Shaw (1850 – 1956), often said: “Beware of false knowledge. It is more dangerous than ignorance.” Authoritarian leaders, in their authoritarian dogmatism, thrive on false knowledge and denigrate — and often destroy — people anchored in critical observation and critical thinking.
Authoritarian dogmatism of course destroys democracy. The big challenge around the globe in 2024, will be selecting and promoting honest, well-informed, and critical-thinking leaders. In this new year we may very well see one of the starkest erosions of liberal democracy since the end of the Cold War.
In Europe, extreme nationalist and far-right parties are growing in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and even Finland and Sweden.
Globally, more voters than ever will head to the polls in 2024. At least 64 countries, representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world, will hold national elections. The results will be consequential for years to come.
In the United States, of course, elections are scheduled for November 5, 2024. On January 8th President Biden already launched his re-election campaign with a strong speech at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Meanwhile the 45th president and his far-right-Christian supporters have launched his re-election campaign, proclaiming him a “sent by God” messianic figure who will MAGA — “Make America Great Again.” Well, the election year 2024 is already in full swing. [Although many of his supporters believe the 45th president created the loaded slogan, MAGA, it was popularized by Ronald Reagan as a campaign slogan in his 1980 presidential campaign.]
Twenty twenty-four will truly be an historic U.S. election year. The people of the United States will be deciding if their country will remain a real democracy or succumb instead to neofascism and autocracy. During this presidential election year, the president and vice president will be elected. In addition, all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate will be contested to determine the membership of the 119th United States Congress.
We need to courageously denounce the purveyors of misinformation and absolute falsehood. As Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948) once famously said: “non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.” We need to support, defend, and encourage good leadership.
We need to help build and support communities of truth-seekers and truth-speakers, within our friendship groups, parish communities, and professional associates. As we do this, we must emphasize the key values for communities of trust and truth:
(1) A focus on the human heart not just the brain: stressing active care, concern, and compassion for others. Jesus stressed love of neighbor. He didn’t say “just think nice thoughts about the other.”
(2) An openness to the deeper dimensions of our human experience. Call this a kind of meditative spirituality. Reality is much richer and more amazing than many people realize. Creator is with us, calling us to be creative.
(3) A stress on critically questioning all the information that bombards us day and night. Is everything now relative and up for grabs? What does the search for truth mean today?
(4) A stress on the genuine human values of fairness, trustworthiness, and honesty.
My warmest regards as we journey into this New Year. We do not have to be pessimists. But we do have to be observant and thoughtful and constructive realists.
Jack
PS And I want to sincerely thank all who responded to my 2023 Another Voice annual appeal.
Thanks for an encouraging message, JA. I especially value your comments onactive care and compassion. Not words but action. Terry
Many thanks Terry
Jack
Unfortunately, the educated tend to talk with the educated and have difficulty engaging the less educated. Interviews from yesterday in Iowa confirm that the United States has a vast wasteland of uneducated, unsophisticated, and intellectually lazy voters. Motivating these unfortunate individuals to curiosity and the ability to discern truth from fiction is no small challenge. All one need do is look at the incredible percentage of Americans who are MAGA and believe that they are also living Christian lives.
A big challenge for certain!
Thanks Joe
Jack
Thank you, Jack, for your words of wisdom once again. Your opening comments imply the role we humans play in bringing about the “will of God.” God depends on us to work justice in our world. And we each have a role to play in bringing about that justice — namely, in voting, first of all. This is one way to help bring justice into our world. To separate politics from theology? Impossible, and to still call oneself Christian.
Thank you Mary!
Dear Jack,
Again, you have written a piece that I will not only keep but will pass on to others who seek common sense in the chaotic world in which we now live. You do not speak “political” truth but rather pastoral, spiritually uplifting truth which we desperately need. Sadly, we here in the U.S. see cynical manipulation of “Christian values” for political gain without the true living of those values as Jesus taught us. Please, Jack, keep on spreading your compassionate words and insights without fear of crossing into politics. We need in this intense year ahead to have voices of reason, balance, and faith as guideposts on the journey. May God bless you and keep you in the palm of His hand!
Peace,
Frank
Many sincere thanks Frank for your ongoing support!
Jack
Frank, thanks for underscoring “cynical manipulation of “Christian values” for political gain without the true living of those values as Jesus taught us.” Under the rubble in Gaza and in Ukraine, in this part of the world we could say that there Jesus is born, and wonder how the nativity narratives could so blithely continue as usual in our window decorations and our door wreaths. Truth is time-sensitive, so to speak, because what is true here and now about how we observe, decide, and act is different for people of other places and the “times” of their lives, so often cut tragically short by truth purveyors ensconced in security and signing shell casings.
Talk about the chaosmos… what do you say to your grandchildren? They see it, they fear it, maybe more than we realize, but where is another voice to speak to them above the commercial noisemakers and the nihilist deniers?
Dr. Jack, your second and third “key values” speak particularly to my struggle to expand receptivity and find new language that changes conversations about consciousness and conscience, i.e. : (2) meditative spirituality on a material reality that is much richer and more amazing than many people realize, especially when Creator is with us, calling us to be creative; and (3) the search for “truth” today.
Within and beyond the phenomena that impinge upon us, there resides the Ever Present Origin of all that is. The spirit of love makes all things new, novel, again and again without end. We can intuit the integration of what is happening, the present epiphany, with patient contemplation and trust, but of that we should speak to one another, find the words, do the deeds. For how real this epiphany is, an ego-less and non-subjective statement eludes precise descriptions, comparisons, creeds or analogies. Do we need yet another quantification in terms of material power or brute force or lopsidedly blind history? How about bold statements, for the sake of the fleshy-now, of the epiphany that is facing us, a diaphanous and spiritual truth, begging to be taken to heart? Most of our words are too hollow for conveying the meaning of all that is rushing us along.
For the sake of loving our grandchildren, I hope we can find, in one another’s voices, the new words that are beacons for digging through the rubble of what is happening, for sustaining life when we find it, and bringing new hope– hand to hand– for personal wholeness and social cohesion where the old civilization has crumbled once again.
The terrain has shifted under our feet, the sky itself threatens, so change is upon us. There is no two-dimensional vanishing point, only the central Now. This is where Jesus meets us, at the center, in his flesh that is ours too. Were I a better writer, I would spend twice as much time to say so much in half the time… but thank you all for this blog.