by Rev. James Briney
Lou Waters sent me an email the morning of November 6th, 2020, a half hour before he was to be interviewed about our Presidential election on a news radio program in Majorca. They picked the right guy. Early in his career as a Tucson television newsman, then as a founding anchor for a start-up cable news network the world came to know as CNN, Lou covered major political conventions and reported on significant global events. In anticipation of doing the interview with a broadcaster in Spain, Lou wrote to me about the election that: “It still feels like we’re all still waiting for the divorce court to decide who gets custody of us.”
Since the interview with Lou, a decisive and growing majority of voters determined who will become the next head of our large and diverse American family. My diverse family includes my daughter, Jen who is a family nurse practitioner in Colorado. She was thirteen when I married her mother who had been a single parent. My son, Juan is a carpenter in northern Michigan. He was born in a tomato field in Mexico. Through a lengthy adoption process, postponed by the events of 9-11, he became a member of our family as a young adult. On three occasions I have baptized one or more of his children. One Godparent is Vietnamese. Another is gay.
My family includes Mexicans, Africans, Japanese, and people of Native American and Jewish ancestry. My great aunt and uncle worked with Gandhi to build a hospital and a school while serving as missionaries in India for twenty-five years. In their retirement I lived with them from age four to five as they made do on a twenty-two dollar a month pension. My family represents a variety of religious views and includes a non-believer. In common with the United States of America, my family is comprised of individuals along the spectrum of identities, ages, opportunities, and predicaments.
The virus that is sickening and killing so many is keeping prudent families apart for holidays and other occasions. Yet families need not gather at a common table to engage in conversations that nourish relationships and feed souls. We all have a frame of reference. I am the product of divorced parents, fractured relationships and all sorts of experiences in ministry and in life that make real the possibility of reconciliation and healing. All families have the work of maintaining and repairing relationships. Our country has the work of governing and repairing alliances. Seasons of the Church such as Lent and Advent give us pause for self-examination and to anticipate, contemplate and celebrate things that matter.
Elections offer a kind of resurrection. So does public discourse when we evaluate sources of information that instruct our beliefs. Just as promoting herd immunity is political and medical malpractice, it is theological malpractice to sensationalize the manufactured war on Christmas, instead of addressing the real war on truth. Clergy fail their flocks, and laypersons their constituencies, when they abandon their integrity in favor of such calculated distractions. Commercializing Christmas and romanticizing Saint Valentine’s Day is the easy way out. The times call for us to do more than exchange gifts and go on a date.
Jesus says we must love one another as he loves us. He does not say that we have to like anyone. Even so, we are called to be one in his name. The significant rise in hate crimes is a stark reminder that we are in deep trouble and in need of bridging the political divide. Elections confront us with the necessity that our republic is worth fighting for and that our democracy is worth voting for. Mark Twain said that war is the way we learn about geography. Elections are the way we learn about democracy as a means to fulfill the intentions of our founders. We are not going to get there by agreeing to disagree or believing that perception is reality.
Addressing substantive issues in a factual forthright manner is the way to distinguish reality from perception. Every American is in jeopardy when facts don’t matter and numbers don’t count. Exaggeration is not progress. A few thousand is not more than a million. Yet that was asserted when adoring fans of the 45th President surrounded the motorcade escorting him to play golf in the aftermath of the election. They have yet to accept the reality of a free, fair and secure election result. The policies, practices and initiatives of leaders have merit when they stand the test of time in the light of day, not because they are contrary and entertaining. It’s time to change the channel.
Democracy is vulnerable when the electorate is susceptible to insidious and nefarious appeals aimed at our emotions and backed by unlimited financing. Charles Koch says it was a colossal mistake for him to have invested in a sensationalized ideological partisan bias. A problematic thing about our form of governance is that superficial answers to deeply ingrained problems tend to perpetuate imbalance and precipitate gridlock. Actions taken without regard for consequences are an invitation to entrenched resistance that borders on violence. The laws of physics apply to politics. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The rejoinder to scare tactics that re-stimulate the fears of immigrants, is pointing out that the United States is not becoming a socialist nation. We are the opposite of regimes they fled. Our capitalist economy creates jobs and incentivizes philanthropy that sustains generosity. Grants and gifts are distributed through community foundations and privately funded initiatives. Food banks and shelters, churches and rescue missions abound. The wealth of our nation empowers the formation of alliances that contribute to a strong defense against nations that exploit their people and restrict their opportunities. The outcome of recent elections give cause to expect the renewal of our alliances and the restoration of our reputation.
Being worthy of the privileges our country affords requires respect for those who came before. Those who made sacrifices to create our country, establish our traditions and secure our freedoms include patriots who became known as the Greatest Generation. They also became the entitlement generation that has enjoyed the fruits of their labor, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, personal investments, and inheritance. The promise of America is that such possibilities will become available to everyone, without anyone being denied through no fault of their own.
It seemed like a long time between the polls closing on November 3rd and when the President-elect was determined. The same goes for political campaigns. We complain they take too long. They do not. They last just long enough to enjoin significant participation, so the ideals that form the bedrock of our nation will endure. Likewise, we criticize the careers of public servants as lasting too long, when in fact they last no longer than voters choose for them to last.
It took every day of the recent election process for registered voters to show up and be counted in record numbers. It took the incoming 46th President of the United States a little more than half a century as an elected official to be recognized as worthy of the highest office voters confer. He will assume the Presidency having been elected to one term on the New Castle County Council, six terms in the United States Senate, two terms as Vice President—and three runs for the Presidency.
Lou Waters has witnessed and experienced being involved in deliberate ways that make a difference, having served with integrity as a reporter and as an elected official. Lou still chooses to be of service. Everyone is able to do what they will within their means. It all begins with noticing, caring, and doing something, instead of passing on an opportunity because it seems insignificant. The recent election indicates something about our intentions. But it will not unite us anymore than past elections made us post-racial. Becoming a more perfect union requires initiating relationships in good faith and with good intention.
Our violent divorce from the King of England led to a harmonious partnership. Our Civil War led to a prolonged trial separation. It need not take a war, armed revolution, or an insurrection to find our way forward. History is inviting us to renew our vow of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America. The gospel invites us to recognize all of creation as one, by embracing every soul as our sisters and brothers. There is no North, South, East, or West in the Kingdom of God, only the essential reality that we are one in the name of all that is holy. Nation states and political boundaries are not preeminent when it comes to figuring out what matters most.
Think about the influences you give your attention to. Just because an activist paints a slogan on a sign that says defund the police does not mean that eliminating funding for law enforcement is ever going to happen. It means it has become imperative to fund training for interventions that de-escalate non-violent encounters. For that to happen leaders in cooperation with all concerned must make distinctions. It is up to you to elect and support such candidates.
No one is exempt when it comes to making informed decisions that do not rely on talking points that incite fear and outrage. Identifying and allocating resources to protect and defend communities is the responsibility of the individuals you elect. You will find your way along the arc of history that bends toward justice when you strive to make the best use of what you know to be true, and make use of what you have. The quest for the government you deserve is never easy, or over.
My family manages to carry on and I trust that our country will too. As competent individuals fill vacancies in the government and reclaim institutional memory, I believe that our country will find ways to resolve the issues that threaten our security and undermine our democracy. As the new administration comes to power, and new Senators from the State of Georgia determine the disposition of the Senate, think about what you want for our nation and its place in the world. As history unfolds in turmoil keep in mind that Gandhi said: “A living faith will last in the blackest storm.”
Keeping faith is the intangible ingredient that bolsters our resolve ‘while we’re all still waiting’ to see how things turn out. Our democracy is in constant flux in terms of anticipation and outcomes. Always it is vulnerable. Living in hope in the midst of ‘the blackest storm’ is not naive when we embrace the resolve to carry on. There is reason to believe that all will be well—providing we do our part. In the fullness of time the past is ash and our future is dust. What we do in our time matters, for better or for worse. We are responsible for making America better. We are accountable for making ourselves better.
For the time being we know who has custody of us. We know how much damage a malevolent president and malicious presidency can do. The foreseeable future bodes well for good news to appear in updated reports awaited in Spain and around the world. When Lou Waters gives his next interview, I trust and pray that we will continue to care as much—and be as pleased—as the audience in Majorca.
