In the first church I served, there was a prominent member who objected strenuously to this line, especially the part about threatening death to the planet. He was a horticulturist who had spent much time developing beautiful new varieties of flowers. Perhaps some people threatened the planet, but certainly not him. He loved the natural world and spent his entire professional life cultivating it.
I pointed out that he drove a car that burned fossil fuels and lived in a very nice home that also consumed large amounts of energy. The very horticultural work he so loved made liberal use of pesticides and fertilizers. Many of these had been found harmful to the environment, and even the most benign of them create problems such as nutrients concentrating in watersheds.
None of this changed his mind one iota. He loved nature and the planet and would never do anything to hurt them. His sense of who he was would not allow him to see any other possibility. In theological terms, he was too certain that he was good to consider himself a sinner.
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A piece in today's Style section - yes, Style section - of The Washington Post began with this. "Our belief in the national image is astonishingly resilient. Over more than two centuries, our conviction that we are a benign people, with only the best of intentions, has absorbed the blows of darker truths, and returned unassailable." ("Senate report's real question: Who are we?") The piece wonders whether our self image of a good and noble nation can survive the unveiling of the torture and brutality we are willing to inflict on others for our benefit.
Clearly some will have no trouble holding on the best image of America. Fox News' Andrea Tantaros became something of an internet sensation with her response to the Senate report. "The United States of America is awesome! We are awesome!" But such a response does seem more difficult if you actually read parts of the report, when you realize that torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners that could actually cause death were sanctioned and approved by our leaders (and is still defended by some). This was not a rogue event of something from the pages of history.
We have come to a critical moment in the debate about torture. It’s no longer possible, as it was when the images of Abu Ghraib emerged in 2004, to pretend that these events were rare, exceptional or the work of a few rogue agents. Nor will it be easy to assimilate them into that beloved average image of our national goodness. We are confronted with our own barbarity, as we have been confronted with the barbarity of the Islamic State. We torture, they behead. We beat men senseless, slam their heads into walls, strip them naked and leave them to die, while they march men into a field and put bullets in their heads. We might still cling to the idea that our crimes are not quite so bad as theirs. But to quibble over the degree of cruelty we tolerate is to acknowledge that cruelty is now standard practice.And if cruelty is now standard practice, if this is what we've become, surely we must take a fresh look at ourselves and see that we are not who we imagine.
Philip Kennicott, the writer of this piece, thinks so. I am not so sure. I agree with his assessment that this should force us to rethink our "awesome" self image. But then I remember that member from my first church. And I recall Reinhold Niebuhr's words about "immoral society," that I referenced just two posts previous. The self-deceptive power of sin is even more problematic for societies than for individuals. And if we have been able to continue thinking of ourselves as good, noble, champions of democracy and all that is right despite slavery, genocide against native Americans, systematic racism, and a long running willingness to prop up the worst dictator as long as it serves our strategic interests, surely we can manage to absorb this news about torture without abandoning our carefully guarded self image.
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If this is starting to feel depressing, I apologize. But let me also hold out a bit of hope. It is not a hope rooted in our goodness, but in God's. It is a hope that believes God does work in history, even if much more slowly than I would like. It is the hope that "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." It is a hope rooted in the certainty that God loves us despite our inhumanity and cruelty, and that we draw closer to that love when we are honest about who we are. As it says in 1 John, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us But if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all righteousness."
Most people have some familiarity with Alcoholics Anonymous. You likely have seen an image of someone getting up to speak at a meeting and saying, "Hi, my name is Joe, and I'm an alcoholic." It is a statement that most alcoholics initially resist, an admission that is contrary to a better sounding self image. But it is the opening to a better life when it is finally claimed, which is why it is so frequently reclaimed.
Christians have long known something similar. It is our willingness to accept an identity as sinners, as those inclined to act in ways contrary to God and God's will, that opens us to new possibilities. And so perhaps it falls to people of faith, to those who hope in God's grace, to call on the nation, to insist that the nation, call itself to confession. "If we as a nation say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess...
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We Christians are preparing to celebrate the arrival of one who comes to break the power of sin and death. "Break the power" is forceful phrase, speaking to the hard work involved. It speaks of a cross, and also of our call to become part of Christ's body, those who still work to break sin's power.
The famous hymn in Paul's letter to the Philippians speaks of this hard work, of Jesus' willingness to suffer the cross and then says, "Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on hearth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Paul's words have little to do with how often one spouts "Christ is Lord," and nothing to do with whether or not it says "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" at your local Target store. Rather it is a statement about all people and nations bowing before the rule of Christ. It is about individuals and nations saying, "We have sinned. We have not loved our neighbors, much less our enemies. We have treated those whom God loves as less than human. Out of fear, we have been willing to let others suffer and die for our sakes. Forgive us."
I wonder what new thing might be possible, if all of those who do claim to bow before Jesus called on our nation to humbly confess its sins.
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