Most of what I consumed for ‘entertainment’ last year came in the form of countless nights sunk down into my beloved tattered sofa after wrestling kids to sleep and losing myself in the realm of the PBS Newshour. This was mostly by default as we only get 3 channels with our antennae and since my Netflix subscription was unexpectedly interrupted midyear due to an expired credit card linked to the account. The following is Part 1 of the collective stories that spoke to me mostly about grace, law/gospel-in-life, and the lightheartedness necessary to navigate an unanticipated year of unrest and dissolution of life as we know it. Stay Tuned for Part 2 later this week…
Shared Vulnerability and Grace Through Weakness
Undoubtedly #unprecedented became the most overused cliché relative to 2020 as the world witnessed the simultaneity of a global pandemic coinciding with a worldwide outcry for justice unseen in preceding generations. As I observed this phenomenon last year, I often asked myself ‘why is that?’. This story from June 17th about Black Lives Matter protests in which a “mosaic of people of different creeds and cultures” collaborated offered the insight that our newfound sense of shared vulnerability has united us in an apt display of what resembles the left-handed power of God. In other words, what the right policies and the right politicians could not accomplish, has come to fruition by means of people seeing beyond political and cultural distinctions and instead finding commonality in their weakness in the midst of “a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic”.
Is American Civil Discourse Dead?
In an October interview, Pepperdine University’s Pete Peterson considered the correlation between our increasing sense of alienation from one another and our disconnection from the civic institutions that in years past collectively defined us as citizens. As a result, Americans have grounded who we are almost explicitly, if not completely, in politics. Our present context lacks the preponderance of the mediating forces of identity to which previous generations looked including churches and faith organizations. Peterson’s sentiments underscore the extent to which American Politics can epitomize our tendency to confuse the vertical things (Justification in Christ) with civic righteousness. In my humble estimation, we see this most saliently on voting day when we essentially go to polls to elect a savior. In the economy of God’s kingdom though, a Savior elects us. Every four years, we enter the voting booths to choose a representative who will speak for our earthly and civic concerns. Thank God, our hope is in a High Priest who has gone behind the veil to intercede for our eternal salvation.
The Upswing
Author Robert Putnam sees not merely a political, but rather a spiritually implicit reason for the severe division we are presently seeing in America. His latest book, The Upswing concerns the concept of social capital and how to rebuild it. Putnam references the first Gilded Age as a time of extreme polarization followed by a succession of periods in which we nationally became more egalitarian especially during eras marked by the 1930’s New Deal and the LBJ’s initiatives inherent in the Great Society. Putnam concludes that Boomers who thought they were doing the right thing embraced the ethos inculcated in the likes of Woodstock, free love, and an emphasis on individual self expression…to the unfortunate detriment firstly of our economic well being and consequently resulting in the tensions that currently plague our socio-political landscape. A shift away from considering “we” to prioritizing “Me, Myself, and I” ushered in a culture in which altruism remained scarce and social engagement atrophied significantly. The Upswing is enhanced by the contribution of Putnam’s writing assistant, Shaylyn Romney Garrett who supplements Putnam’s reliance on data-driven charts with an organic narrative lens by which she considers our national decline from a period of what historians say was marked by a “social gospel”…in which we considered what responsibilities we owe one another as a society.
Law, Grace, & Daily Living 