The Pursuit of Liberty

          The Thanksgiving holiday, that reflective convergence of Pilgrims, God, slain fowl and duped Native Americans. It is a time to pause and consider the blessings bestowed on us by Providence....before immediately desiring more bestowing next month.

         

          Compared to most other countries and peoples, we are certainly a materially blessed Nation. However, our nation also appears to have many complex systemic challenges which are difficult to decipher and unravel. There are protests in the streets against such systemic impediments to the American Dream. During this time of reflecting on the blessings of Providence, I am reminded of the words of Saint Paul in Ephesians.

          "We  wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual evil in high places (Eph. 6:12)". In the Greek text, this passage is literally rendered "Not is to us the wrestling against blood and flesh, but towards the originals (sovereignities) toward the authorities toward the system-holders (world-mights) of the darkness of the eon this toward the spiritual-forces of the wickedness among the on-heavenlies (celestial-ones). I will now take off my squinty scholar glasses and take up the collection. 

          What can we take away from this arcane passage that is relevant to our current reflections? (1) Greek writers seriously needed punctuation. (2) Our national "struggle" isn't against our fellow Americans. The invisible is driving the visible. While the passage implies deep and spooky behind-the-scenes governance, I don't know that we can control that sort of thing. We probably can't vote it out or pass a law against it. That probably goes beyond a "We the People" thing. But there are a few larger things we can control and influence.

          Is the land of the free in bondage and in need of liberty? We as individuals, families, communities, and as a nation are driven by our perceptions and attitudes. Reality is what we perceive it to be. Our social and political realities are contested and shaped by a vast array of agendas, ideologues and their mouthpieces. Often our religious convictions are indistinguishable from our political convictions. There is great time, energy and money expended to create and sustain our convictions, ideologies, and worldviews.

          Every dimension of our life is so engineered. For example, our purchasing priorities and choices are influenced by media, Madison Avenue, and pop culture. The "influencers" around us seek to sustain, empower and enrich themselves. Once they have succeeded in shaping our political and social realities, they immerse and insulate us within these worldviews and suppress disruptive alternative viewpoints. Both "hippies and hard hats" live in intellectual cocoons, although neither of them are aware of it.

          The "influencers" pit American against American in an arena of ideology and vitriol. Fear, hate and arrogance become the fulcrums for kneejerk emotional reactions. In many ways, the reason the last election was so damaging to the national psyche was that unity, hope and change were personified and contrasted to a message of division and fear. Ideals of hope and change failed to be realized and the terms became derisions. The last election was, in a sense, a portrait of the "spiritual" nature of the democratic experiment. America became great because we were a nation of unity, hope, and change. We erred along the way by trying to personify national values and virtues. We should always strive for these things because that's who we are as a people. We don't abandon them if one guy doesn't deliver. We should also be cautious of personifying and deifying Government, depending on institutions to solve our civil and community problems. The People create the institutions, and can recreate the ones that fail.

          God in His Providence gives us each a brain and a heart. We still have the ability to think and choose, and to change course if prudent. Reason, heart, and indeed faith can overcome unseen forces that seek to divide and conquer.

          The "solution" lies first in ourselves. Change ourselves, change our world. Change our thinking, change our future. For our institutions to become new, we have to become new. We must intentionally shift our thinking and explore/ create the common ground of what it means to be an American. What is our civic responsibility to our community and to one another? The "influencers" seek to keep us separate and struggling, but we can choose as a People to act as a People and create a new "reality". What should this new civic "reality" look like?

          de Tocqueville marveled at the egalitarian, industrious, inclusive and civic spirit of Americans. This was found nowhere else. This spirit made our nation great. We must, as a People, question and cast off the cocoons of the conventional, of indifference and ideology. We must first decide on our shared values...who we are...what we want to build for future generations. Only with clarity of values and purpose can we turn our attention to the institutions, visible manifestations of the invisible "influencers". The Spirit of our shared values and beliefs can oppose the dark divisive values and beliefs surrounding us.

          Take Wall Street as an example. Wall Street practices crashed our national economy and are currently crushing the dreams of millions of Americans through lending and credit practices. Can we assault a building and change this? Can we seek justice through the courts or through "other means" upon the people of Wall Street and change these practices? Probably not. There is a spirit behind Wall Street, a spirit of arrogance, of short term greed, of civic indifference and injustice...and the spirit is legal. There are spirits behind all our institutional 'influencers". In one sense, this may be what Paul is pointing out.

   

          How do we fight institutional "spirits", attitudes and ingrained practices? We the People can think and question and choose a different path, what to value, what to pay attention to, what to spend our time on, what to spend our money on. We can work together to oppose values and practices that set themselves against what make us Americans. We have it within ourselves to tear down the old and build the new.

          On this day of spiritual reflection, how could we choose to shift our thinking and actions to make a difference?

1. We can choose to shift from "me and mine" to "our"
2. We can choose to shift from "doing our thing" to reaching out and building together
3. We can choose to shift from seeking quantity to seeking quality
4. We can choose to shift from consumption to appreciation
5. We can choose to shift from introspective indifference to opposition againindividuals, institutions, and ideologies which divide and exploit us

          Let us reflect on the wisdom of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights were considered inalienable, imparted by God and affirmed by Government. May God now impart the wisdom that enables us to establish a course of liberation from our current bondage of institutional "influences".