Many years ago, I travelled to EJ Thomas Hall in Akron to hear journalist and former Press Secretary to President Lyndon Johnson, Bill Moyers.
Just prior to the conclusion of Moyer’s presentation he set up his closing remarks by paraphrasing an inscription which is over the Staunton Harold Church in Leicestershire, England. Moyers’ paraphrase was this:
In the year 1653 when all things sacred in the kingdom were either abolished or profaned, this church was founded by Sir Robert Shirley whose singular praise it was to do the best of things in the worst of times.
We are in a time in America in which voices of our divisive extremes are causing all things “sacred in the kingdom” to be profaned. And those that are a part of the profanation would, in the name of their self-assured self-righteousness even abolish the sacred things of this republic.
The divisions of our times in America are well known. The politicians, media personalities, Evangelical Church leaders, and all manner of wanna-bees in those categories are well known to us as well. So much is this the case that we have become accustomed to their rhetoric to the point that – no matter how outrageous, ignorant, and dangerous – many of us no longer pay attention.
A number of years ago, I was in a board meeting where the agenda for the business session included a proposal for a change in a long-standing institutional policy. The proposal for changing the policy was most certainly going to be adopted. However, one of the proponents of the change made a speech saying that the time for change was long since overdue and that anyone on the board who favored retaining the long-standing policy was endorsing the perpetuation of “a Nazi behavior police” mentality.
There was a stunned silence in the room. Finally, a member of the board who was – like a number of others on the board at the time – a veteran who had served in the Second World War spoke. Voicing his support for the change he expressed his utter outrage and offense that the word “Nazi” had just been used to characterize any person on the board holding an opposing point of view.
This person went on to say, that the use of the term Nazi in such a demeaning way of another citizen of this country and board member, reflected a complete ignorance of the Nazi tyranny that thousands of people had given their lives to overcome.
I think of such moments today when so many things sacred in America have been, if not abolished, most certainly profaned. I think about that moment when now millions of American citizens are poised to vote in favor of a candidate who speaks without censure of creating a “reich” and imposing dictatorial rule over any persons identified as opposition. We are not paying attention.
If we were paying attention there would be such outrage over the use of such language and the imagery of governing in such a fashion that no political party in this free, democratic republic would put forward a person using such language and advocating such a manner of governance. We are not paying attention.
If we as a citizenry were paying attention there would be no such category as “undecided voter.” There could be no such thing as a “swing state” where the outcome of an election in which such a candidate was on the ballot using the language of Nazi Germany was “too close to call.”
If we were paying close enough attention the outrage over the undermining of the American Judicial System, the entire process of decades of free and fair elections, and the absolute and near total profanation of the Christian Faith to support a MAGA movement that would raise the flag of Jesus as thousands attacked the United State Capitol on January 6, 2021, would be deafening. But such is not the case. People not paying attention are instead cheering.
These times of profaning the things once sacred in America, such as the American Flag and the Pine Tree Flag of the American Revolution cause little stir. We just accept that such profaned banners now fly on cars and trucks supporting a candidate who would establish minority, white, Anglo Saxon, male, protestant rule over a country built by generations of immigrants. We are not paying attention.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson in her excellent “Letters from An American” wrote on May 23rd this sobering paragraph:
So now we have the Appeal to Heaven flag (The Pine Tree Flag), which represents the idea that the 2020 election was stolen, that the people should engage in armed revolution against tyranny, and the United States should be a nation based in Christian theology in front of the office of the House speaker Mike Johnson and over the houses of Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito and the architect of the right-wing theocratic takeover of the federal courts, Leonard Leo.
We are not paying attention. The willful profanation of sacred things goes on. There is no outrage. We just accept it, and many do not even notice or understand what it all means.
We must pay attention. We must in these times particularly recommit ourselves to doing the best of things. We must build a church, for instance. By this I do not mean some place of orthodox theology and mind-numbing, irrelevant ritual, but instead communities of caring. We must be supporting the best of things in the arts, humanities, in sciences, and in public spaces and institutions that inform, inspire, and always desperately require volunteers to be doing their best.
We must do the best of things. We must stay informed. Stand against conspiracy. Stand against those naming and vilifying others as the cause of long-standing dilemma, and being in complete opposition to voices of prejudice, racism, and the tyranny of Christian nationalism.
In these demanding times we cannot be, as Thomas Paine in Common Sense once warned long ago, “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.” We cannot wave the flag. We must be the citizen who pays attention, votes, and acts accordingly.