I am not a scholar, but perhaps that is a good thing. If I were a scholar I would be compelled to answer the question of how we arrived here in the conflicting and confusing events of today with reasoning drawn from what the scholars know of our history, the events that shaped the lives of our ancestors carried forward to shape the events of our lives as well. It is a fact that to many facts of history may obscure the most critical facts of all: the motives which produce the events seen in the present. Such is the limitation of the scholar. The years of devoted study needed to understand the fullness of history is what makes one a scholar of the subject, and no, I am not such a scholar. I make no claim whatsoever in that direction, but again, perhaps that is not such a bad thing.
Where I am no scholar of history it does not take a scholar to recognize that neither are the scoundrels who disgrace the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, using and misusing poorly understood history to deceive the ignorant into supporting their efforts to equally disgrace the United States of America in the eyes of the world. If those men were in any way scholars, if they had any inkling of the truths of history they would recognize their own intentions as nothing more than yet another beginning for the cycles of tyranny the founding fathers rejected and revolted against at the start of the nation, the same tyranny condemned and contested by the righteous long before the days of Caesar Augustus. It does not take a scholar to understand that the motives of tyranny have not changed with the years, and in fact for all of man's technological advancements neither have the methods changed all that much.
We have arrived where we are in the same manner as a great many before us did, quite by accident through no intentions of our own. The rise and fall of any given people's place and fortunes in the world are continuous, the human condition is never a static thing. As a nation the United States of America is a relatively young nation, it is our fate to live in the times when our nation is passing across the apogee of its' first rise to power and prominence, a rise that set the full light of liberty as a standard for all the world to see. In the century just passed strength of our nation tipped the balance to victory for the righteous in two world wars initiated in aggression against the innocent, the strength of our youth enabled our nation to take the initiative in many humanitarian efforts to remove the causes that had led to those world wars, and the majority of those endeavors were successful. The strength our nation knew in its' youth was spent to achieve magnificent advances for humanity in many ways. These are matters of fact, matters of history.
It is also a fact that because our nation spent that strength in noble cause we are no longer a young nation. We are not, we are now an adult nation and must do as all youth must do upon achieving adulthood: find and define for ourselves an adult's place in the community of nations. As we all know, the transition from childhood to adulthood is not an easy one, for nations no more than for individuals. Some fail that transition, fail and fall from greatness to restart the ancient cycle of yesterday's hero become tomorrows tyrant villain. Our nation is at that crossroads right now, and if we are to complete the magnificent work we as a nation began in our youth we must understand these things, understand and act on that understanding. I have said these things to provide a solid foundation for what I will say next. I am much closer to a carpenter than I am to a scholar, and a solid foundation is the first thing needing established.
When you look at where we are now, when you read of it here or hear on the evening news the political actions and initiatives of the ultra conservatives, the so called radical Christian right, that faction of the Republican party which is championing the agendas of that minority fraction of our nation, please look at them and see them for what they really are, understand them for what they are so you can play a larger part in keeping them harmless: to the remainder of the nation, to the world as a whole, and in compassion harmless to themselves.
These are people who have been blinded by the pride they were taught as a part of our nations' youth. They do not understand the world they see, they do not. Oh, they understand with great finesse the mechanics of our world, but they do not understand enough to accept the reasons for the world they see. When you consider our nation as if it were a youth making its' full transition to adulthood these people are the parts of that personality which are most fearful of that transition, a fear born of confusion.
They do not understand that the ethical and humanitarian advances achieved by our nation such as the fully moral rights of equality established for women and minorities are not the reason for what they see that is causing them fear, they lack the depth perception to realize it is not that the United States is sinking but rather that the world at large, in large degree courtesy of the very efforts of the United States in the century past, is rising to equal and in some cases exceed the standard the United States set for the world in the pinnacle days of their fathers and grandfathers. They cannot see that, all they can see, but not admit, is that now at times they must look up to other nations rather than look down on them. For them this is very, very frightening.
In their fear they are behaving as frightened and confused people have always behaved: they are turning to their religions to provide faith, not in their God but in the place where they are most lacking which is faith in themselves; and they are, as are all frightened people who take shelter in religion to a fear born of their own irrationality compelled to twist and distort their religion so it may provide them that sanctuary. The events we are seeing now are the sadly well known to history final stages of this illness. Having twisted their religions to provide them sanctuary from their fears they are now twisting their religions even further to provide not only sanctuary but also a rationalization to attack, not the cause of their fear which resides in their own irrationalities, but rather to attack the things of the world that might otherwise compel them to face the truth of where those fears originate. They must, they must believe that God is on their side, for in their secret selves they know but again can't admit that if God isn't on their side they have no one, not even themselves.
And so I say to you when we contest these frightened peoples' actions, in the political arena, at the ballot box, in the day to day decisions of our lives, when we act against their agendas we act as we absolutely must act: vigorously, devotedly, with the passion of life and liberty defending its own right to exist, and it is absolutely critical to our cause that we must act with a compassion born of understanding what is in actual fact the driving force behind the threat we face, which is these peoples hidden fears.
When they propose to deny a woman the right to health care services related to reproduction, when they attack societies efforts to equalize the opportunity for all to compete for success on a fair and level field, when they attack the very children they fear will not share their fears, when they initiate such actions the response must come at them from every angle, from any and every forum where a voice may be lifted to say "No, the things you fear are not and were not caused by these things you are attacking, to attack the things you have targeted will not relieve you of your fear, the greater your success in your attacks the more of your fears will become fact, you will no longer suffer to fear, you will cause everyone to suffer to the darkness you have created." This must be constant, ubiquitous, consistent and relentless, and most critically of all it must be delivered with utmost kindness and compassion mortals are capable of if it is to defuse and disable the fears that drive these people.
Aggression and anger will only cement their fears in place, drive them to ever lower depths of the irrational. While they are a minority of our nation their numbers are ample to destroy our society, and more than ample to endure long enough to spread the contagion of the irrational to the remainder. Such is how civil warfare begins. Cast a glance across history, look and see how often this has happened.
If they were scholars of history they would already know these things, but they are not, and they do not. If they truly understood the teachings of Jesus they would also know these same things from a different perspective, but still the same things would be known. But they do not, and so long as their fear holds dominion over their thoughts they cannot. It is up to us, my brothers and sisters who share this garden of life, to carry them through that fear, help them understand and master that fear, for our sakes and theirs as well. It is up to us. There is no one else.
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