As a child, I wondered why and how the home of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart could become the land and culture of death, led by an insane little man named Hitler. I no longer wonder. The German people and institutions fell under the spell of propaganda. I now know how. An old friend commented on a recent Views from the Edge post.
Reader’s Comment
I think that your explanation is correct but I also think it has very much to do with the same effect that elected Hitler as chancellor. It’s a matter of convincing a people that they are victims. It’s a word that we don’t hear much – propaganda. The German word for propaganda in Nazi Germany was Propagandaministerium, which translates to the Ministry of Propaganda. The Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was the central institution of Nazi propaganda. It controlled all German mass media, including the press, literature, film, theater, music, and radio. Joseph Goebbels was in charge of the ministry.
Make no mistake – if Trump is elected, such practice will become the norm. As it is, his campaign is already using propaganda as the tool to convince the people that their lives are suffering because of the Democrats.
— Jim haugh
A documentary on how Hitler rose to power
How to win an Audience: Basic Principles of Propaganda from the Diary of Joseph Goebbels
Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases.
Avoid abstract ideas — appeal to the emotions.
Give only one side of the argument.
Continuously criticize your opponents.
Pick out one special “enemy” for special vilification.
I no longer wonder. I think I know
During the Third Reich, the Dutch family of Willem Zuurdeeg defied the laws of Nazi occupation. They became a safe harbor to Jews. He questioned what it was about homo sapiens that led good people to follow a madman. This inquiry became his life quest. His search for answers became his life passion. As a philosopher of religion, his search exceeded the boundaries of any particular school of philosophy.
Willem Zuurdeeg was Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. His early death at the age of 57 left his work unfinished. He entrusted his work to his colleague, Esther Swenson. She carried it forward to publication under the title Man Before Chaos: Philosophy Is Born in a Cry (1963, Abington Press).
In Man Before Chaos and An Analytical Philosophy of Religion, Zuurdeeg discusses language as the way human beings “establish their existence” in time. We are born in a cry for what is beyond our ability to produce. We are, in Zuurdeeg’s view, less homo sapiens (“man-who-knows”) than we are homo loquens (“man-who-speaks”) and homo convictus (“man-of-conviction”) who look for a secure footing in an anxious world.
Homo Convictus makes easy prey for propaganda. It happened in Germany. It has happened here. God help us!
Gordon C. Stewart, Public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf & Stock), 49 brief, stand-alone meditations on faith and public life. Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, January 14, 2024.
On January 20, the Constitutional duty of administering the presidential oath of office fell again to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Chief Justice holds his position by virtue of his own oath to the Constitution.
Supreme Court Justice Oath of Office
I, ___________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties incumbent upon me as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court under the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Supreme Court Justice oath of office, Curator of the Supreme Court
Question
Does a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court violate his Constitutional Oath of Office by fulfilling his constitutional duty to preside over the administration of a President-elect’s oath-taking when the Court is in possession of evidence that the oath-taking was, and again will be, disingenuous, and for purpose of evasion?
Rhetorical or Serious?
The question seems rhetorical. It’s not. It’s serious. On January 20, 2025, the former president who violated election law by silencing a porn star, burying the story in a deal with a gossip tabloid; refused to honor the Constitutional peaceful transfer of power in 2021 and rallied the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and his supporters in a violent insurrection that threatened his own Vice President‘s life; promised to pardon the January 6 insurrectionists; mastered the five principles of effective propaganda outlined by Third Reich Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment Josef Goebbels; maneuvered the rule of law to evade trial; denounced the American justice system, courts, judges, prosecutors and court personnel as “rigged” against him; refused to surrender top secret national security documents after leaving office; and who continues to mock the juries that convicted him, and to use the powers of the presidency to exact retribution–– courts-marshal, imprisonment, or execution for treason––stood before Chief Justice John Roberts, ‘forgot’ to place his hand on two Bibles, raised the other hand, and “solemnly swore” the oath he had given no reason to trust.
Subversion by any other name is still subversion
A jury unanimously found the president-elect guilty on all 34 felony counts. Mr. Trump had already broken the presidential oath he took in 2017, but shrewd maneuvering through the state and federal court processes, Donald Trump is a convicted felon in the state of New York but has yet to be sentenced, and the more consequential federal indictments have been dropped. When Yogi Berra said “It’s not over til it’s over, “he had in mind the nine innings of a baseball game, but, like many other Yogi-isms, it describes real life beyond baseball.
If perception is nine-tenths of reality, the Supreme Court and the rule of law have lost. So has Congress. Oath-taking has become performative. The rule of law is at the point of implosion. It has been subverted by a well-heeled criminal well-practiced in using the law and judicial procedures to escape accountability under the rule of law. If there is a crack to be found, Donald Trump will find it and crawl through it unscathed.
It happened once. If we’re not careful, it can happen again.
History records moments like this. Ten years after conviction for “high treason” following the Beer Hall Putz, a failed coup attempt, Adolf Hitler rode the wave of public frustration and anger with the Weimar Republic to become Reich Chancellor and Führer. Six months after he took the oath of office, the Constitution was changed. It put Hitler where the Constitution had been. The United States Holocaust Museum tells the story.
Those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat it
Following the death of President von Hindenburg in August 1934, Adolf Hitler assumed power as Reich Chancellor and Führer. Shortly thereafter, on August 20, 1934, the longstanding oath taken by state officials was changed so that they no longer swore loyalty to the German constitution but rather to Hitler as head of state.
Although in retrospect this change seems to indicate another step in Hitler’s consolidation of power, at the time many would have understood it differently. By replacing “Constitution” with “Hitler,” the oath was meant to convey that Hitler’s will was the same as that of the nation and the people and that his will could not, by definition, contradict the imperative to ‘observe the law and conscientiously fulfill the duties’ of office. In this way, the oath appeared to equate Hitler’s authority with the constitution and to ensure that it would be limited by the primacy of law and duty in public office.”
Oath of Loyalty for All State Officials as of August 14, 1919: “I swear loyalty to the Constitution, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.” [Translated from Reichsgesetzblatt I, 1919, pp. 1419-1420.]
Oath of Loyalty for All State Officials as of August 20, 1934: “I swear I will be true and obedient to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, observe the law, and conscientiously fulfill the duties of my office, so help me God.” [Translated from Reichsgesetzblatt I, 1934, p. 785.
Is one’s word one’s bond? Or is it subterfuge?
The Hierarchy:: Adolf Hitler (L), Joseph Goebbels C), Hermann Goering (R)
The Oath of Office to which President-elect Donald Trump swore for the second time was either what it appeared to be, or it wasn’t. Whether the German felon convicted of “High Treason” authentically swore to be loyal to the Constitution is a question no one can answer. Some oath-takers and their administrators are honest, but their personality disorders contort the language to equate the people’s constitution and the nation with themselves.
This commentary is not the product of the power of positive thinking, but Christ does not call me to be willfully blind. Sharing this commentary, I feel like Sir Alfred Hitchcock driving by a remote church in the Swiss Alps. Seeing a priest standing next to a little boy with his hand on the boy’s shoulder, Sir Alfred rolled down the rear window of his chauffeur-driven Bentley limousine and cried out, “Run, little boy! Run for your life!!!
God help us all!
Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, Presbyterian Minister (HR), author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, January 13, 2024.
January 6 is the Day of the Epiphany on the Christian calendar. It strikes me again this year, as it did January 6, 2021, as a two-fold manifestation. It celebrates the manifestation of Light and opens our eyes to the darkness. We cannot celebrate light without facing the darkness in Herod, who invites the foreign sages (Magi) to report back to him when they have found the new-born king, “so that I too might worship him.” Herod’s stated intent is a fraud. He worships nothing higher than himself. He says nothing to the Magi about the slaughter of innocents.
Epiphany opens our eyes to the Light of truth and goodness, on the one hand, and the darkness of deceit and malice, on the other: the contrasts of light and darkness, hope and despair, fear and love, goodness and evil.
Jimmy Carter as a manifestation of goodness
President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024), RIP
As President Jimmy Carter lies in state in the nation’s capitol, and President-elect Donald Trump chooses a group of billionaires to join his cabinet, is it too much to ask for a pause to ponder what has happened to us, who we are, and what we aspire to become?
Whatever our differences, I have heard no one question Jimmy Carter’s character or motives. I have yet to hear criticism of Jimmy Carter as ruthless or vindictive, or the charges that his efforts for peace arose from self-serving motives, or that his policies on climate change responsibility were rooted in vested interest or ill intent.
The solar panels on the White House are long gone, but the prophetic light of the good man who put them there will not be forgotten. What happened in the nation’s Capitol on Epiphany 2021 and in the years that followed expose a darkness no eye can see, no court indict, no jury acquit or convict.
Of Treason and Traitors:the Supreme Judge of the People
Nothing in history is sealed in a vacuum. What seems unrepeatable gets repeated. The names are different, the places are different, but they are essentially the same. The past is never dead. Those who ignore it are doomed to repeat it.
“The Night of the Long Knives” is one such moment. In June, 1934, six months after Hitler took the oath of office required to become Chancellor, an irreconcilable conflict arose between the two paramilitary forces that had brought Hitler to power. On “the Night of the Long Knives” Hitler settled the dispute. The SS carried out Hitler’s covert plan to seek and execute members of the of the SA (the “Brownshirts”). As news of the covert operation began to leak, Reich “Minister Without Portfolio” Joseph Göring ordered police stations to burn “all documents concerning the action of the past two days.”
Newspapers were told not to publish the names of the dead. In a radio address to the German people, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Hermann Goebbels went to the airwaves to inform the nation that Hitler had prevented traitors from creating social chaos and overthrowing the government. Eleven days later (July 13, 1934) Hitler’s address to the Reichstag (the German equivalent of Congress) filled the airwaves of an anxious nation by conflating the nation with himself. The Strong Man who made Germany great again proclaimed himself “the Supreme Judge of the German people” and called those who opposed him “traitors”.
Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, social commentator, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN. January 6, 2024.
A WORD OF INTRODUCTION: The death of President Jimmy Carter prompts me to share this previously unpublished social commentary. Jimmy Carter was different. He wasn’t into cockfights. He was a rooster who ruled the roost for four years without drawing attention to himself. He didn’t strut. He didn’t crow. He returned home to his small town in rural Georgia to resume his long-standing practice of teaching Sunday School. He picked up a hammer and saw to built houses with Habitat for Humanity.
Cockfighting in 2024
Cockfighting is illegal in most places, but whether a cockfight is legitimate or illegitimate makes no difference to the roosters or their handlers. A rooster rules the roost. He struts and crows – all roosters do — to mark his turf, secure his harem, and brag about the size of his hen house. A cockfight is a battle of the pecking order. One wins; the other loses. God help the smaller rooster who walks into the wrong hen house!
Two roosters before the cockfight
Anticipating a Cockfight
Watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk, I see a cockfight waiting to happen. Roosters in a cockfight strut and crow, surrounded by rooster handlers and on-lookers who’ve come to see the feathers. Soon Donald will again take his place as the most powerful man in the world, and Elon will still be the richest man in the world. Donald is proud that Elon has come into his yard; Elon is proud to have been appointed to a powerful position in the most powerful man’s barnyard. Elon ionly boundary is Donald’s will and ego.
True Story
Years ago an acquaintance stole all his father’s roosters. When his father, exhausted by the roosters waking him at sunrise, and decided to exercise his right to capitol punishment, his 30-something year-old son rescued all the roosters in the middle of the night. For the next few weeks, the son took pride in having saved the roosters. The roosters freely roamed the son’s barnyard and hen house, and. But after six weeks of waking at sunrise to the crowing of the cocks, he shot them all to stop the crowing.
America in 2024
In America two roosters crow every morning. They strut all day in front of the crowd. One rooster crows that he’s legitimate; the other doesn’t seem to care. The smaller roosters are running around Congress like chickens with their heads cut off. They’re scared. They have a lethal stake in the game. They’re clucking up a storm, laying their bets on who to trust to save their heads from the chopping block.
Gordon C. Stewart, host of Views from the Edge, pastor and former MPR guest commentator on All Things Considered, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf and Stock), writing from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, December 21, 2024.
”There’s a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled. Religion is the best device used to mislead them.” — Michael Moore
Like the “Make America Great Again Bible,” the Trump campaign’s “Fear Not” marketing pitch preys on religious gullibility. For Christians, “fear not” brings to mind Jesus’s assurance: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s pleasure to give you the kingdom.” It also reminds us of the angels’ message to shepherds, abiding in their fields by night” in Matthew’s birth narrative.
How and why anyone would send the chain e-mail message asking me to “Forward this message to 10 friends… I want to spread the LOVE,” is puzzling.
The message came with a photo advertisement for a “FEAR NOT” coffee mug, featuring former president Trump in a MAGA hat. His fist is raised in defiant resolve with “Old Glory” waving in the background.
So, there you have it. FEAR NOT and LOVE together on a coffee mug featuring a mug shot of the “Chosen One” who uses the word G-d on occasions when it’s useful. What could be better?
The Relationship between Fear and Love
Fear and love lie next to each other at the heart of Christian faith. The First Letter of John describes the relationship this way. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”—1 John 4:18
The Christian story of Jesus as the Christ (the Messiah) begins and ends with fear.
And the angel said unto [the shepherds] ‘’Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.’” – Gospel According to Luke 2:10, KJV.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus of Nazareth prays to be spared the horror awaiting him the next day. His plea is not granted. Yet Christians profess him Lord and Savior. He suffers torture and death on a cross outside the city walls on the Hill of Skulls. Before the wrenching cry of abandonment, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabchtani?” (My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”), Jesus cries out from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
A surprising way to end a Gospel
The original ending of the Gospel Mark, the earliest of the four New Testament Gospels, ends with fear. Young’s Literary Translation reads as follows:
And, having come forth quickly, they fled from the sepulchre, and trembling and amazement had seized them, and to no one said they anything, for they were afraid.
The Monday following the second attempt on his life, the Trump campaign announced that “Democrats’ rhetoric inspired another attempt on former President Trump’s life.” Recalling the earlier attack in Butler, PA, the former president spoke in religious terms.
“There’s something going on,” he said. “I mean, perhaps it’s God wanting me to be President to save this country. Nobody knows.” — Antonio Hitchens, The New Yorker, September 18, 2024.
An image on the Trump coffee mug also features graphic image that intertwines two American twisted into angel’s wings. The words at the top read:
“GOD SAID: NOT TODAY”
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Reflection on America
“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” — Alexis de Tocqueville
Whether Tocqueville said it, or the presidents, senators, and other Americans in high places mistakenly attributed it to Tocqueville, makes little difference to its wisdom and warning. Without goodness, there can be no greatness.
Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf & Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, Dec. 15, 2024 (revised from unpublished draft written Sept. 20, 2024).
I have often wondered how the home of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart became the country of Adolf Hitler, the SS, SA, Brown Shirts and the Holocaust. I no longer wonder.
Third Reich Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels’ diary details the elements of propaganda that led German people to succumb to the spell of Hitler.
Propaganda: Basic Principles
Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases.
Continuously criticize your opponents.
Avoid abstract ideas – appeal to the emotions.
Give only one side of the argument.
Pick out one special “enemy” for special vilification.
The Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was the central institution of Nazi propaganda. It controlled all German mass media, including the press, literature, film, theater, music, and radio. Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it; those who know it have a duty to learn and act accordingly.
Gordon C. Stewart, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf & Stock), 49 brief, stand-alone meditations on faith and public life. Writing from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Nov. 5, 2024.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945
The morning of April 9, 1945, German Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and other leaders of the Confessing Church and resistance to Hitler and the Third Reich were hastily tried and hanged on the scaffold of Flossenburg Military Prison. Bonhoeffer was killed years a go, but his execution did not extinguish his light.
Bonhoeffer’s metaphor of stopping a madman from driving a car into a crowd of innocent bystanders shines a light on 2024. The American electorate in this moment will decide whether to put the steering wheel in the hands of a man who promises revenge.
Bonhoeffer and James Russell Lowell
Although the light of Bonhoeffer didn’t reach me until my early 20s, an oft-sung hymn from youth and childhood had prepared me to welcome Bonhoeffer. The lyrics of the hymn were from James Russell Lowell’s poem, “The Present Crisis.” The tune and lyrics make clear the intrinsic bond of faith and action. “Once to Every Man and Nation”was a call to abolish slavery.
Hymn Lyrics from “The Present Crisis”
Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, some new decision, Offering each the bloom or blight, And that choice goes by forever ‘Twixt that darkness and that light. Though the cause of evil prosper, Yet ’tis truth alone is strong; Though her portion be the scaffold, And upon the throne be wrong, Yet that scaffold sways the future, And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, “THE PRESENT CRISIS,” 1845.
The Moment to Decide
Temptation of Christ
In this American moment the decision is between democracy and social pathology; between safeguarding the integrity of law under the U.S. Constitution and putting the steering wheel in the hands of a madman and his party. November 5 is the choice between truth and falsehood, principle and propaganda, bloom and blight. This moment will not wait for a later time.
The moment is now.
Gordon C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf & Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, Nov. 4, 2024.
Age has its advantages. Racing home from school to watch the House Army-McCarthy hearings, chaired by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), is still fresh in my generation’s memory. Some indecencies never die. They’re like ghosts. The people we thought were dead reappear when the time is ripe. The 2024 election is such a moment. Take a look.
Some dragons are not slain
Some dragons cannot be slain. They become ghosts. In this season of the 2024 national election, I can’t believe my eyes. I see the ghosts of Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn. I hear their voices and see their scorn for decency.
Roy Cohn became infamous for representing the mob, a ‘fixer’ for hire. He sullied the reputations of innocent people, represented Donald Trump, and became his mentor. You might says tha tDonald became Roy’s apprentice before he became a popular entertainer on The Apprentice.
Winning was everything, and the way to win was to attack, threaten, lie, and bully. “Always attack! Never defend!” was his First Commandment. Winning was the only thing that mattered.
“I don’t believe in the concept of regret. I have no time for it.”
“I have a simple motto: Always attack, never defend.”
“In the end, winning is the only thing that matters.”
“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
“Hate is just a tool we use to control and manipulate others.”
“I don’t play by the rules, I make them.”
“The only thing worse than losing is being forgotten.”
Vote like your life depends on it. Because it does.
Gordon C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf & Stock), 49 brief (2-4 page) social commentaries/ meditations on faith and public life; Brooklyn Park, MN, Oct. 25, 2024.
In times like this, I wish I were a Lily pad. Lily pads don’t make stuff up. They know nothing of nations, politics, or religion. Nothing about the reckless ambition of the “Seven Mountain Mandate” or the New Apostolic Reformation to turn the USA into a Christian nation.
There are no mountains or mandates here on the wetland pond. No illusions of grandeur. No deceit. No presumption of superiority. No striving for dominion over the cattails, Trumpeter Swans, red-wing blackbirds, muskrats, and beavers.
Aesthetic appreciation and science tell me that the Lily pads are in trouble. Monet painted water lilies a century before toxic run-off from the fields began to poison the lilies and the ponds themselves. The wetland pond by the A-frame cabin is smaller and shallower than it was six years ago. I wonder how long before it’s gone.
Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. — attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville.
If Tocqueville were visiting America in 2024, he would find his second sentence has already happened. As for the first sentence? Instead of churches and pulpits that were “the secret of [America’s] genius and power,” Tocqueville might find himself in churches where the only thing left is the toxic myth of religious and national exceptionalism. He would find pulpits aflame with the fire of the Seven Mountain Mandate — the road map to Christian dominion over the seven mountains of American life: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government. The theology is Dominionism. Its politics are nationalist. The combination is toxic.
Anxiety and fear are linked, but they are not the same.
To be mortal is to be anxious. Anxiety looks for a foothold, i.e, a secure footing that will not change, crumble, or allow your feet to slip. During the Third Reich, National Socialism turned anxiety into fear. The targets of fear and hate were specific. Jews, Gypsies, “homosexuals,” etc. became the ‘deviants’ whose elimination was necessary for restoring a pure Aryan race and culture. Conformity, obedience, nationalism, and racial supremacy left no room for nonconformists, critics, dissenters, and deviants. This video tells the story of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s radio rebuke of Adolf Hitler’s radio address two days before.
Toxic Greatness
The German Church did not dissent. It saw no problem genuflecting on Sundays while saluting Hitler seven days a week. Except for the small “Confessing Church” movement and its “Declaration of Barmen,” Christians across Germany showed no sign of cognitive dissonance in professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior while practicing obedience to Hitler and German nationalism. Jews were Christ killers, Gypsies were weird, and “homosexuals” were ‘vermin’. The Church joined the movement to “make Deutschland great again.”
When, after the end of WWII, Albert Einstein spoke respectfully of the Church, he was not speaking of the churches that bent the knee to German nationalism. He was speaking of the Confessing Church of Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller.
“Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. I am forced to confess that what I once despised. I now praise unreservedly.“
Two Roads Diverging
The American Church of 2024 is divided between those Tocqueville, Niemöller, Bonhoeffer, and Einstein might find reason to praise, and the churches that would make them weep.
Two roads diverge again this year. If we take the road of the Seven Mountain Mandate, we will look back on the road not taken with more than a sigh.
Gordon C. Stewart, Presbyterian Minister, public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017 Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, Oct. 23, 2024.
Out of the devastation of hurricanes Helene and Milton, two roads diverge in a sodden wood. One road sees only what is urgent, the immediate needs for rescue and recovery. The other road, less traveled by, also looks farther for what is important. The road we choose in the Nov. 5 election will make all the difference. Listen to weatherman John Morales speak of his decision to do more than report the weather. Have a look.
Nothing is more important than a healthy planet. Nothing. When a candidate for high office calls climate change a hoax, move on. Do the same with “down-ballot” candidates and political parties that tap dance around the question. This election is about reality.
Presidents, senators, justices, and generals have spoken lines they attribute to Alexis de Tocqueville during his visit to America in 1831. “America is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Facing the sin of slavery, James Russell Lowell wrote the poem that became the lyric of a hymn on which I was a raised. “Once to every man and nation, in the strife of truth with falsehood, comes the moment to decide….” This is a moment like that.
Looking for a Foothold
In time, God help us, the divisions among the American electorate will be healed. Yet, before there is healing, is a common weariness that crosses all lines of difference. Nobel Laureate Albert Camus described our situation when he wrote under the dark cloud that swept over the world in the 1930 and ’40s. Camus’s insight into the experience provides insight into how the absence of any foothold produced suffering in a period similar to ours
“The modern mind is in complete disarray,” wrote Camus. “Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find a foothold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.”
The Sum of Your Choices
“Life is the sum of your choices.”
Albert Camus
The sum of our choices in this election will be who we are, and will determine what America will become. Votes for candidates and parties that substitute greatness for goodness, while avoiding or denying climate change, are votes against the future.
Vote like life your life, your children’s and grandchildren’s depend on it, because it does.
Gordon C. Stewart, public theologian, author of Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness (2017, Wipf and Stock), Brooklyn Park, MN, October 10, 2024.
Views from the Edge 
