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I haven’t written anything about the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast, partly because until today I’ve felt kicked in the gut by it, nearly numbed to silence by the magnitude of the suffering.

But today, somehow in addition to the suffering …

Today something’s shifting.

Is this the day the spell over us is finally broken, as when Gandalf broke Wormtongue’s deathly spell over Theoden in The Two Towers?

Is this the day the color of life returns to our faces?

Is this the trauma that causes us to shake off our stupor to discern the deception that compels us to war, to greed, to apathy? Is this the moment we finally hit bottom, recognize our folly, repent of our sins, and begin our long climb back to the world of the living, the thinking, the caring, the doing?

Is this the day that, in our heartbreak, we become human again?

We’re very close.

Obadiah speaks to the downside of nationalistic pride.

Today I attended the small-town United Methodist church I grew up in and was struck on hearing the World Methodist Council Social Affirmation for the first time.

Religious ignorance is a runaway problem in the U.S.

I am temporarily shorn of hope; hence this lamentation.

The reason this U.S. presidential election is much, much bigger than a win/lose contest is that it is, at its heart, a spiritual issue with global consequences.

Here’s what I think today [the day after the 2004 U.S. presidential election]:

Because we in the U.S. have embraced the ways of the Enemy [by approving our government’s use of deception/fear/violence], we have become the enemy of the world.

We have chosen not to excise the cancer of fear afflicting us, and by this choice we have exchanged <bubble-headed?>the godly ideals we once held as Americans </bubble-headed?> for the Enemy’s secrecy and deception, anger and retribution, hate and oppression.

All our choices have consequences, individual and national, and because we the people are responsible this time for this outcome, the consequences will soon roll. Here begins the tribulation (in the very real literal sense: a time of “great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering,” “an experience that tests one’s endurance, patience, or faith”).

Earlier this week a friend reminded me of Jesus’ imagery in Matthew as he charges the teachers of the law and Pharisees:

You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Those in the Church who are dwelling on, and enraged by, individual issues like abortion, homosexuality, evolution, and “liberals” (as if liberal is a bad thing), with all due respect I say to you that you, too, are straining for gnats while swallowing a camel: the Religious Right worldview. For years to come you’ll be passing fœtid camel chunks while the gnats swarm.

The Church in America has failed her Lord because she has not taught her members to recognize counterfeit spirituality.

What is counterfeit spirituality? It’s spirituality that sounds good but leads to results that oppose God’s will.

• Is killing 10,000s of innocent men, women, and children God’s will?
• Is accusing an entire people of being an imminent threat when they aren’t, also known as “bearing false witness,” God’s will?
• Is favoring the wealthy at the expense of the poor God’s will?
• Is igniting war in the name of the Prince of Peace God’s will?
• Is plundering God’s good creation God’s will?
• Is blaming others for one’s own mistakes God’s will?
• Is being arrogant and haughty, either personally or nationally, God’s will?
• Is being spendthrift and reckless God’s will?
• Is loading our children and grandchildren with an unpayable debt, for all intents and purposes a generational curse, God’s will?
• Is forcing millions into poverty and hopelessness God’s will?
• Is living in fear God’s will, when God’s representives throughout scripture are constantly saying “fear not”? When John asserts that “perfect love casts out fear”?
• Is mocking study, learning, thinking, planning (in short, wisdom) God’s will?
• Is lauding any man and his ways over the Lord and his ways God’s will?
• Is divisiveness instead of unity God’s will?

We have a responsibility to recognize counterfeit spirituality, then to (1) not fall for it and (2) not propagate it.

Counterfeit spirituality is worse than no particular spirituality at all, I think, as evidenced by Jesus condemning the Pharisees while hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors.

The Pharisees were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong. They were resolute — according to scripture, clear through to killing him — but their resolution scored them no points with Jesus.

I think endorsing counterfeit spirituality [as the Christian Right has] damages the kingdom of God because presenting as truthful and good that which God opposes [war, ignorance, greed] is misrepresenting God. The consequence is millions turn away in disgust, some forever, thinking our misrepresentation presents God as God is.

If “by their fruit you will recognize them,” what does our fruit — America’s results in the world — say about us? What are we being recognized as? Ambassadors of godly virtue or unthinking, arrogant warmongers?

Morally, how can anyone say ends justify means when the means are repugnant and the ends are catastrophes?

I’m left to infer that God, in his wisdom, recognizes that to bring us to repentance, we’re going to have to be allowed to suffer, else we will keep ignoring him, keep disobeying him, keep misrepresenting his son — by those of us called Christian — as Lord of War instead of Prince of Peace. I think we may be therefore entering our exile to Babylon, not just our children [being sent to die in Babylon, aka Iraq], but all of us.

Don McLean’s lovely version of Babylon, based on Psalm 137, keeps looping in my brain (listen, and weep):

By the waters, the waters of Babylon
We lay down and wept, and wept, for thee, Zion
We remember thee, remember thee, remember thee, Zion

Ah, ah, America, land that I love, I’m sorry we have forsaken you.

I’m probably about to go silent for a while. Peace to you.

[2004-11-04: edited to add section on counterfeit spirituality that came to me in a dream]

2004-12-03 update:
QotD: Can an Ichthus symbol and a W sticker coexist on a car bumper without tearing the fabric of the universe? (I think not.)

They Must Repent: Courtney Ball & Josh Steward: ‘We are taking this action as Christians who are desperate to hold two of our own accountable.’

Mark Kleiman: ‘Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what sort of deity or demon the political leaders of the Red States bow down to.’

New Yorker: Seymour Hersh: ‘Such dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture, but it is especially so in the Arab world.’

Orcinus: David Neiwert: ‘When we unleash the dogs of war — especially when … we do so under false pretenses — then we open up the Pandora’s Box of evil that colors both our history and our present in shades of red and black.’

WaPo: Richard Cohen: ‘The British prime minister can acknowledge an awkward fact, even a mistake, and keep on going. Bush can only insist that he is right.’

Time: John F. Dickerson: ‘A book about Treasury’s Paul O’Neill paints a presidency where ideology and politics rule the day.’

I got distracted during LotR: The Return of the King as I suddenly realized its most literal interpretation has been adopted by the neoconservative hijackers of democracy in our country:

“We declare that all of them are evildoers, and we, blameless keepers of the flame, bearers of the light, are exercising our duty and divine calling in wiping them out. See? — it’s eagles that defeat the Nazgul. See? — those Arab-looking riders of the oliphaunts are evil. See? — the ‘Men of the West’ are the last hope for the world. What we have here is an allegory for America.”

I’m not a Tolkien scholar, but I don’t think literal interpretations suit his work or convey his intent. And I doubt that Peter Jackson, a New Zealander, aimed to craft a pro-America masterpiece.

As my distraction lengthened, I finally found a trace of empathy for those who think this way. If someone truly believes violence can be redemptive in this physical world, as many do, then a literal interpretation of LotR affirms present U.S. foreign policy.

Unfortunately for Christians who believe in this myth of redemptive violence^†, Jesus emphatically does not. According to him, nonretaliatory love is what redeems, violence never does. A literal interpretation of LotR — and by extension, of U.S. action in the world under the Bush administration — cannot be made to square with following Jesus.

Now where the lessons of LotR swell into truth is on the spiritual level. We are to resist evil. We are to be warriors against darkness just as imaged in the film. But against spirits and dominions and powers only, not against people. According to Jesus, we are to care for everyone the Father cares for, even the “ungrateful and the selfish and wicked” that the Father is “kind and charitable and good” to (Luke 6:27-36, AMP).

None of us are wholly good and the “enemy” is not wholly evil. The potential for — and reality of — evildoing lies in all of us. We must recognize this in ourselves. We must see the deception and greed and injustice and retribution that inhabit us in our prosecution of this war on terror. And we must repent. Our leaders must repent. To do otherwise is to bring down judgment on ourselves.

The truth is this: God has never appointed us policemen of this world. What he appoints us to be [is] its stewards and its servants. If Jesus is right, our present tack of meeting violence with violence will never work. If Jesus is right, meeting people’s needs from out of our abundance will.

I know several Bush supporters who are determined to see George as Aragorn, rightly enthroned as king who beats back the hordes of darkness. I think this is purest fantasy. At best our president is Boromir — not a king but a steward, one who despite possible good qualities is unable to resist the Ring of Power. And it is driving / has driven him mad. At worst I see George & Co. as Ringwraiths, wreaking division and death and destruction upon the world, once men but now made hollow where their souls once were, long ago sold for the Power of a Ring.

(I use “we,” “us,” and “our” as shorthand for my U.S.-oriented point of view. I use “Bush” as shorthand for the multiple [Bush-]like-minded persons and powers inhabiting our government.)

[Denethor was the last ruling Steward of Gondor, father of Boromir and Faramir. He was subject to depression and denial, maladies I recognize in myself and the Christian Right, more or less respectively. I’m pretty sure we both can be healed. Eventually.]

2003-12-31 update:
Charles Sebold, someone I’ve enjoyed virtually knowing for some years now, observes in his review of the first LotR movie something that (as long as I’m trying to be generous) sets me thinking George may be more analogous to Tolkien’s — not the movie’s — Saruman:

Saruman [in the movie] is so one-dimensional that it will make the purist cry. Tolkien’s Saruman is the victim of good intentions, overestimation of his own abilities, and a subtle corruption of power that extends over time — he is never really the ally of Sauron.

Regardless of intent and nature of alliance, I note that the devastation wrought is the same.

^†Interesting related reading:

• Martin Hattersley: The Myth of Redemptive Violence

• Walter Wink: Myth of Redemptive Violence

• Walter Wink: Babylon Revisited: How Violent Myths Resurface Today

• Gutless Pacifist: Redemptive Violence for a Just War

• First Congregational Church (UCC), Closter, NJ:
  The Civic Religion of Redemptive Violence
  The Ring of Tolkien: The Magnification of Power by Technology

• National Catholic Reporter: Candy ain’t dandy in this classroom

Early on in 2003, during the buildup to the Iraq invasion, I received lots of email forwarded from conservative Christian friends containing breathless adulation of George W. Bush as an exemplary Christian. One example is the multi-forwarded text of Paul Kengor’s National Review article dated March 5, God & W. at 1600 Penn. —

Though Bush and Democratic nominee Al Gore split the popular vote almost 50:50, Bush cleaned up among churchgoers. Among those who attend religious services weekly, he beat Gore 57 to 40%. For those who attend more than weekly, he won 63 to 36%. (Gore won by 61 to 32% among those who said they “never” attend church, suggesting that the former veep easily bagged the atheist vote.) …

[Religious broadcaster Janet Parshall] has never witnessed such an outpouring of sustained support for a president among Christian conservatives. “They call me and say they’re praying for him,” Parshall says of her listeners. “My callers like him and are thankful. They actually tell me they cried when they watched the State of the Union Address. Imagine that! They love this man.” …

My reaction to the January 28 SOTU was somewhat different than this. Beneath the words, something about the speech and its delivery smelled fishy. Indeed most of its assertions and allegations have since turned out to have been made up or outright deceptions.

Bush believes that God “has a plan” for him. He maintains that he could not be president if he didn’t believe in a “divine plan that supersedes all human plans.” …

The Old Testament story [of Moses in Exodus over whether to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land] spoke to Bush. He felt convicted. He began telling friends he had “heard the call.” God was calling him to seek the Oval Office.

Self-deception, we must whip it

I have a family member who still says, “George Bush sets a good example for all Christians in America.”

No.

When in the course of human events, a leader granted power and authority chooses to abuse that power and authority to invade a sovereign nation on the basis of a monstrous doctrine of preemptive war¹ that bears his name, not for reasons of national defense but for ideology (to forcibly demonstrate PNAC neoconservative imperial wherewithal — pride) and profit (Halliburton no-bid contracts, oil — greed), the prosecution costs of which will be borne by citizens yet unborn (multi-$trillion deficit²), wherein said leader stains his hands with the blood of 10,000 dead (~9,600 Iraqis³ and ~400 Americans⁴) and shatters the lives of thousands maimed and wounded (~2,300+ U.S. military wounded⁵, ~7,500 evacuated through Andrews AFB⁶, plus an unknown civilian casualty count), then that leader does not qualify as an exemplary Christian. He qualifies as a war criminal.

I can imagine the prophet Nathan speaking words like these to Mr. Bush, much as Nathan told King David the story of the rich man who took the ewe lamb from the poor man who had nothing — the lamb who “shared [the poor man’s] food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms; it was like a daughter to him.” [The rich man took the lamb from the poor man] and slaughtered it for his guest to eat:

But more significant — Nathan could be pointing his finger at us — we are the people. Being unrepentant in our support of such behavior — to repent means to turn, so as long as we continue to squander lives, treasure, and honor in Iraq, we are by definition unrepentant — means not that we’re “showing resolve” but that we’re being unrepentant of our evildoing, like those who are made to weep and gnash their teeth, thrown out of the kingdom of God (Luke 13:22-30).

Agreeing with the Bush Administration that black is white, up is down, that bad news is good news, that monstrous behavior is godly behavior, does not make you a patriot, it makes you complicit.

This worldview hawks a form of faith without its substance. Its trajectory is not God-ward; it ends instead in darkness.

We — all of us, conservative, moderate, liberal, progressive — can do better than this.

[I actually believe now that a critical mass of us have awakened and are again seeing black as black, white as white — and sometimes, gray as gray — whether we articulate our seeing in theological terms or not. Even so, I still have to rant this out of my system; it’s the closest I plan to come to saying “I told you so.”]

2003-11-19 update:
Revised entry title refers to T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men.

Another oft-forwarded writer in my inbox was Peggy Noonan, whose writing I noticed took breathless adulation to new heights. Piyush Mathur addresses Noonan’s work head-on in a review of her new book, A Heart, a Cross, and a Flag: America Today. Mathur succeeds in highlighting much that I find unbearable in Religious Right (non)thinking.

[via Atrios]