I recently picked up a vintage copy of Life Magazine dated July 17, 1947 (my birth year). The featured article was entitled “This Pleasant Land” with photos of a serene postwar America. The subtitle boasted: “On the 171st anniversary of its independence, its people rejoice in its quiet beauty as well as its great strength.” This is reminiscent of a more innocent time in our nation’s past, when people pulled together during the war effort and were willing to sacrifice to preserve our democratic way of life. It was a time when neighbors—regardless of their differences—came to each other’s aid. People were kind, courteous, and generous. And most citizens sought to live a law abiding life. That was the America of my youth, at least as I remember it.
The Loss of Innocence and a Moral Failure
America was never perfect. There are dark chapters in U.S. history for which we need to repent. Yet what we are experiencing now is beyond the pale. Consider: Secretary Hegseth’s encouragement for the barbaric airing of death by firing squad; the President’s vile threats and name-calling let alone suggesting that everyone who doesn’t vote Republican in the midterms is going to hell.; immigrant and refugee neighbors who live in terror of arrest and deportation, not to mention 50,000+ who are interred in concentration camps as ICE buys up warehouses the size of several football fields to house more. Then there are millions of Americans who have lost their health care insurance, children and elderly going hungry because of the loss of SNAP food assistance; politicians and religious leaders seeking to incite violence, calling anyone who isn’t Christian and Republican evil and an enemy of the state. According to a recent New York Times article “America’s elected officials are living in fear.” The piece goes on to document how thousands of public servants including governors and members of congress have been subjected to violent threats. Americans have been turned against each other, many live in suspicion and fear of the other. And most chilling is that our precious freedoms are being eroded as our government attacks freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, etc. This is not the United States I knew and loved. It seems more like Hitler’s Germany in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Values that Make America Great
U.S. Senator Raphael G. Warnock has written a new book The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America in which he argues that we suffer not from a paucity of resources but from a poverty of moral imagination. He exhorts us to reach for the highest and noblest aspects of our national character. Might we begin by reclaiming the aspirations of our nation’s Founders who believed that ALL persons “are created equal…with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This means affirming the vision of a truly egalitarian democracy where everyone—regardless of race, gender, religion, or station in life—is treated with dignity, respect, compassion, and care. It means choosing love over hate, courage instead of fear, hope rather than despair. It involves a generosity of spirit, a willingness to engage in civil discourse, and always working for justice and the common good. Pope Leo XIV is challenging Americans to remember our nation’s highest ideals. He speaks to universal human values, and the forces he’s pushing back against — authoritarianism, cruelty, the notion that truth and moral law don’t matter — threaten not only the soul of the Church, but the soul of our democracy and our culture. Conversely, the virtues he lifts up — compassion, justice, humble service of truth — are the antidote our world so desperately needs right now.
Conclusion: Calling Forth the Courage to Act
Can we redeem the future with a new vison for America going forward? Regardless of the party in power, it is up to each of us as citizens of this country to stand against evil and injustice, to become agents of healing and transformation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote an essay “After Ten Years” reflecting on ten years of Hitler in power and the challenges facing people of faith. “The huge masquerade of evil has thrown all ethical concepts into confusion. That evil should appear in the form of light, good deeds, historical necessity, social justice is absolutely bewildering…For the Christian who lives by the Bible, it is the very confirmation of the abysmal wickedness of evil.” Bonhoeffer speaks of a person of faith struggling to find their way and admonishes us: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” He then goes on to encourage one to answer God’s call to act with the courage to resist every injustice and to work to build a better future. Bonhoeffer then offers this affirmation: “I believe that God can and will let good come out of everything, even the greatest evil. For that to happen, God needs human beings who let everything work out for the best. I believe that in every moment of distress God will give us as much strength to resist as we need.”
____________________
The Declaration of Independence (1776)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, Fortress Press (2015), pp. 3-13
Photo made with ChatGPT