Will we as - 'followers of Jesus' - resist the ways of democrats and republicans? Maybe another way to put that is to ask if we will stand with and for those whose lives will be trampled by whatever power rises to the top? And when we do that standing with all the others we encounter in the next years, will that alter the cultural story-telling we all know so well? Or will we give up on that way of life and sink back into the lies of our cultural stories?
It is far to easy to simply go along with the tales of good times when the good times are only for a few. Those few, remember, are the story-tellers of the culture. Therefore, no matter who spins the story - it will always be a story that leaves no room for the outcast - the minority - the sojourner - the ones who are different from the culture's story-tellers. When the story leaves out or diminishes the worth of those who are not in control of making up the cultural story - that story is said to be good or even great. We must be clear though, without including them - without making the story big enough to include more than the few who have claimed ownership of the power to tell the stories - the story is a lie. I should say the story has been and is and will continue to be - a lie.
How do we become a people who resist the lies? How do we say No to the ongoing charade? How do we keep looking in the mirror to see how we each hang onto that storyline even as we are invited to resist it? How do we become a part of another story-line in which truth-telling is honored - even when it causes a loss to us? How do we work to stop the ongoing story-line that manufactures and then manages and then cultivates - division - fear of others - self-security - and blame? From what we can see throughout our history, a political party never is able to create a new story. At times there are glimpses of such a change - a strange moment in time in which our common brokenness is so exposed it is repulsive to most people. It is then that a change can take place. Yet, if that change begins to mess with the dominant story-telling of those who hold the pen used to write the story, there will be a backlash - that attempts to march us back into the redevelopment of a them upon which we can cast our blame for any and everything that seems to be going wrong.
More and more, we must be willing to speak up whenever the cultural lie persists among us. Even when it is being composed by the political party or movement that we find ourselves following. There seems to be a mythical aspect to our cultural story - a part that is so central to that story-line we often cannot see or hear the lies that it spins. It is as much a part of us as apple pie - baseball - reality tv - or whatever else is a part of life-as-it-is-for-us. It is as much a part of us as the racism - the privilege - the rage - the blessings - the curses - the wealth - the us verses them - that changes nothing at all. When we are able to stop listening to or consenting to or enabling the lies that keep things just as they always have been, we may be able to move into another life.
I really do think that is a possibility. It is an endless possibility - always at hand - always waiting for me and you to go there instead of staying within the lies that never allow us to be fully human - fully standing with all others for the well-being of all others. Both parties do not really go that far - so, I suppose - we must.
TRRR
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