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False Faith Defeats Lousy Works By Sam Smith ONE OF THE THINGS that happened on Election Day 2004 was that the Republicans' false faith trumped the Democrats' lousy works. Since the former was an act of imagination and the latter a product of experience, the odds inevitably favored the former. But both sides were lying. After all, what sort of moral values considers an unborn fetus sacred but not the lives of 100,000 innocent Iraqis? And what sort of life on earth can the Democrats offer as an alternative to the millennium if they haven't one good new idea in three decades? We are, some theologians will tell you, in the midst of the fourth "Great Awakening" in this country's history, periods in which life becomes so complex and frightening that there is a rush to pristine promises in various guises. The conservative Ralph Reed gave a fair thumbnail on PBS a few years back: "The first great awakening gave rise to the revolutionary struggle. The second great awakening. . . some of the most uproarious revivals that have ever been seen in western civilization, led to the formation of the American anti-slavery society. Then, of course, the third Great Awakening of the 1890's leading to the social gospel movement and the progressivism of which are Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, and today historian Robert Fogel has argued a fourth Great Awakening has begun with rising church attendance among baby boomers, and this shift to evangelicalism and fundamentalism of which the electronic church was such an important part." The range of beliefs in such awakenings can be quite broad; in fact some scholars believe the latest Great Awakening began in the 1960s with the myriad spiritual adventures of the left. William G. McLoughlin, a history professor at Brown, wrote a book in 1978 that placed within the phenomenon the Beats, the popularity of Zen, and "experimental life–styles associated with drugs, the hippies, the practice of occultism, and rock concerts." Wrote David Carlin (at the time both a philosophy professor and chair of his local Democratic Party), "The famous Woodstock concert of 1969 was a kind of sacramental event for the Fourth Awakening, analogous to the revivalistic camp meeting of earlier awakenings." If so, it has produced an ironic twist: the spirit of the '60s has almost disappeared and the Democratic Party is being beaten and kicked by people who claim moral values but ignore every part of the Bible save that which condemns the nature or habits of people they don't like anyway. While such periods are clearly a misery to go through, there is some light to be found at the end of the tunnel vision: these awakenings tend to be preludes to some big leap in American social and political change including the American Revolution, the abolition movement, and 20th century social democracy. As Rhys H. Williams has put it: "Many have credited awakenings with helping
to foster religious pluralism, advance ideas sympathetic to political
democracy and social reform, and forge an American national identity. More
contentious is the claim that awakenings are cyclical, representing a
religious response to social and cultural change. They help believers come And they are not unique to the American republic. Both the spread of totem
poles in the Northwest, and the long nosed god icons that swept through
Native American cultures that had little other contact, were in part
reactions to stress created among American Indians by European terrorists This, however, is small comfort to those living through one of these eras of hysteria, hate, and hoopla. Further, there is the problem that Charles McKay outlined back in 1852: "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." As a skeptic who neither partakes in the blood of Christ nor has danced with
a Sufi while, say, making the slow transition from Presbyterianism to
Buddhism, I sometimes think of what is happening as a struggle between two
sects, rather than between the faithful and non-believers. On the one hand,
we have those enveloped in a retro version of Christianity devised by some This, of course, is not how it is explained and that just makes it all the
more difficult to wend our way out of this mess. The common thread across
all forms of faith these days - conservative and liberal - is certainty and
a contempt for those who do not share it. Our recovery, however, will begin Tolerance is a word much out of favor these days yet its organization and promulgation is the underlying genius of the American system. It has been also described as the concept of reciprocal liberty: I can't have my freedom unless I give you yours. It is based not so much on shared values as indifference to unshared values. Once you decide it isn't your business to save, control, or correct a
born-again Christian or, conversely, two gays headed for the altar, life not
only becomes simpler but considerably more pleasant. Which is why I tell
conservatives complaining about gay marriage, "Then don't marry a gay;" and
liberals who complain about born-agains, "Look we've always had Christian The magnificence of America lies in the opportunity not to have to agree with other Americans. The Christian right has clearly forgotten this, but so have liberals who send all sorts of unconscious signals that they will be no less vigorous in imposing their values should they get the chance. Both these messages, because of their implicit aggression, become extremely threatening to the other side. But what if we talked about, negotiated, and even possibly celebrated the
fact that we are and probably will be different from each other? Not in a
smarmy, goody-goody way but as citizens honestly talking about our
differences and seeking mutual accommodation and safe ground. Impossible? If
they managed in South Africa and in the American South, maybe we can do it, If we tried, one thing we might soon discover is that it would be advantageous to exclude the media and the politicians from the discussion. They are, after all, the ones with the greatest vested interest in the fight.And what exactly do we have to lose? The stability of views on abortion in recent years, for example, suggests very little. We have, in fact, adopted an approach to these issues that sanctify our own beliefs without moving them forward much. And when a politician of the Democratic Party actually reached out to those who weren't like himself earlier this year, the liberal establishment was quick to trash him. Howard Dean's desire to get the votes of people who drove pickups with confederate flag stickers was excoriated by Kerry and Gephardt. Yet Kerry could have used some of these guys the other day. By any traditional Democratic standards, this constituency should be a natural. After all, what more dramatically illustrates the failure of two decades of corporatist economics than how far these white males have been left behind? Yet because some of them still cling to the myths the southern white establishment taught their daddies and their granddaddies, Gephardt and Kerry didn't think they qualified as Democratic voters. It is also interesting to note, as William Saletan did in Slate, that Dean received quite a different reception before he became the frontrunner. Here's what he told the Democratic National Committee last February: "I intend to talk about race during this election in the South. The Republicans have been talking about it since 1968 in order to divide us, and I'm going to bring us together. Because you know what? White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back ought to be voting with us because their kids don't have health insurance either, and their kids need better schools too." Wrote Saletan: "I have that speech on videotape. I'm looking at it right now. As Dean delivers the line about Confederate flags, the whole front section of the audience stands and applauds. It's a pretty white crowd, but in slow-motion playback, I can make out three black people in the crowd and two more on the dais, including DNC Vice Chair Lottie Shackelford. Every one of them is standing and applauding. As Dean finishes his speech, a dozen more black spectators rise to join in an ovation. They show no doubt or unease about what Dean meant." In fact, the best way to change people's minds about matters such as ethnic relations is to put them in situations that challenge their presumptions. Like joining a multicultural political coalition that works. It's change produced by shared experience rather than by moral revelation. Martin Luther King understood this as he admonished his aides to include in their dreams the hope that their present opponents would become their future friends. And he realized that rules of correct behavior were insufficient: "Something must happen so as to touch the hearts and souls of men that they will come together, not because the law says it, but because it is natural and right." This doesn't happen logically, it doesn't come all at once, and it doesn't
come with pretty words. Tom Lowe of the Jackson Progressive voted a few
years ago in favor of a new Mississippi flag without the confederate
symbolism. But in retrospect, he wrote later, he realized that the voters' The decline the Democratic Party has been accelerated by the growing number
of American subcultures deemed unworthy by its advocates: gun owners, church
goers, pickup drivers with confederate flag stickers. Yet the gun owner
could be an important ally for civil liberties, the churchgoer a voice for
political integrity, the pickup driver a supporter of national healthcare. The strange thing - strange that is to an era that believes that all
progress is the product of propaganda and salesmanship - is that taking a
more laisse faire attitude towards what others think offers greater
opportunity for antagonists to come together simply because they have less But, as has been said, the powerful do what they will, and the weak do what
they must. And part of the latter in times of fear and uncertainty is to
find safety in faith, homilies, and congregations of the like minded. Then
the powerful exploit the anxiety of those living in the caves of their |
