Dear USA,

As of today, I’m still free to speak my piece in these pages without fear of any aspect of our government arresting and incarcerating me for what I write.    I feel grateful for that but, sadly, I do not feel confident such freedom will follow me the rest of my life here as an American citizen of vintage longevity.  

I used to share in what we like to call our “American dream.”  Today I sadly am sharing in our “American nightmare.”   Even more sadly, it’s not the kind of nightmare one wakes up from only to realize it was just a “bad dream.”   Wasn’t really happening after all.  Whew!  What a relief!

I wish.

Nope.   This is all real life.  The kind of reality that used to just happen “to the other guy” and not here.   Not in America. 

What I’m about to write….. still freely…. about is from my own personal and professional perspective as an ordained Christian clergyperson here in America.   My Christian faith was formed here in America.  In the 50’s and 60’s we had issues of great concern, but our larger concern was upon making America good again and not great again.   We seemed to realize that goodness, things as basic as telling the truth to each other, was foundational to whatever greatness might come about in our future.   My initial American dream was honestly about people in my life, not material possessions.   My young Christian faith informed my political leanings, liberal, and helped me love people and use things instead of the other way around.   I grew up in an America where people came first and possessions last.  And where we rooted for the underdog and helped the “downtrodden,” as we used to call them.   I was a Christian first, then a Democrat, and then a parish Pastor.  

The America I grew up in valued education, believe it or not.  It was made affordable through public and private investment alike.   So I stayed in school as long as I could to learn first about people (MSW degree) and then about God (MDiv), only to realize that the more I learned the more there was to still learn.   Life-long learning would require endless reading and study and, most importantly, endless application and “practice.”   Kudos to our wonderful public libraries, universities, publishing and continuing education resources.  

Education, to me, was always about the advancement of truth in all forms.   American freedom meant the right to knowledge, the right to healthcare, the right to food and housing and clothing, the right to labor, and the right to help others in the course of helping oneself.  Human dignity was what I thought the USA was all about, even though I knew we were always a work in progress.  For me, being a progressive or a liberal was all about helping my country make progress toward human rights around the world and not just at home.

Idealist?  Yep.  I was that.   American dreams are always idealistic, by design.   

And so it grieves me, dear USA, to see what we’ve become today.   I see in our nation today what the Hebrew prophets of biblical lore saw in theirs back when.   They saw Israel’s conquest by Assyria and Judah’s conquest by Babylonia.   I see our own conquest by Russia.   Such conquests unfold not really by conspiracy as by cultural corruption.   And even corruption starts by carelessness.   We become like frogs in the tub of warm water, relaxing so much that when the temperature rises and the water boils we fail to comprehend our fate until it's too late.   

Me?   I feel like an old frog sitting along the rim of that tub still trying my best to warn the others below to get out now while they still can.    For them the air seems cold and the water feels warm.   And I’m just a crazy old man who’s maybe breathed in too much of that chilly air.   Yet, many of those still in the water are as old as I am.   Because they stay in, their offspring stay as well.  Not much I can do about that. 

Even boiling water will one day cool down.   I may not be around to see it, but that will happen eventually.   Lies get stale and new truth takes time to gain acceptance or normative status.   But for now I’m a Christian pastor in the role of God’s prophet speaking truth to power for as long as I’m allowed. In doing so, I will remind those still in the hot tub of the Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, who spoke these words in the 7^th century BCE ahead of Judah’s Babylonia conquest.  

20  Woe to those who call evil good

and good evil,

who put darkness for light

and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter!

 21  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,

and shrewd in their own sight!

 22  Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine,

and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

 23  who acquit the guilty for a bribe,

and deprive the innocent of his right!

(Isaiah 5:20-23 ESV)

Ditto, dear USA.  

But please know also that time is on our side as a nation.   Eventually our nation will rise again from the Russian conquest even as Russia, and Vladmir Putin, will be someday conquered anew as the Babylonians were by the Persians of King Cyrus in ancient times.   Time changes everything, and God’s eternal love will always cast out and out last our human fears and foibles.   Isaiah 40-66 offers an antidote to the next generation of his own nation:

²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?The Lord is the everlasting God,    the Creator of the ends of the earth.He does not faint or grow weary;    his understanding is unsearchable.²⁹ He gives power to the faint,    and to him who has no might he increases strength.³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary,    and young men shall fall exhausted;³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;they shall run and not be weary;    they shall walk and not faint.            

(Isaiah 40:28-31 ESV)

And again, ditto, dear USA.

With love,

Dan