Democracy: The Essentials

Like a great pepper steak needing tasty beef, green peppers, soy sauce, and flour, democracy demands certain essentials for creative, tasty, satisfying action. My thanks to Cornel West and his marvelous book, Democracy Matters for his insightful essentials.

DEMOCRACY DEMANDS SOCRATIC QUESTIONING.  The Greek philosopher, Socrates, taught us the importance of freely asking questions.  This takes moral and intellectual courage.  Indeed, he paid the ultimate price for his inquisitiveness.  Our Bill of Rights endorses this privilege, ensuring freedom of expression.  The vital importance of newspapers, "talking heads", the internet, Facebook, Twitter, Olbermann, Maddow, Hannity, Limbaugh are the stuff of democracy.  Yes, we need to sift through the intellectual fog of discerning the truth of what we hear and read, but that is the gift and challenge an open society faces.  We the reader, we the see-er, we the hearer, have the responsibility to discover the truth.  But the pay-off has a tremendous upside!  Being informed we can more readily make wise judgments, at least in theory!  Consider the revolution in Egypt.  Some consider this the first internet, Twitter, cell phone, Facebook revolution, all because people are learning, listening, communicating, questioning together, discovering common ground in realizing the present government does not have good answers to their questions about joblessness, economic stagnation, judicial rights, and more.  Revolutions happen when questions, ideas, values, and people unite.  Open minds and courageous questioning are dangerous to dictators, but fresh air to liberty!

DEMOCRACY DEMANDS PROPHETIC WITNESS.  The Hebrew prophets demanded justice.  They were consistent in their calls for justice for the poor and oppressed, particularly for the widows and orphans.  They called for repentance, for kindness, for mercy, for a fast to "loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free....to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them...." (Isaiah 58:6-7)  Indeed, the Constitution of the United States is a dramatic testimony to this quest for justice.  Lincoln appealed for doing what is right.  MLK, Jr.'s favorite prophet was Amos, and one of his favorite verses was "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream". (Amos 5:24)  Carved in marble at the entrance to the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama are the same words.  In front of the wall is a black marble disk with the names of 40+ martyrs who died for racial justice.  These were witnesses who dared to ask the critical questions surrounding the quest for racial justice.  In Kelly-Ingram Park in Birmingham, Alabama, a metal art form of angry dogs snapping at courageous justice demanders reminds us of the price of courageous questioning in the demand for justice.  Similarly, today in Cairo, in Tahrir Square, questions are shouted and justice demanded.  Democracy NOW!

DEMOCRACY DEMANDS THE BLUES.  Cornel West explains the value of the "blues" as being sensitive to, listening to cries of the suffering.  Only when we are aware of the pain can we ask the questions.  Only when we feel the despair within lives can we demand justice.  The blues are rampant today!  The environment sings the blues, warning us that our world is heating up with dire consequences, that fossil fuels are poisoning the air, that clean water is running low, that the rain forests are disappearing.  In its own way, the earth is crying out: "Give me a break"!  Poverty, joblessness, mortgage fraud, bank and corporate greed.  It was disheartening to read a report from the World Economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, that "all is well".  Sure, if you are a CEO of a major corporation.  Yes, there is the realization in Davos that we are becoming more and more a two tiered world, with the top tier quite well equipped to take care of itself and the rest of us left for the scraps.  Yet, who is compassionately listening to the blues of the world? Who plays the blues?  Revolutions always come from the bottom up.  Revolutions do not always lead to democracy.  Those who sing the blues sometimes vent their rage unjustly.  As much as I disagree with the Tea Party folks, I hear the blues echoing from their lips and hear remedies that will further oppress.

The hope is that Christian witness fits nicely within these essentials.  Jesus is about truth and openness.  Jesus questioned authority.  Jesus demanded justice and mercy.  Jesus listened to the blues of the people.  Jesus was essential to the liberation of life.  Today, Jesus is essential for the furtherance of democracy.  Jesus is alive today!  Christians awake!  Church act!  You are the seeds of democracy!

Peace!
Ron