Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Price of Powerlessness

There is a price for powerlessness. The price is anger and hatred. Such is the state of America. Unemployment, foreclosures, high interest rates, depleted savings, a government that seems insensitive, a huge state and national indebtedness, personal debt, CEOs walking away with huge bonuses for driving their companies into the red or causing the financial meltdown, and.... People feel powerless.

So they start buying guns and clearing out ammunition shelves. Walking through the sporting goods section of a Fleet Farm store a while back, I checked the gun section and saw something I had never seen before: empty ammunition shelves. Then I read that gun sales are going out of sight! The SPLC reports that Nativist Anti-Immigration groups have increased 80% this past year, and patriot groups increased by 300% in the same time period since the Age of Obama.

Then there are the Tea Party folks. They are overwhelmingly White, evangelical Christians, and less educated than the average joe six-pack. And we must not forget Sarah Palin. Yes, here she is again. She shouts "We are the party of 'Hell no'!. She posts vulnerable candidates on a map of the Unite States and uses gun sights to indicate the states, and shouts "Reload"!

This is the 1960s redux. The significant difference is that it is the White population doing the marching. It is they who are feeling marginalized. The White power brokers have now taken to eating their own and people are realizing they have been had. It is not simply a question of Black vs. White, or Hispanic vs. White, but White on White. It is not supposed to be this way! So, let's revolt. Toss the tea into the bay! Don't tread on me!

It doesn't matter that 32 million more people will be able to have better access to health care, or that an insurance company cannot cast us off because of pre-conditions or because we get sick while on a policy, or that the "doughnut hole" has been significantly filled, or.... What matters is the old White power guard has been shaken and they are scared.

In this atmosphere of fear, violence erupts. The blame game is played. Blame the politicians who try to include the excluded, blame the other race, blame the illegal immigrant, blame the CEO, blame the liberal church. Lash out, curse, spit upon, throw bricks through windows, make threatening phone calls, cheer on the Glenn Becks of the world, salivate while listening to Sarah, lock and load.

The church needs faithful courage. We have a message of love and peace and justice. We have an opportunity to bring people together, to value points of view, to preach and teach nonviolence and common rights for all. We have a Christ who proclaimed liberty and justice for all. The Christ who came to do a new thing for all. The Christ who lived and died and rose to reconcile us to God and to each other. Jesus is riding into Jerusalem to confront the twin powers of the established religion and oppressive imperial power, not with violence, but with love.

Perhaps the hidden grace within powerlessness is the transforming grace of the power of love. Indeed, powerlessness may open us to practicing the true power that changes the world: the love of God, the Christ.

Peace!
Ron