Challenging Political Hatred: Lessons from Biblical Figures

“So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.”          2 Samuel 6:15-16

“Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.  For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’ And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’” Amos 7:10-13

“For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, ’It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not.” Mark 6:17-19

At a time when I am beyond discouraged by the political mess my country is in I find it very interesting that all three Scripture excerpts (emphasis added) above are from the lectionary selections for this week. Each one in order describes the life-threatening peril David, Amos, and John the Baptist are in because of their political enemies. For me those three different narratives from different times and situations are a reminder that the political hatred we see today here in the U.S., in Israel and Gaza, in Moscow and Ukraine, in North and South Korean, or between Beijing and Taiwan are not unique to our particular context.

Throughout all of recorded human history people have resorted to violence as the primary solution to disagreements. Rather than use our innate ability to be co-creators of a beloved community, the loudest and most insecure among us have usually risen to positions of power and put human ingenuity to work building bigger and better ways to kill one another. And the vast majority of people are never taught how to critically reflect on the absurdity of the violent approach to life. Not knowing how to face and deconstruct the dark side of human history those people are condemned to believe that the way things have always been is the way they have to remain.

Democracy as a way of governance will only work if our education systems create a well-informed population that can choose leaders wisely. Unfortunately those education systems have failed to produce a critical mass of informed citizens, and the gaps in the curricula of schools and universities have been filled by religious zealots, anti-intellectual politicians, and right-wing media owned and controlled by those who want their politicians to keep in place unjust legal and economic systems that line their pockets.

That system leaves no room for prophets like Amos and John the Baptist to safely challenge the status quo. It leaves no room for visionaries and critical thinkers to combat the destructive forces of the military-industrial complex or the fossil fuel conspirators from destroying our planet. In the rural county where I live there is huge organized opposition to solar farms being built in our area. The solar opponents cite the loss of agricultural land as their rationale for opposition, but instead we are seeing that same farm land sold to developers who smother the earth in asphalt and fill those fields with houses that attract urban sprawl which overwhelms infrastructure and overcrowds schools. How does that make any sense?

Obvious climate crisis evidence like earlier and stronger hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes, and heat domes higher and earlier than ever experienced is ignored by short-sighted and greedy politicians who just want to continue our planet killing lifestyle and “drill baby, drill.” And those incapable of critical thinking for themselves believe what they are told and/or are distracted by fear-mongering racist political speeches.

In the recent Presidential debate I lost track of how many times Donald Trump ignored the questions posed to him by the moderators and blamed almost every problem facing our country on migrants crossing our southern border. Yes, there is a problem there that needs to be addressed, but the same Donald Trump is the one who killed the best bipartisan immigration bill ever proposed with one simple message to his minions in Congress, and he didn’t even attempt to hide his motives for that despicable act. He proudly admitted he didn’t want the immigration problem solved because he wanted to continue to use it as a campaign issue. And his worshipful followers were either unable or unwilling to see the total hypocrisy in that action.

Our myopic society reminds me of a line in a wonderful Ray Stevens song that says, “There is none so blind as he who will not see. We must not close our minds.  We must let our thoughts be free.” (“Everything is Beautiful,” Ray Stevens, 1970).  

But a Google search of that quote revealed a much richer and older history. “According to the ‘Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings’ this proverb has been traced back to 1546 (John Heywood), and resembles the Biblical verse Jeremiah 5:21 (‘Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not’). In 1738 it was used by Jonathan Swift in his ‘Polite Conversation’ and is first attested in the United States in the 1713 ‘Works of Thomas Chalkley’. The full saying is: ‘There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know.”

And so yet another great Hebrew prophet, Jeremiah, reinforces the observation that our problems today are part of the age-old human condition. I find little comfort in that knowledge. In fact it adds to my frustration and despair to know that we are either hard-wired that way, or we are perpetually taught to behave in such self-destructive ways. I refuse to believe the former. I am convinced our individual and collective behavior is socially constructed which means it can be deconstructed and replaced with a more loving and compassionate society.

That is a monumental task but one that is necessary to avoid multiple existential threats to the future of the human race. The problems we have cannot be solved by the educational, economic, religious, and political structures that have created them. The question is do we have the vision, tenacity, leadership, and courage to take on that kind of transformational rebuilding of our communities, nation, and world? The effort has to begin with individual relationships, but it must also include widespread systemic change at every level of our communal life.