Category: Faith and Politics

Biblical Reflections on Greed and Social Justice: A Note from Amos and Jesus to the U.S. Congress

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Government Reform

I’m at a loss as to what to say with regard to the Big Hateful Bill the Republicans in Congress just passed by one lousy vote. I don’t understand how those 215 people who voted for this bill to literally take food and healthcare from the most needy Americans and give that money to the most wealthy 1 % of our population can live with themselves.

But since greed and hate have been around as long as humans have I think these these words from the Judeo-Christian Scriptures should speak loud and clear to our 100 Senators who now have the fate of this cruel and ugly bill in their hands.

“Listen to this, you who walk all over the weak,
    you who treat poor people as less than nothing,
Who say, “When’s my next paycheck coming
    so I can go out and live it up?
How long till the weekend
    when I can go out and have a good time?”
Who give little and take much,
    and never do an honest day’s work.
You exploit the poor, using them—
    and then, when they’re used up, you discard them.

God swears against the arrogance of Jacob:
    “I’m keeping track of their every last sin.” (Amos 8, The Message)

Or since so many of you Senators claim to be Christians, how about these words from Jesus himself:

“You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’  Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’  And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:41-46 NRSV)

Fiddling While Democracy Burns: A Modern Parable

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, climate change, Faith and Politics, Government Reform

Art often speaks more profoundly about the challenges of life than ordinary words can convey.  And just as often most of us don’t have ears to hear what the artists and visionaries are trying to tell us, at least until fiction becomes our reality.  Among other dystopian prophets I am thinking of George Orwell’s “1984,” Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games,” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Or from the Judeo-Christian Scriptures Amos and other prophets pronounce judgment on their own people for their violation of their covenant with Yahweh.  Here’s a sample from Amos:

“Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord
    and have not kept his statutes,
but they have been led astray by the same lies
    after which their ancestors walked.
So I will send a fire on Judah,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.

Thus says the Lord:  For three transgressions of Israel,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they sell the righteous for silver
    and the needy for a pair of sandals—
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth
    and push the afflicted out of the way;” (Amos 2:4-7)

Anyone tempted to bow down to the idol of Christian Nationalism would do well to ponder these warnings. 

One of my favorite musicals has always been “Fiddler on the Roof.” Its theme of love conquering oppression never seems out of date and is all too relevant today. In fact when I thought about the symbolism of Fiddler I discovered that I wrote about it, not coincidentally, in 2019 during Trump’s first term.  The parallels today are even more stark.  In “Fiddler” the Jewish village of Anatevka is being forced to flee their beloved home because of Russian persecution.  We are living through such terrifying times right now in our once beautiful democracy.

Here’s what I wrote about Fiddler during Trump 1.0:  “Some of Fiddler’s insights are so good I am tempted to call it the Gospel according to Tevye. I was in a discussion the other day about praying for President Trump, and all of us present agreed we should and he certainly needs it. His erratic and delusional Messianic references to himself since then only confirm that conclusion.

One of the first things that came to my mind about praying for the President is a line from Fiddler where a Rabbi says this prayer: “God bless and keep the czar—far away from us.” On a more serious note I think one of the best parts of Fiddler is the opening where the title and its metaphor for life are explained.

“Away above my head I see the strangest sight
A fiddler on the roof who’s up there day and night
He fiddles when it rains, he fiddles when it snows
I’ve never seen him rest, yet on and on he goes

{Refrain}
What does it mean, this fiddler on the roof?
Who fiddles every night and fiddles every noon
Why should he pick so curious a place
To play his little fiddler’s tune

An unexpected breeze could blow him to the ground
Yet after every storm, I see he’s still around
Whatever each day brings, this odd outlandish man
He plays his simple tune as sweetly as he can

{Refrain}

A fiddler on the roof, a most unlikely sight
It might not mean a thing, but then again it might!”

And then Tevye says, “A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask ‘Why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous?’ Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!”

Our traditions of love, compassion, hospitality and justice are under attack, but they are the solid rock and anchor we can cling to in each and every storm; and if we do we will still be around after the perils of this present age are no more.”

Today in 2025 when the prospects of anyone stopping the fascist overthrow of our democracy seem pretty slim I need to amend that last sentence.  I no longer am so confident “we will still be around” when this nightmarish storm is finally over.  I continue to hope that enough Republican members of Congress will find the courage to stop the carnage.  They are the only ones standing between us and a total dictatorship. 

Just this weekend Trump has begun ignoring court orders to stop illegal deportations.  He has also revoked pardons for some on his political enemies hit list that were issued by President Biden.  Can the Fiddler keep scratching out a simple tune or has that metaphor shifted to fiddling while our democracy burns?

And most tragic to me is that it is not just democracy burning.  Among his more than I can count acts of treason Trump has destroyed the departments and the international efforts dedicated to fighting climate change.  Mother Nature is no respecter of political ideologies.  Red and blue states are suffering the ravages of extreme weather disasters caused by climate change, and this administration simply doesn’t care.  Trump, Musk and their billionaire class only care about personal wealth and power.  But if we fail to preserve our only home in the universe nothing else is going to matter. 

So here we are, and so far there is a thread of hope symbolized by a bunch of courageous protestors who are individually and collectively fiddlers on the roof, and the question hangs in the air now as it did in Anatevka:

“A Fiddler on the roof, a most unusual sight…. It may not mean a thing, but then again it might.”

*music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

Searching for Calm in Crisis

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Government Reform, hope

I’ve been struggling a lot since January 20 to keep my sanity, and I know I’m not alone. No matter how many times I tell myself that I need to not dwell on the political mayhem I don’t seem to be able to stop myself from checking my phone or turning on the tv or radio to see what the latest chaotic news out of Washington is.

When a friend asked me recently how I was, my reply was something like this: “I’m dismayed, disgusted, depressed, disillusioned, displeased, despondent, and distressed. (Full disclosure – this was at the beginning of a zoom call and knowing I would probably be asked some version of “how are you” I had rehearsed my answer knowing that this friend would immediately understand what I was saying.

While I certainly intend no implication that my situation resembles what Jesus was dealing with in the Gospels, the need for finding peace and relief from my anxiety brought to mind two passages in Mark’s Gospel.

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” (Mark 1:35-37)

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:30-34)

Jesus can’t escape the demands on his time and healing power no matter where he goes. I bet he was glad he didn’t have a cell phone so people could text or call him 24/7 with their requests for help!

But seriously, how do mere mortals like you and me cope with a world gone mad. When there seems to be no end to the pain and suffering the Trump/Musk duo and their minions are willing to inflict on the most vulnerable people in our country and around the world, and we feel powerless to stop them, what can we do?

A friend recently shared a breath prayer from author Sarah Bessey: “Inhale: Show me who to be. Exhale: And what is mine to do.” (From “Field Notes from the Wilderness”). I find the prayer relaxing, but I still am searching for a clear answer to those questions for living my life in 2025.

Paul tells us in Romans that when we don’t know how to pray the Spirit intervenes for us with “sighs too deep for words.” But right now those sighs are too deep for me to understand.

I keep coming back to one of my go to verses in Micah 6:8 where we are told what God requires of us and number one on the list is “to do justice.” But what does that look like in a world where injustice seems to have all the power? Nothing new, of course. That’s the story of human history, but it’s not something I ever expected to have to deal with in my democratic country.

I should have known better. History is full of examples of civilizations and empires that have ceased to exist in any recognizable form. And God knows the United States in spite of many admirable qualities and achievements has an ugly underbelly of racism, genocide, and imperialism that never seems to go away. And here we are in 2025 with a would be dictator using all of those ugly sins of our fathers to try and destroy the foundations of our democracy from the most powerful position in our government.

In the Judeo-Christian Scriptures when God’s people build golden calves or pursue earthly power by putting their faith in monarchs or foreign alliances things never end well. The nation of Israel is split into two opposing countries, carried into exile, and overrun in succession by Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans.

But in all of those biblical disasters somehow there is always a faithful remnant that survives the injustice to renew the covenant with God. If we are living in such a time I am haunted by doubts that I am brave enough to be part of such a faithful remnant. What price am I willing to pay to stand up to the forces of evil?

The good news about being in a time like this is that it is a crucible where the rubber of faith meets the road. All questions are laid bare. Do I really believe in resurrection, or in that moving verse in Romans 8 that I have quoted so often that nothing, “not powers or principalities, or life or death, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God?”

One of my favorite images of faith is the story of Jesus and his disciples caught in a storm out on the Sea of Galilee and these brave fishermen who make their living on the sea are scared to death. When they look around for Jesus to save them they find him sound asleep in the back of the boat. He is literally sleeping through the storm.

As much as I’d like to be that calm in this or any crisis, I am much more ore like the father in Mark 9 who brought his son to Jesus to be healed. When Jesus tells him all things are possible to those who believe the father cries out, “I believe Lord, help my unbelief!”

Or there is this example from American history. “These are the times that try men’s souls” is a quote from Thomas Paine’s “The American Crisis.” Paine wrote this during the Revolutionary War to encourage the American colonists to persevere and fight for victory. Well, we are in another American crisis 250 years later, and the question is will we persevere and keep the faith in the aspirational dreams of equality for all people written by Thomas Jefferson and signed by all the founding fathers who pledged “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.”

The answers to all those questions for me and for our nation are yet to be revealed, but I want to close with a powerful statement from James Weldon Johnson that I read recently in “Sojourners” magazine. His words inspire me.

“I will not let prejudice or any of its attendant humiliations and injustices bear me down to spiritual defeat. My inner life is mine, and I shall defend and maintain its integrity against all the powers of hell.”

May it be so for me and thee.

The Trump-Musk Coup: A Call to Action for Democracy

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Government Reform

“I don’t ever want to lose sight of how short my time is here. I don’t ever want to forget that resistance must be its own reward, since resistance at least within the lifespan of the resistors, almost always fails…” (Ta-Nehisi Coates, “We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy”)

Spoiler alert: this post may seem unfocused and fragmented because by design the Trump-Musk coup is throwing so much chaos at us all at once that it is nearly impossible to stay focused or to know how to resist. Like Will Rogers said, “I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat.” So we have once more underestimated the depth of organization and evil of the Trump led GOP – Gutless Obsolete Party.

My only hope for democracy’s survival is that the better-late-than-never legal challenges to the Musk led destruction of our government will save at least part of our constitutional democracy. I am still searching for what I personally can do to resist. I write here still believing the pen is mightier than the sword, but knowing full well that Trump’s racist, hateful sharpie with which he signs a daily barrage of unconstitutional executive orders carries more weight than my meager words.

I hate what the Musk/Trump duo is doing even as I pity both of them for the total lack of any compassion or human kindness in them. I do pray for them because they both must have led horrible lives of empty searching for love and affirmation to be so void of any empathy for their fellow human beings.

But what bothers me much, much more is the response or lack thereof by the Republican members of Congress to this obvious attack on our democracy. The January 6 insurrection failed by violent means to overthrow our government; so Trump spent the last four years planning a bloodless coup that has moved with astonishing speed in just three weeks. And the tragedy is that it would only take four of the 53 Republicans in the US Senate to have the guts to put their precious seats of power on the line to stop the parade of dangerous, incompetent cabinet appointees from being handed the keys to power. That has not happened because we are told they are afraid of being primaried and losing their seats.

The irony of course is that by failing to do their constitutional duty to provide checks and balances on an unbalanced President they are handing over any power they have. The precious jobs they sell their souls for are empty and meaningless, and if they think this coup will stop before eviscerating the role of Congress completely they simply are not paying attention.

Former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was interviewed last week on 60 minutes by Leslie Stahl who asked some hard ball questions. She reminded McConnell (1) of his brave speech after the January 6 insurrection when he said Trump was unfit to ever serve as President again and (2) that he soon changed his tune to say that if Trump was the Republican nominee he would support him. When Stahl asked him why he changed McConnell’s lame excuse was “Because I’m a Republican.”

No, Mitch, first and foremost you are an American who took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, and you and your cowardly colleagues should be impeached for failing to keep that promise. McConnell gets an extra helping of my ire because of his conspiracy with Trump to stack as many of the federal courts, from the Supremes on down, with equally spineless yes people who have granted Trump immunity and enabled him to avoid any real repercussions for his many crimes.

And it is all so unnecessary. If McConnell had shown courageous leadership after January 6 Trump would have been impeached and prevented from ever doing any further damage to our democracy. So the Gutless Obsolete Party is getting what they deserve, but at the expense of all Americans and millions of people around the world who will literally die because of the selfish, transactional motives of Trump and his acolytes who are cutting off critical life-saving aid to impoverished people all over the world.

If we were truly a Christian nation we would know that we help other people because they need help, not for whatever they might be able to do for us in return. The Good Samaritan didn’t stop to ask what was in it for him if he helped the man in the ditch. He did it because he could, and it was the right thing to do. We must demand nothing less from ourselves as the richest nation in the world.

Oligarchy Inaugurated

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, Government Reform

January 20, 2025 was a day of extreme highs and lows for me and for many of my friends. It is a day that may go down in history as the day the American experiment in democracy died. As of yesterday we are living in an oligarchy, and whether we the people can survive it hangs very much in the balance. It will depend on how much courage enough people can muster to fight for their freedom before it is too late. Our democracy is on life support, and only the citizens of this country can determine if it will live or die.

For millions of Americans January 20 was also a unique and special day in the world of sports. The first ever 12-team College Football Playoffs culminated that evening with a championship game between two historic football power house teams, Notre Dame and Ohio State. Being a life-long Ohio State fan it was a special treat for our local team to play in that game, and for 3.5 hours it was a riveting and welcome distraction from the threat unfolding in Washington D.C.

After enjoying the post-game victory celebration for Ohio State for about an hour I made the foolish mistake of checking my phone for the news before going to bed. Needless to say reading about the plethora of executive orders signed yesterday by our new Supreme Leader quickly put a damper on my spirit. It wasn’t unexpected, and I should have known better; but it was a reminder that a much more important contest is being waged than a football game. It was time to come back to reality.

Ironically yesterday was also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the contrast between his dream for America and the Trump oligarchy could not be starker. One is a dream of justice for all described in the amazing founding documents of our nation 248 years ago. King’s dream is also grounded in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures which describe all people as being created in the image of God. King gave his life as Jesus did proclaiming a Gospel of love and non-violence.

 But the Trump oligarchy is one founded on capitalistic selfishness and greed. It is based on the exclusive doctrine of racism and white supremacy where strangers and neighbors in our midst live in fear of imprisonment and deportation. It is a message of imperialism and American exceptionalism where might makes right. President Trump’s promise of a new Golden Age is a barely disguised reference to the Gilded Age of robber barons which will take us back 100 years,  undoing the hard won progress on women’s rights, unionization, minimum wages, civil rights, global cooperation, the climate crisis, and humane working conditions. We have to look no further than Putin’s Russia to see what the nightmare of oligarchy brings.

Jesus directly warned us in the Sermon on the Mount that we cannot serve God and money (Matthew 6:24), and the proof that we worship the latter in this country was blatantly obvious as the richest men in the world were given the seats of highest honor at Trump’s inauguration. Today I am overwhelmed with feelings of anger, fear, and depression. I feel helpless to know how to combat the evil on full display in the White House. But tomorrow or one day in the future I will find a way to join the 50% of my fellow Americans who did not vote for oligarchy and together with God’s help we will find a way to turn this nightmare into a brighter, stronger, and more just democracy than ever before. I may not live to see that day, but in God’s due time I do believe that “justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)

Jimmy Carter, Servant Leader Par Excellence

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics, spiritual discipline

I came of age politically in the bloody year of 1968, a year of political assassinations and a violent Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Hubert Humphrey, badly weakened by those events and the increasingly unpopular Viet Nam War, lost that year’s Presidential election to Richard Nixon, who won a landslide re-election over George McGovern four years later. I was 0-2 in presidential election votes.

Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace by the Watergate scandal just two years later in 1974, setting the stage for a little-known Georgia governor/peanut farmer to launch an unlikely presidential campaign in 1975. Elected by a razor slim margin in 1976, that 39th U.S. President was Jimmy Carter who died recently at the age of 100.

I have great admiration for this President who was one of the most honest and compassionate to ever serve as our Commander in Chief. His record of human rights promotion and tireless work for peace and justice while in office and for forty years afterward is an example of faith-based servant leadership that few have achieved; but all of us should emulate if we want our badly broken world to survive the current political, economic, and ecological crises facing us.

Much more eloquent tributes than mine have poured in from all over the world since President Carter’s death, but I have a personal memory in addition to all of his remarkable accomplishments. Jimmy Carter was the first presidential candidate I ever voted for who actually won the election. In fact in my first six presidential election cycles Jimmy Carter was my only winner.

In retrospect Carter was too honest and kind to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of Washington politics. So he will not go down in history as a very successful President in spite of remarkable legislative accomplishments, significant civil rights and women’s rights actions, and the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel.

I had forgotten that the two things that doomed Carter’s re-election in 1980, the Arab oil embargo and the hostage take over of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, were done in retaliation for Carter’s peacemaking efforts and his compassionate welcome of the former Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment.

There was also some underhanded dealing by Carter’s Republican challenger, Ronald Reagan, who struck a deal with Iran to hold the hostages until after the election. As I said before, Carter was too honest and kind for political infighting.

As I have listened and read about President Carter in the last week I have been humbled by his faith-based commitment to a life of service in spite of illness and advancing age. He created a new vision of what it means to continue to serve humanity after “retirement” from public service.

He and Rosalyn did more for humanity after the age of 90 than most of us ever accomplish in a lifetime. At the age of 78 I personally have trouble making it through one day at a time, and yet as a cancer surviving octogenarian Jimmy and Rosalyn circled the globe building houses, curing diseases, and promoting democracy.

And in his spare time Carter taught Sunday School for decades and wrote 30 books! How he managed that much writing given his schedule is way beyond me. I self-published one small book 13 years ago and haven’t had the discipline or energy to attempt another one since.

As a pastor I also have great admiration for Carter’s prophetic witness about human rights for women and LGBTQA+ people. He humbly credits his mother Lillian for his inclusive attitude toward all people, and they were both way ahead of their time. Carter was such a man of principle that he left his life-long membership in the Southern Baptist Convention over his denomination’s discrimination against women pastors and leaders.

If anyone has ever deserved to hear the words, “Well done, you good and faithful servant,” it is James Earl Carter, Jr., humble peanut farmer, 39th President, and exemplary servant leader. As I begin 2025 one of my goals is to in some small way live a life worthy of Jimmy Carter’s example.

The Demise of Empathy

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, climate change, Faith and Politics, Government Reform, Uncategorized

“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Jesus, The Beatitudes, Matthew 5:4

Of all the things I am sad about from the recent election, one of the most is my realization that a lack of empathy is largely responsible for the huge chasm dividing one half of this nation from the other.

That should have been obvious to me months, if not years, ago. A President-elect who mocks disabled Americans, who calls a decorated POW a loser, who denigrates gold star families and WWII dead, who calls insurrectionists “patriots,”and who threatens revenge on his political opponents and mass deportation to struggling immigrants is certainly no poster child for empathy.

Full disclosure, empathy or the lack thereof cuts both ways. I cannot bemoan the lack of empathy among others without confessing my own antipathy for those who voted for Trump and his fellow MAGAmaniacs.

That said, I have experienced the lack of empathy on a very personal level as I have tried to cope with my own anxiety and depression about the election outcomes. And by the way, the recent clown car arrivals at Mar-a-Lago containing new cabinet nominees has only deepened my concerns over the future of our nation and world.

To those who have mocked the grief and mourning of those like me who are genuinely fearful about the future, I would says this: Feelings are not debatable. They just are. So when I say I feel like I’m living thru a bad SNL, skit you can’t argue me out of that feeling. It is how I feel and no argument is going to change that.

Even if my Trumpian friends make some good points that we can agree on about the current state of our nation, we continue to disagree on who is to blame for the immigration, health care, economic, and a host of other problems.

While the MAGA crowd holds the government responsible for our societal problems, I argue that big business is to blame for most of our woes. not the government. And that unregulated capitalism will be a total disaster for the only planet we have.

Some justify Trump’s cabinet selection of “successful” business people makes sense because the government is one big business. I disagree strongly that our government is a business. The purpose of a business is to make profit for its owners and stakeholders. That is not the purpose of our democratic government, which is to defend and protect the rights and welfare of our citizens.

Those are two very different purposes. From our history we know that the business leaders/“robber barons” are the very folks who drove us into a worldwide depression in the 1920’s. Unregulated capitalism always favors profit over people. Those same geniuses of business also began the destruction of our planet with the greed fostered by the Industrial Revolution.

Most Titans of business lack empathy for the very people who earn their profits from them, and that same lack of empathy is on full display in the dystopian version of the GOP Trump has and is creating. We dems are so anxious and depressed because we’ve seen this movie before, and it didn’t end well.

And yes, anxiety and depression are also emotions which just are and cannot be argued away. They require empathy for as log as necessary and not argument. I’m sorry some people are frustrated with the prolonged mourning of those who lost the election by a slim popular vote margin, and I hope the MAGA crowd’s optimism about the future holds some truth.

Only time will tell, but my values in life require me to oppose and resist evil and injustice where I see it; and I see it in every policy, threat, and cabinet pick Trump has made so far.

Post Election Grief and Hope

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Politics, self-care

I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed today as my attempts to deny what happened on Election Day increasingly fail. An old Peter and Gorden song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney has been playing in my head since Wednesday morning:

“Please lock me away
And don’t allow the day
Here inside where I hide
With my loneliness

I don’t care what they say
I won’t stay in a world without love

Birds sing out of tune
And rain clouds hide the moon
I’m okay, here I’ll stay
With my loneliness

I don’t care what they say
I won’t stay in a world without love.”

That’s how much of me feels today, and I appreciate all the posts from friends that have affirmed the need to take time for self-care and grief. I’m still functioning, even though I feel like a zombie much of the time, going through the motions of life without much energy.

I don’t know how long this grief will last. It is what it is, and it is important to both embrace it and share it with others who need to know we are not in this mess alone.

In due time the sun will shine again. The birds will sing in tune once more, and together we will create communities of hope and love that can sustain resistance and defiance of a world without love.

Vote for Jesus over Leviticus

by Steve Harsh, posted in Faith and Politics, spiritual discipline, Uncategorized

In a recent blog post (Oct. 9, “Why I Vote the Way I Do”) I told the story of a very satisfying, respectful political argument I had with a friend who holds very different political views than I do. That story ended happily as we agreed to respect and affirm each other’s points of views.

Fast forward to 4 days before Election Day and emotions are running high on both sides of the political spectrum because there is so much uncertainty about how the votes will come out and how supporters of either candidate will respond to the results. I used to love staying up late on election night to watch the returns come in, but I have no illusions this time that we will have a clear winner Tuesday or for several days or weeks thereafter.

Given that context I have been posting everything I think might make any difference in stopping Trump from reclaiming the White House, and my friend from October took strong objection to a post I shared about old rich white men destroying our planet by ignoring climate change to protect their fortunes. I respect her right to disagree, but then she said that I should basically shut up and stop posting because my intelligence level is very low.

I am hurt, angry and disappointed by that attack. I thought we had a better relationship than that. So a few days later I am still pondering how or if to respond. My first instinct was to respond in anger and then hide her responses on Facebook. Then this still, small voice in my head reminded of Jesus’ command in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to “love our enemies.”

That’s probably great advice in these contentious days; so I am praying about what that might look like in this situation.

Meanwhile, the Sermon on the Mount, also was on my mind a lot with regard to Trump’s most egregious threat to date, namely a detailed comment he made on a Fox News interview recently. Trump zeroed in on one of his “enemies within” and suggested former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney should face a firing squad for her opposition to his fitness for office.

The closer we get to Election Day the more paranoid and unhinged Trump becomes. But his threats against his political foes come from a logical progression of his abysmal knowledge of the Christian faith he has co-opted to gain political leverage.

I first noticed this basic theological flaw in Trump’s use of the Scripture to fit his own narcissistic values way back in the 2016 campaign. Trump was asked what his favorite Scripture is. His response was “An eye for any eye and a tooth for a tooth” from the Hebrew Bible book of Leviticus.

Had he read the New Testament where Jesus corrects and updates our notions of God, he might have noticed in the Sermon on the Mount this direct dismissal of the Hebrew commandment.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:38-42)

And if we dare to read the next verses Jesus ups the ante even more.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5 43-44)

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for sissies. We who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior strive for a higher standard; so no matter what unfolds after next Tuesday’s election, Jesus needs to win out over Leviticus.

Why I Vote the Way I Do

by Steve Harsh, posted in Christian Discipleship, Faith and Politics

Recently I got into a friendly political argument with a friend who helps keep me honest when I get carried away and tune out my better angel. She, my friend, asked me to give her reasons to support my political views, and below is what I wrote to her after a few days of wrestling with that challenge.

“I want to respond to a question you raised a few days ago about reasons to support my political positions. I’ve been giving that a lot of thought, and here’s what I’ve decided.

First, I grew up in a very conservative, Republican family and community in deep red NW Ohio. I don’t think I ever met a Democrat until I left home for college at age 20. I was exposed to a whole new world view at Ohio State and then in seminary, and that broader, more liberal world view made much more sense to me than what I grew up with.

I was converted by that exposure to a new way of thinking and became convinced that the Democratic Party, even with all it’s flaws, is much closer to my theological beliefs about the Kingdom of God than the Republican Party. The Democratic Party as I was coming of age supported Civil Rights and women’s rights, and continues to stand for more programs that help the poor and marginalized members of society than the GOP. Those are the people I believe Jesus calls us to care most about.

The differences between the two parties are more clearly visible now than ever before. I find it hopeless to argue over campaign promises or to fact check either party because they all exaggerate and lie to make their points.

The bottom line is that I vote democratic because those candidates in general are more in harmony with the values I try to live by shaped by the life and teachings of Jesus. I hope that makes sense, and I do thank you for pushing me to think more deeply about these issues and for helping me realize when I’ve screwed up when you call me out. Peace and grace, my friend.”

And the best part of this story? My friend replied with a beautiful emoji shower of hearts.