I love this!!! And just what I needed as I still feel deeply about all of this. We are and were on the right side of this!!! And we all just have to coexist with so many who did not or chose not to be kind and think of our fellow citizens!!! Thank you so very much!!!
I agree Kathy Pollock. Even after losing, I am still so grateful I fought, rejoiced, reveled in those 107 days working to get Harris elected! I am off social media. I have not been able to bring my self to read or listen to legacy media, either. But I have been rereading Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” about his real-life observation of living through the Holocaust. You may think that’s depressing reading, but quite the contrary. My favorite quote so far is “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but by lack of meaning and purpose.” Most of us have been a part of the dominant culture and afforded its security. So this loss is very acutely felt for its injustice. America chose poorly. Even as we tried our hearts out to show the better way. It feels unbearable. Yet, how many people living through unbearable circumstances preserved so we can fight another day? I hope to honor them going forward, as I find relevant, pragmatic actions to take.
Thank you for this. Perspective…and I have too been doing similar reading. Rightly so in seeing other’s struggles and how the lived, persevered and in some cases prevailed…be an example or path to how we start this next chapter. All the best to you and your family.
I recently read a long article about the German Protestant "Confessing Church" during the 1930s and 1940s. The Confessing Church was a movement within German Protestantism that arose in opposition to the Nazi-government sponsored effort to unify all the German Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church.
For German Christians in the 1930s, race was the fundamental principle of human life, and they interpreted and effected that notion in religious terms. German Christianity emphasized the distinction between the visible and invisible church. For these German Christians, the church on earth was not the fellowship of the holy spirit described in the New Testament but a contrast to it, a vehicle for the expression of race and ethnicity. That made them ripe for the picking as far as National Socialists were concerned, and the Protestant Evangelical Church fell into line, helping to elect Hitler as their Chancellor.
After Hitler had been elected, a rally of German Christians was held at the Berlin Sportpalast, where banners proclaimed the unity of National Socialism and Christianity, interspersed with the omnipresent swastikas. One speaker, Reinhold Krause, was a school teacher and the Berlin district leader of the German Christians. He advocated the abandonment of the Old Testament with its tales of "cattle traders and pimps" in front of twenty thousand people. Resolutions were also proposed that would require all pastors to take a personal oath to Hitler, to require all churches to adopt and implement the Aryan Paragraph and to exclude converted Jews and their descendants from the church. Discussed from the stage were the following:
- the removal of all pastors unsympathetic with National Socialism;
- the expulsion of members of Jewish descent, who might be arrogated to a separate church;
- the implementation of the Aryan Paragraph church-wide;
- the removal of the Old Testament from the Bible;
- the removal of "non-German" elements from religious services;
- the adoption of a more "heroic" and "positive" interpretation of Jesus, who in pro-Aryan fashion should be portrayed to be battling mightily against corrupt Jewish influences.
Sound familiar? How about our "name it and claim it" prosperity gospel; American Christian Nationalism; the re-writing of whole sections of the Bible to make the Prophets and Jesus appear "less weak" and "less woke"; and Jesus portrayed as a warrior battling mightily against LGBTs, "woke", people of color, "dangerous liberals" and "uppty women".
It didn't take too long for the German government to backstab the Evangelical Church, telling them: "Positive Christianity is National Socialism ... [and] National Socialism is the doing of God's will.... Dr. Zoellner ... has tried to tell me that Christianity consists in faith in Christ as the Son of God. That makes me laugh ... Christianity is not dependent upon the Apostle's Creed .... [but] is represented by the Party .... the German people are now called ... by the Führer to a real Christianity .... The Führer is the herald of a new revelation." On the other hand, there wasn't much pushback from the Evangelical Church, who were only too happy to go along with Hitler's "Volkish" reimagining of Christianity.
Again, this should sound familiar: Think of Donald Trump -- by his own admission, an atheist, saying he is a Christian (one who can't quote a single passage from the Bible ); who "loves Christians so much they'll never have to vote again".
Enter the Confessing Church as a reaction to the Aryan Evangelical Protestants. What happened if you were a clergy member of the Confessing Church? You might deal with armed SS troops storming your church on a Sunday morning and murdering you in the pulpit -- if you were lucky. If you weren't shot on the spot, you would certainly be "interrogated" (read: tortured) and then sent to a concentration camp. If it was learned that you had been harboring Jews, Roma, Sinti or Slavs -- then you'd probably go to Auschwitz. If you were a parishioner, you could count on being interrogated and likely sent to a concentration camp. Hitler wanted for all Germans to be on the same page.
And yet the Confessing Church persisted. Several of their leaders did, in fact, go to concentration camps. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed just before the end of the war. The Confessing Church was the first to state, after the war was over, that they could have done more to help those who were being persecuted (Jews, Roma, Sinti, Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses, political dissidents, etc.). We certainly didn't see anybody from the Evangelical Church stepping up to the plate to offer an apology.
Where am I going with this? After the election, I reached the point of rejecting God. It certainly appeared that "God had given us up" (Romans 1:24); and it sure seemed like God had turned God's back on us and left us to our own devices. I stopped praying. I stopped taking Communion. (I also came down with the worst case of pneumonia I've had in four decades!) I had decided I wasn't going to celebrate Christmas this year.
On Facebook, I went for broke: I posted that I had come to HATE the word "Christianity" and desperately wished there were any other word or phrase to describe myself. I figured I'd be excommunicated for that. Instead -- and this was a little miracle -- a half dozen people IM'd me to tell me they felt exactly the same way. Some were now calling themselves "Followers of Christ". Some were using their denominational name to self-identify. (I'm an Episcopalian.) All had the same feeling I did: they were repulsed by evangelical, Trump-worshiping Christians and how those "Christians" had co-opted and poisoned the name, "Christian".
And then I read about the Confessing Church, and how despite near-impossible odds they stayed true to the faith; and I decided if they could do this and oppose a corrupted Church, even at risk to their lives, and stay true to their faith -- there's no reason why I couldn't do the same.
So yesterday, I put up the Christmas tree, prepared the Advent candles and lit the first of them, and took Communion (from home: my lungs are still in pretty bad shape!). I will oppose Donald Trump and his reign of evil; I will oppose the evangelical, Trump-worshiping MAGAs; and I will continue to live my faith even if I have to die for it.
For the record -- I'm 70, and I've had a good life. If the MAGAs decide I need to be "silenced" -- so be it. At least I will have made things more difficult for them.
I am feeling the same way. I have not attended church for a couple of months. I was invited, by a Democratic friend, to a Christmas concert that she sang in. It was lovely and very nice to see her. I had a difficult time sitting in the pews and looking around wondering how many "Christians" were there that voted for Trump.
Love this. Let’s try to live out the Gospel in spite of the white evangelical homophobia racism and misogyny. They really have no idea what Christs message was.
In many ways I now think a “ kick in the head” was exactly what America needs. We really have been casually thinking we are the “BEST”, without really acting out what that means.
We now can take a deeper, longer look at ourselves and learn every day when this false and critically damaged group starts to make things even more unconstitutional and illegal. Those who think this is a game?!?!?!? These people who think they will just come in and start making up the laws to protects only them, to start taking your individual freedom away, to give only themselves bigger pieces of the collective pie( America), those people who have never been accountable for blatant lying, for blatant stealing, for corruption more massive than any recently paid attention to. Maybe, just maybe this “kick in the ass” might generate the energy that spells” no you won’t”. Stand up real Americans and pay notice to a serious “kick in the head”. We are only as good as we really are. Not as good as we pretend to be.
Let’s clear our windshields and start cleaning up the disgrace we’ve allowed to happen while letting” MAGA hands”
Steal our reputation and our freedom. Let’s first admit how embarrassing this is in the light of our reputation and set it right. Accept no shit from lying, crooked, corrupt. greedy humans who forgot “we ain’t going back!”
My husband and I used to do a lot of scuba diving, traveling throughout the world, starting with Bush Jr in office. I can tell you that most of the world started realizing that America was not the "best" and it was all a facade. We spent many trips just trying to alleviate fears that not all of us were nincompoops.
So many of my former teaching colleagues were uplifted by the Harris/Walz campaign. Just think: two candidates who embody ALL the elements of leadership and fair play that we had taught over the 40 years or so that we led classroom studies. Did we fail our students in embracing and teaching about fair play, honest law applications, open armed borders? Did we hesitate to call out the historic one-sided decisions that have resulted in many wars, in clear oppression of minorities, of subjugating women? Did we fail? And the answers that we admitted were what I expected: no--no failure. Just plain, hard-worked teaching about how some decisions have led to later serious complications. AND--what decisions were we seeing today that will certainly result in future complications and societal failures? "All men are created equal" was the key statement that gave the lie to the 'framers' creation of a social structure to support and defend the landed gentry, the wealthy white men, the educated v. the intentionally non-educated. We knew that the books we were using were one-sided and we reconstructed our lessons to reflect a more fair-sided learning and a refusal to let the intentionally one-sided books go unchallenged. So, now our challenge is to continue to call out and reveal openly the one-sided decisions about to be made, especially those that are couched in some kind of bastardized 'Christian' Nationalism, white supremacist, male dominant, racist and divisive government for the next four years.
We are all going to need to give a collective effort to make sure it ends in 4 years, and not for the rest of America's future before it ultimately crumbles. And it most certainly will.
If anything I am encouraged! So much enthusiasm rallied in those 107 days-we cannot stop now! More people voted against Trump than for, as he did not get 50% of the popular vote. I will start monitoring the local elections (starting with the school board) all up the chain. It all matters! Onward!
I feel it necessary to say this...not all the true Christians really "knew" about Trump and his plans, one being my oldest adult child. She loves God/Jesus very much (and lives it) and truly was duped. I tried to have a conversation about this with her, and she got angry and I burst into tears. BUT, she stopped short and said, "but thankfully we love each other enough not to let this come between us". She is one of two people I have in my life that voted for him, neither of them had heard of Agenda 47 nor Project 2025. I do believe there are true Christians out there that didn't do their research and simply took him at his word. Not defending them, just saying I don't believe that everyone that voted for him really understood what they were voting for...please don't stone me...
No offense, but didn't you talk to her about this? Project 25 is basically a threat to our daughters, not only in misogynistic ideas, but with their healthcare.
I don’t think we fully reckoned with the willful ignorance, gullibility, racism, and sexism of many of our neighbors. Then there is the right wing corporate media echo chamber, plus billions of dollars poured into the right wing campaign, thanks to the Citizens United opinion by the corrupt justices on the highest court. No campaign is perfect, but I, personally, failed take into account the inflation factor.
What bothers me the most is the reaction from so many inside my own church. I'm having a real crisis of conscience about this. How can I minister to these people in an authentic manner when my heart is breaking and they are laughing?
John, first I love your heart! Second, I love your words! Third, I love the space you have created!
No... we're not going back! Those of us who for 107 days lived what's POSSIBLE, are definitely NOT going back! I choose to daily look for what's possible and find ways to make it happen. LOVE is a powerful FORCE!
We mobilized, and quickly. And we are still not going back. That energy is still alive in us. Building community where we are, protecting each other, helping each other through the next 4 years, is no small thing. And gearing up for the election cycle in 2026, when people may be disenchanted with this chaotic, morally bankrupt administration is crucial. We may each be only one person but there are many ways to support justice and the earth.
I love this!!! And just what I needed as I still feel deeply about all of this. We are and were on the right side of this!!! And we all just have to coexist with so many who did not or chose not to be kind and think of our fellow citizens!!! Thank you so very much!!!
I agree Kathy Pollock. Even after losing, I am still so grateful I fought, rejoiced, reveled in those 107 days working to get Harris elected! I am off social media. I have not been able to bring my self to read or listen to legacy media, either. But I have been rereading Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” about his real-life observation of living through the Holocaust. You may think that’s depressing reading, but quite the contrary. My favorite quote so far is “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but by lack of meaning and purpose.” Most of us have been a part of the dominant culture and afforded its security. So this loss is very acutely felt for its injustice. America chose poorly. Even as we tried our hearts out to show the better way. It feels unbearable. Yet, how many people living through unbearable circumstances preserved so we can fight another day? I hope to honor them going forward, as I find relevant, pragmatic actions to take.
Thank you for this. Perspective…and I have too been doing similar reading. Rightly so in seeing other’s struggles and how the lived, persevered and in some cases prevailed…be an example or path to how we start this next chapter. All the best to you and your family.
I recently read a long article about the German Protestant "Confessing Church" during the 1930s and 1940s. The Confessing Church was a movement within German Protestantism that arose in opposition to the Nazi-government sponsored effort to unify all the German Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church.
For German Christians in the 1930s, race was the fundamental principle of human life, and they interpreted and effected that notion in religious terms. German Christianity emphasized the distinction between the visible and invisible church. For these German Christians, the church on earth was not the fellowship of the holy spirit described in the New Testament but a contrast to it, a vehicle for the expression of race and ethnicity. That made them ripe for the picking as far as National Socialists were concerned, and the Protestant Evangelical Church fell into line, helping to elect Hitler as their Chancellor.
After Hitler had been elected, a rally of German Christians was held at the Berlin Sportpalast, where banners proclaimed the unity of National Socialism and Christianity, interspersed with the omnipresent swastikas. One speaker, Reinhold Krause, was a school teacher and the Berlin district leader of the German Christians. He advocated the abandonment of the Old Testament with its tales of "cattle traders and pimps" in front of twenty thousand people. Resolutions were also proposed that would require all pastors to take a personal oath to Hitler, to require all churches to adopt and implement the Aryan Paragraph and to exclude converted Jews and their descendants from the church. Discussed from the stage were the following:
- the removal of all pastors unsympathetic with National Socialism;
- the expulsion of members of Jewish descent, who might be arrogated to a separate church;
- the implementation of the Aryan Paragraph church-wide;
- the removal of the Old Testament from the Bible;
- the removal of "non-German" elements from religious services;
- the adoption of a more "heroic" and "positive" interpretation of Jesus, who in pro-Aryan fashion should be portrayed to be battling mightily against corrupt Jewish influences.
Sound familiar? How about our "name it and claim it" prosperity gospel; American Christian Nationalism; the re-writing of whole sections of the Bible to make the Prophets and Jesus appear "less weak" and "less woke"; and Jesus portrayed as a warrior battling mightily against LGBTs, "woke", people of color, "dangerous liberals" and "uppty women".
It didn't take too long for the German government to backstab the Evangelical Church, telling them: "Positive Christianity is National Socialism ... [and] National Socialism is the doing of God's will.... Dr. Zoellner ... has tried to tell me that Christianity consists in faith in Christ as the Son of God. That makes me laugh ... Christianity is not dependent upon the Apostle's Creed .... [but] is represented by the Party .... the German people are now called ... by the Führer to a real Christianity .... The Führer is the herald of a new revelation." On the other hand, there wasn't much pushback from the Evangelical Church, who were only too happy to go along with Hitler's "Volkish" reimagining of Christianity.
Again, this should sound familiar: Think of Donald Trump -- by his own admission, an atheist, saying he is a Christian (one who can't quote a single passage from the Bible ); who "loves Christians so much they'll never have to vote again".
Enter the Confessing Church as a reaction to the Aryan Evangelical Protestants. What happened if you were a clergy member of the Confessing Church? You might deal with armed SS troops storming your church on a Sunday morning and murdering you in the pulpit -- if you were lucky. If you weren't shot on the spot, you would certainly be "interrogated" (read: tortured) and then sent to a concentration camp. If it was learned that you had been harboring Jews, Roma, Sinti or Slavs -- then you'd probably go to Auschwitz. If you were a parishioner, you could count on being interrogated and likely sent to a concentration camp. Hitler wanted for all Germans to be on the same page.
And yet the Confessing Church persisted. Several of their leaders did, in fact, go to concentration camps. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed just before the end of the war. The Confessing Church was the first to state, after the war was over, that they could have done more to help those who were being persecuted (Jews, Roma, Sinti, Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses, political dissidents, etc.). We certainly didn't see anybody from the Evangelical Church stepping up to the plate to offer an apology.
Where am I going with this? After the election, I reached the point of rejecting God. It certainly appeared that "God had given us up" (Romans 1:24); and it sure seemed like God had turned God's back on us and left us to our own devices. I stopped praying. I stopped taking Communion. (I also came down with the worst case of pneumonia I've had in four decades!) I had decided I wasn't going to celebrate Christmas this year.
On Facebook, I went for broke: I posted that I had come to HATE the word "Christianity" and desperately wished there were any other word or phrase to describe myself. I figured I'd be excommunicated for that. Instead -- and this was a little miracle -- a half dozen people IM'd me to tell me they felt exactly the same way. Some were now calling themselves "Followers of Christ". Some were using their denominational name to self-identify. (I'm an Episcopalian.) All had the same feeling I did: they were repulsed by evangelical, Trump-worshiping Christians and how those "Christians" had co-opted and poisoned the name, "Christian".
And then I read about the Confessing Church, and how despite near-impossible odds they stayed true to the faith; and I decided if they could do this and oppose a corrupted Church, even at risk to their lives, and stay true to their faith -- there's no reason why I couldn't do the same.
So yesterday, I put up the Christmas tree, prepared the Advent candles and lit the first of them, and took Communion (from home: my lungs are still in pretty bad shape!). I will oppose Donald Trump and his reign of evil; I will oppose the evangelical, Trump-worshiping MAGAs; and I will continue to live my faith even if I have to die for it.
For the record -- I'm 70, and I've had a good life. If the MAGAs decide I need to be "silenced" -- so be it. At least I will have made things more difficult for them.
I am feeling the same way. I have not attended church for a couple of months. I was invited, by a Democratic friend, to a Christmas concert that she sang in. It was lovely and very nice to see her. I had a difficult time sitting in the pews and looking around wondering how many "Christians" were there that voted for Trump.
The truth is, no act of love is ever wasted.
We love because God first loved us.
Love this. Let’s try to live out the Gospel in spite of the white evangelical homophobia racism and misogyny. They really have no idea what Christs message was.
Thank you. That’s it, exactly. “No act of love is ever wasted.” We fight hate with love. And God will give us the ability to do it.
I am so grateful for your ministry, John. Thank you.
In many ways I now think a “ kick in the head” was exactly what America needs. We really have been casually thinking we are the “BEST”, without really acting out what that means.
We now can take a deeper, longer look at ourselves and learn every day when this false and critically damaged group starts to make things even more unconstitutional and illegal. Those who think this is a game?!?!?!? These people who think they will just come in and start making up the laws to protects only them, to start taking your individual freedom away, to give only themselves bigger pieces of the collective pie( America), those people who have never been accountable for blatant lying, for blatant stealing, for corruption more massive than any recently paid attention to. Maybe, just maybe this “kick in the ass” might generate the energy that spells” no you won’t”. Stand up real Americans and pay notice to a serious “kick in the head”. We are only as good as we really are. Not as good as we pretend to be.
Let’s clear our windshields and start cleaning up the disgrace we’ve allowed to happen while letting” MAGA hands”
Steal our reputation and our freedom. Let’s first admit how embarrassing this is in the light of our reputation and set it right. Accept no shit from lying, crooked, corrupt. greedy humans who forgot “we ain’t going back!”
I had a similar thought...🙏🙏🙏
My husband and I used to do a lot of scuba diving, traveling throughout the world, starting with Bush Jr in office. I can tell you that most of the world started realizing that America was not the "best" and it was all a facade. We spent many trips just trying to alleviate fears that not all of us were nincompoops.
Need this today…no I’m not going back…have already made some important changes/improvements in my life and will be making more.
So many of my former teaching colleagues were uplifted by the Harris/Walz campaign. Just think: two candidates who embody ALL the elements of leadership and fair play that we had taught over the 40 years or so that we led classroom studies. Did we fail our students in embracing and teaching about fair play, honest law applications, open armed borders? Did we hesitate to call out the historic one-sided decisions that have resulted in many wars, in clear oppression of minorities, of subjugating women? Did we fail? And the answers that we admitted were what I expected: no--no failure. Just plain, hard-worked teaching about how some decisions have led to later serious complications. AND--what decisions were we seeing today that will certainly result in future complications and societal failures? "All men are created equal" was the key statement that gave the lie to the 'framers' creation of a social structure to support and defend the landed gentry, the wealthy white men, the educated v. the intentionally non-educated. We knew that the books we were using were one-sided and we reconstructed our lessons to reflect a more fair-sided learning and a refusal to let the intentionally one-sided books go unchallenged. So, now our challenge is to continue to call out and reveal openly the one-sided decisions about to be made, especially those that are couched in some kind of bastardized 'Christian' Nationalism, white supremacist, male dominant, racist and divisive government for the next four years.
We are all going to need to give a collective effort to make sure it ends in 4 years, and not for the rest of America's future before it ultimately crumbles. And it most certainly will.
If anything I am encouraged! So much enthusiasm rallied in those 107 days-we cannot stop now! More people voted against Trump than for, as he did not get 50% of the popular vote. I will start monitoring the local elections (starting with the school board) all up the chain. It all matters! Onward!
Beautifully written, John. Thank you. 🙏🏻
I feel it necessary to say this...not all the true Christians really "knew" about Trump and his plans, one being my oldest adult child. She loves God/Jesus very much (and lives it) and truly was duped. I tried to have a conversation about this with her, and she got angry and I burst into tears. BUT, she stopped short and said, "but thankfully we love each other enough not to let this come between us". She is one of two people I have in my life that voted for him, neither of them had heard of Agenda 47 nor Project 2025. I do believe there are true Christians out there that didn't do their research and simply took him at his word. Not defending them, just saying I don't believe that everyone that voted for him really understood what they were voting for...please don't stone me...
No offense, but didn't you talk to her about this? Project 25 is basically a threat to our daughters, not only in misogynistic ideas, but with their healthcare.
No, I didn't because I knew she wouldn't hear it. I knew she had already drank the Kool aid…and no offense taken. 💞
I’m sorry. The next years are going to be tough for you. Hang in there mama!
Thank you, I will!! 💙
I also important for me to add that God speaks to me thru music more than any other way. This is the song He sent me: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=FgKfi0G4OFI&si=Wf1g1s7uwaA0osHl
If the link doesn't work or you're understandably afraid to click on it, it's the song "Look Up Child" by Lauren Daigle. 💙
I am NOT going back!!! Let us keep marching forward TOGETHER. Thank you, John.
I don’t think we fully reckoned with the willful ignorance, gullibility, racism, and sexism of many of our neighbors. Then there is the right wing corporate media echo chamber, plus billions of dollars poured into the right wing campaign, thanks to the Citizens United opinion by the corrupt justices on the highest court. No campaign is perfect, but I, personally, failed take into account the inflation factor.
What bothers me the most is the reaction from so many inside my own church. I'm having a real crisis of conscience about this. How can I minister to these people in an authentic manner when my heart is breaking and they are laughing?
John, first I love your heart! Second, I love your words! Third, I love the space you have created!
No... we're not going back! Those of us who for 107 days lived what's POSSIBLE, are definitely NOT going back! I choose to daily look for what's possible and find ways to make it happen. LOVE is a powerful FORCE!
We mobilized, and quickly. And we are still not going back. That energy is still alive in us. Building community where we are, protecting each other, helping each other through the next 4 years, is no small thing. And gearing up for the election cycle in 2026, when people may be disenchanted with this chaotic, morally bankrupt administration is crucial. We may each be only one person but there are many ways to support justice and the earth.
Thanks John. I’m still raging but also strategizing because I am not going back: and we have a lot of work to do.