For the life of me, I can’t get my head around why there is so much turmoil in the world. The awful loss of lives from a week of mass gun violence can’t be forgotten by an explanation of mental illness or the lack of the Senate’s commitment to pass gun control legislation. The most sincere “thoughts and prayers” can’t wipe away the tears and the deeply felt pain of the death of loved ones.
The “great experiment” of democracy is expected to be competitive and at times disagreeable but that is what has made this country strong and a bright beacon in a world tyrannized by people who want relentless power. But it has always been our history that the leader of the free world is expected to be the uniter and not the divider, the example of what is the best of who we are and not the worse, the one who inspires all the people to have hope in a shared future and not solely thinking about one’s own self-interest.
For the life of me, I can’t seem to wake up from this nightmare until I started to think theologically of why the world seems to be the way it is today. When Christ came into the world, he was the light and while the world tried to put that light out, the light of Christ shines from the Resurrection. But it seems to me that the world is still trying to extinguish the light.
When the Apostle Paul was struggling with his faith, he said, “For I do not do what I want, but do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15b) He had an inner conflict while he was a believer of Christ because he was still of the flesh. There was still evil and sin in him.
When I was baptized as a youth, I thought that I would immediately and entirely become pure like freshly fallen snow in a Boston winter. But I quickly realized that I was only able to give to God so much of my life to be redeemed and it’s only when I pass is when I am able to give 100%. There is still dirty snow.
There was this cartoon when I was growing up. The gist of every story is the warring conflict between the good angel and the evil devil. While it was always more fun to do what the devil says, in the end the character is redeemed by doing what the angel said for him to do.
For the life of of me, I can only understand why evil is running rampart in the world is that while we may be “Children of Light,” we are also “Children of Darkness” as Reinhold Niebuhr wrote in 1944. Niebuhr claims that as Children of Light in our democracy to rid evil and govern with enlightened reason, we also need to see some of the wisdom from the Children of Darkness whose ruthless cynicism and corruption should be repudiated. He wrote, “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”
The belief of supremacy and particularly white supremacy in God’s realm is evil and sinful. In God’s eyes, every person is lovingly created in God’s own image. As Christians who have seen the Light of Christ for the life of me, I believe we need a strong and vibrant democracy to hold in check the injustice and evil that is still in every one of us.