Another good essay in the Atlantic analyzed the use of the word "evil" in response to the recent weekend of mass shootings.  It found that the word was used as a way of avoiding clear and difficult thinking and action.  An excerpt:

But there is a difference between acknowledging evil and using it as a scapegoat. There is a difference between the evil that is invoked to inspire conversations and the evil that is invoked to curtail them. Many of the weekend’s political deployments of “evil” served to proclaim the innocence of the system that has allowed mass shootings to become reliably atmospheric occurrences. An unbelievable amount of evil that we cannot comprehend. It conveys an easy kind of ignorance. Crime … boy, I don’t know.

Evil, summoned in this way, is an extension of thoughts and prayers. It suggests, in the face of human-made terror, not only a kind of complacency, but also a kind of helplessness. It treats the violence of mass murder—the shock; the grief; the two-month-old baby whose fingers are broken because his mother, fatally shot, apparently fought desperately to shield him from the bullets—as an abstraction. Evil is its own explanation, the logic goes; it is not interested in causes or effects. It does not want to talk about the violent ideology of white supremacy, or the mechanics of double-drum magazines, or the fact that, in the United States, a person can go to a store and purchase a military-grade weapon with the convenience of benevolent legality. Evil does not want to talk about the National Rifle Association. It makes no room for the uncomfortable details. Evil, used as a talking point, both throws up its hands and washes them.

This is the use of bad political language that Orwell warned us about.  Or the use of cliche that shuts down thinking and empathy that Hannah Arendt warned us of in Eichmann in Jerusalem.  Thank goodness we have her analysis of the banality of evil.  Yes, these attacks are evil, but evil is not something incomprehensible about which we can do nothing effective.  Evil is banal and we can rid ourselves of it by taking the right steps.

A perceptive essay by George Packer in the Atlantic examines political language, particularly that of Trump and contrasts it with the language currently used by progressives.  Some insights:

The strength of Trump’s populist language lies in its openness. It requires no expert knowledge and has no code of hidden meanings. It’s attuned to some of the strongest currents in American pop culture, and it gives rise almost spontaneously to memorable slogans—“Build the wall,” “Lock her up,” “Witch hunt,” “No collusion,” “Make America great again.” It’s the way people talk when the inhibitors are off. It’s available to anyone who’s willing to join the mob. 

***

By contrast, the language of the contemporary left is anti-populist. Its vocabulary, much of it taken from academia, is the opposite of accessible—it has to be decoded and learned. Terms such as centered, marginalized, intersectional, non-binary, and Eurocentric gender discipline separate outsiders from insiders—that’s part of their intent, as is the insistence on declaring one’s personal pronouns and showing an ability to use them accordingly. Even common words like ally and privilege acquire a resonance that takes them out of the realm of ordinary usage, because the point of this discourse is to create a sense of special virtue. Many of these changes happen by ambush—suddenly and irrevocably, with no visible trail of discussion and decision, and with quick condemnation of holdouts—which gives them a powerful mystique.

The language of the left creates a hierarchy of those who get it and those who don’t. Mastering the vocabulary is a way of signaling entry into a select world of the knowing and the just. The system is closed—there’s an internal logic that can be accepted or rejected but isn’t open to argument or question. In this sense, though much of the language of the left has academic origins, its use in the public square is almost religious. The abandonment of language that brings people in rather than shutting them out is one of the left’s many structural disadvantages in American politics today.

Good poem on The Slowdown.

Aloha

Luke 14:15-24

by the Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones

First Central Congregational Church

25 August 2019

 

           

For August and much of September our worship series is Peace Works: Summer Camp at First Central.  Peace Works was this summer’s theme at Kaleo, our denomination’s campground in the Sandhills, and so Katie and I have adapted the curriculum for use as our worship series to round out the summer. 

            Each Sunday focuses on a word or concept from a different culture in order to explore different aspects of peacemaking.  And today’s word is “Aloha!”  A fitting theme for our annual Homecoming Sunday, when we gather for a picnic, music, dancing, and games.  This year we have some special camp-related activities planned during the picnic.

            Our biblical lesson today is one of Jesus’ parables in the Gospel of Luke.  The parables are fascinating stories, often with a straightforward first interpretation and then complex, nuanced interpretations when examined more closely.  Today’s parable is about a banquet:

 

Luke 14:15-24

 

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him,
“Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Then Jesus said to him,
“Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.
At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited,
‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
But they all alike began to make excuses.
The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’
Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’
Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’
So the slave returned and reported this to his master.
Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave,
‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’
And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.”
Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

 

For the Word of God in scripture,

For the Word of God among us,

For the Word of God within us,

Thanks be to God.

 

“How are you going to respond to the invitation?”

God is holding a great banquet and you are invited.  You don’t want to miss out.  If you do, you will miss something wonderful and will regret it later.

According to scholar Anna Wierzbicka, this is the simplest and most obvious interpretation of Jesus’ parable.  Jesus tells a story of radical hospitality.  She declares, “God’s dining hall will be full only if all people take their places.”

But some people are missing out, because they have refused the invitation.  Don’t be one of those people.  Come, experience the bountiful goodness of God.

 

Our summer camp curriculum chose this story of the Great Banquet to introduce the Hawaiian concept of Aloha.  The curriculum stated, “This radical aloha holds a dynamic energy that makes everyone feel respected, welcomed, and loved.”

 

            Have you ever visited Hawaii?  I’ve been fortunate enough to visit twice.  The first time was the summer after my senior year in high school when my Mom took my sister and me to Honolulu.  She and Dad had lived there as newlyweds when Dad was stationed at Pearl Harbor as a sailor in the US Navy.  Mom has always spoken with nostalgic longing about her time living in Hawaii, and while we were there in 1992 she had a youth and a vitality.

 

            Five years ago Michael and I went to the Big Island to celebrate my fortieth birthday.  We went in the middle of an Omaha winter.  The day we returned home to Omaha the temperature in Kona was 92 and the temperature at Eppley Airfield was 2. 

            That trip we were greeted at the airport by Kathy and Gary McConnell who had beautiful leis of fresh flowers and helped us get our luggage and rental car, and settled into our B&B.  They welcomed us with a true Spirit of Aloha.

            So, if you’ve been to Hawaii, you know how overwhelmingly kind and ubiquitous this spirit of Aloha is. 

 

“Aloha means hello, goodbye, welcome, and love.”  We know it as a greeting, but the word conveys an approach to life, a spirit of kindness, compassion, and gratitude.  According to Pono Shim and Ramsay Taum, Aloha “is a spiritual principle that conveys the deepest expression of one’s relationship with oneself, the creative and life-giving forces, one’s family and community, and with one’s friends and strangers.”

Aloha is an invitation to be in a deeper relationship.  To live a better life.

            Pilahi Paki, who was the author of Hawaii’s “Aloha Spirit Law,” described Aloha by turning the word into an acrostic of other Hawaiian words:

 

A – is akahai (ah-kah-high), which means gentleness, kindness, caring.

L – is lokahi (loh-kah-hee), meaning unity, harmony, oneness, being of one mind.

O – is 'olu'olu (oh-luh-oh-luh), an expression of cheerfulness brought about by a feeling of pleasantness, kindness, comfort and a positive attitude.

H – is ha'aha'a (hah-ah hah-ah), a word expressing humility and meekness.

A – is ahonui (ah-ho-nuh-wee), which expresses patience, endurance, perseverance

 

            What wonderful ideas.  We all need more of these traits in our lives.  In fact, Pilahi Paki worried that in the twenty-first century, the world would be in conflict and would require the Spirit of Aloha of the Hawaiian people.

            Will we accept the invitation to live the Spirit of Aloha?

 

            Hawaiian culture has left a significant mark upon the United Church of Christ.  If you ever attend a General Synod, there are always expressions and representations of Hawaiian culture.  This is because Hawaii is one of the places we have many churches and our denomination is strong.

            Of course, there is an historical reason for this—Congregationalist missionaries were among the first colonizers of the Hawaiian Islands.  One of the sad chapters in our history is the way we participated in conquering the islands, removing the queen, setting up economic exploitation of the people, and attempting to rob them of their culture. 

We can hear the pain we caused in the words of Queen Liliuokalani.  Please pick up one of the black New Century hymnals and turn to hymn number 580.  It is “O Kou Aloha No” also known as “The Queen’s Prayer.”  This is the prayer that Liliuokalani wrote while imprisoned.  The UCC asks that we only ever sing it in Hawaiian, but the translation into English is printed below:

 

Your love is in heaven and your truth so perfect.  I live in sorrow imprisoned; you are my light, your glory my support.  Behold not with malevolence the sins of humankind, but forgive and cleanse.  And so, O Lord, beneath your wings be our peace forever more.

 

            In 1993 the United Church of Christ formally apologized for its actions in the nineteenth century, and we sought to make reparations for the harm our predecessors did.  In the decades since, we work in a spirit of reconciliation, strengthening our relationships with the Hawaiian culture we once tried to eradicate. 

When I was serving as a pastor in Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Association of the United Church of Christ had an on-going ministry in our state prison system for Native Hawaiians.  At the time Hawaii was renting space from the State of Oklahoma for incarcerating inmates.  Can you imagine living your whole life on a small Pacific Island surrounded by culture and family and then being sent to prison in rural Oklahoma with no ocean, no tropics, and prohibitively expensive travel for your family to visit you?  So, as part of our on-going acts of repentance and reconciliation, the UCC association carried out a ministry with those incarcerated Hawaiians that created time and space for them to practice their culture and spiritual traditions.

 

 

            On Friday, March 13, 1959, on the occasion of Hawaiian statehood, Rev. Dr. Abraham Akaka, pastor of Kawaiahao Church, delivered a sermon to celebrate the day and in that sermon he spoke of the true meaning of Aloha from a Christian perspective and how Aloha helps us to work for people worldwide.

            Rev. Akaka described aloha as “the unconditional desire to promote the true good of other people in a friendly spirit, out of a sense of kinship.”  He continued:

 

Aloha seeks to do good, with no conditions attached.  We do not do good only to those who do good to us.  One of the sweetest things about the love of God, about Aloha, is that it welcomes the stranger and seeks his good.  A person who has the spirit of Aloha loves even when the love is not returned.  And such is the love of God.

 

            Akaka described learning about God as a child, “One of the first sentences I learned from my mother in my childhood was this from Holy Scripture: ‘Aloha ke Akua’ - in other words, ‘God is Aloha.’”

 

            What does Akaka mean, “God is aloha?”  Here’s what he preached that day,

Aloha is the power of God seeking to unite what is separated in the world - the power that unites heart with heart, soul with soul, life with life, culture with culture, race with race, nation with nation. Aloha is the power that can reunite when a quarrel has brought separation; aloha is the power that reunites a man with himself when he has become separated from the image of God within.

 

            And so we understand why in this worship season focused on the tools of peace-making we would turn to this vital Hawaiian idea.  Aloha works at making peace.  For Aloha is the very power of God’s love at work within us uniting us with one another in a radical hospitality. 

            How are we going to respond to the invitation?

Let me conclude by quoting again these words from Rev. Akaka’s sermon:

 

Let us affirm ever what we really are - for Aloha is the spirit of God at work in you and in me and in the world, uniting what is separated, overcoming darkness and death, bringing new light and life to all who sit in the darkness of fear, guiding the feet of humankind into the way of peace.

 

Aloha.

 

The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble But Flawed Ideal by Martha C Nussbaum
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A worthy addition to Nussbaum's body of work as she continues to develop her Capabilities Approach. This particular volume locates her ideas within the broad "cosmopolitan tradition." This tradition that advocates for world citizenship, arises with Diogenes and is developed by the Stoics, Cicero, Hugo Grotius, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant. She surveys the history of this tradition, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, all with a focus on what we can learn from it in order to apply to current issues such as the role of international law, the migration crisis, animal rights, etc.

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I am Jackie Robinson by Brad Meltzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another strong contribution to this excellent series of children's books. This one doesn't suffer from the problem that a few volumes in the series suffer from--too much going on.

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A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works by Baruch Spinoza
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There is joy in returning to a thinker after a quarter century. I read Spinoza in my first semester of graduate school and hadn't ever occasioned to read him again until these last few weeks. I did this time read parts of this anthology and of his masterwork, The Ethics, that I did not read the first time around.

Apparently in class in 1996 we were focused on his metaphysics, so this time I enjoyed reading some of his biblical hermeneutics, psychology, and moral and political thought. I feel as if I come away with a better grasp of Spinoza, his role in the history of ideas, and his influence upon later thinkers.

I was surprised to find some wise aphorisms in The Ethics, which reminded me of Marcus Aurelius. Here are a few examples: "He who lives according to the guidance of reason will strive, as far as he can, to bring it about that he is not troubled with affects of hate, and consequently will strive that the other also should not undergo those affects." "A free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation on life, not on death." "A free man who lives among the ignorant strives, as far as he can, to avoid their favors." "The proud man loves the presence of parasites, or flatterers, but hates the presence of the noble."

But then there are the puzzling ones as well, such as "There are no affects of hope or fear without sadness . . . there is no hope without fear." "Humility is not a virtue, or does not arise from reason." "He who loves God cannot strive that God should love him in return."

Spinoza's work is an extreme expression of the life of reason. This is more fully embodied in his geometric approach to philosophy, presenting definition, axioms, and postulates that makes his masterwork awkward to read.

But as an expression of the life of reason, his philosophy possesses admirable qualities. It represents a high (yet impossible) ideal--the closing line of The Ethics is "But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

But I find him overall to be obtuse and wrongheaded, particularly in his metaphysics which undergirds everything else.

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A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America on the Moon by Suzanne Slade
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the other Apollo book to arrive today. I didn't want our son to only know the stories of the astronauts but also to learn about the work involved in getting them to the moon. This is a wonderful book with great art and fine content that gives Katherine Johnson's story while also highlighting math skills and their importance. Our son has enjoyed all of his space books, and I find him poring over them on his own looking at the pictures.

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Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Since the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing, our four year old has been fascinated by space, the moon, and specifically the Apollo missions. We have encouraged this fascination with toys and books. Two more books arrived today, including this gorgeous one by Brian Floca (we have two others of his).

This book is beautiful art and good free verse poetry. And just the right amount of information and content for our son. I highly recommend it.

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