This administration’s virulent vacuity

I pray. All the time. It’s rarely obvious. I don’t care to be associated with much of today’s religion, which (with blessed exceptions) I find naive at best or nefarious at worst. If this is disturbing, let’s have a cup of coffee after this RSV departs what’s left of me. I’ve ordered some Bourbon Infused Pecan Coffee from Jumpingoat Coffee Roasters in Cleveland, Georgia. Like those sisters I met in a Mobile monastery in 1972, we can “pray for the world” as we share our individual and collective fears and hopes.

I pray as I process. I’m wired for moments like Friday night Jewish sabbath ceremonies, a Sunday night jazz service, a Midnight Christmas Eve Communion, a Dying Moments ceremony at a Kairos prison ministry weekend, or Barack Obama ending Clementa Pinckney’s eulogy by singing “Amazing Grace.” The Buddhist Walk for Peace has opened an inner dialogue with whatever Christianity is in me and whatever Buddhism might be in me. This nascent Buddhism has been helpful as I deal with RSV. I pray as I write each of these 2,084 posts. It’s a vital part of my ongoing spiritual therapy. By the way “salvation” means “healing.”

I missed church today. I’m more impoverished when I don’t participate. The amazing congregation embodies a kind of diverse community that expresses the best of our world. The staff understands and lives out the concept of Servant Leaders, a much-needed practice that (that our present federal administration seems hell bent to exterminate). Our senior pastor, Kevin Thomas, spoke prophetically at a hearing last week as the Alabama Legislature considers immigration legislation.

I’m still prayerfully processing yesterday’s embarrassing performance at the Homeland Security Director’s news conference (played to an “audience of one” who resides at Pennsylvania Avenue). Much is going on. In case you missed it:

Statement from the U.S. Conference of Mayors Following Death of Another Protestor in Minneapolis.

“This morning, on a street in Minneapolis, at least seven federal agents tackled and then shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the local VA hospital.”

Is this finally America’s breaking point?

The extra-judicial execution of Alex Pretti

Portraits of the Minneapolis Resistance

Execution in Minneapolis

They Keep Lying to Us

Lies and Lawlessness

To help us cope, to pray, to be safe, to be faithful, let’s have a cup of coffee together if possible, or virtually. Be well. Stay warm. Be strong. When it arrives, I’ll give you a review of the Bourbon Infused Pecan Coffee from Jumpingoat Coffee Roasters.

Letters from an American

An essential news source for me is Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History at Boston College. She is best known for her Letters, which are available at the Substack platform. Her Letters provide an essential context that helps me see current events in their broader historical context. It’s one person’s opinion (with extensive footnotes), but if I had to choose one person to provide a reliable context of current events, it would be Healther Cox Richardson. I’m sure she is my most quoted source.

Her Letters are written to a graduate student of history 200 years from now. Ponder that for a minute. She is intentionally writing a “first draft” of the history of our era.

Simply put, her historical anecdotes help me “connect the dots.” For example, she has helped me understand the immediate context of the MAGA movement as turning away from the FDR’s New Deal initiatives that lifted the US out of the Great Depression.

HCR has helped me see the longer context of the MAGA movement as moving the US back to the pre-Lincoln, pre-Civil War era, and the post-Reconstruction era of institutionalized white supremacy.

From HCR’s 7-minute explanation of the diverse anti-slavery coalition of the 1850s in “The Connecticut Forum,” with journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and moderator Jonathan Capehart, October 24, 2024, via YouTube.