Some thoughts on Thursday's gathering

We had a wonderful evening on Thursday. We had about 70 people come out on a cold, wintry night. It was so good to be together, and I was grateful for Kate’s wisdom and vulnerability. We should have the video ready by Monday. In the meantime, I want to give you a few thoughts and resources to consider.

As I prepared for last night’s gathering, I found myself going back to 9/11. That event, and all that came after it (war, torture, kidnapping, drone strikes, Guantanamo, etc.) pushed me into political consciousness. I was 25 (and 1 day) on 9/11. I was born on September 10, 1976. It turns out that the presidential election of November 1976 was one of the few elections of my lifetime in which a Democratic president ran well with white Evangelicals. As you can see, not even Jimmy Carter, a committed Southern Baptist, could get a majority of white evangelicals in 1976. And by 1980, Carter had lost major ground, getting only 33% of the white evangelical vote. Bill Clinton nearly matched Carter’s percentage of the white evangelical vote in 1996. I suspect that Clinton’s southern roots were a major factor. Also, Bill Clinton was an incredible political talent (and a sexual predator who should have been removed from office).

For reasons that I do not entirely remember, I was strongly against the Iraq War. I was also opposed to “enhanced interrogation,” an obvious euphemism for torture. I understood that the label “enemy combatants” was manufactured so that the U.S. could circumvent the Geneva Conventions. I could not support such wanton disregard for human rights and international law.

So when the 2004 election came around, I was adamantly opposed to a second Bush/Cheney administration, and increasingly out of step with the conservative movement on a number of fronts. I was shocked and saddened to see John Kerry lose to Bush. I didn’t understand how so many could overlook the lies, the cruelty, and the lawlessness of the Bush administration.

I happened to be studying at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2004, so I was voting in Illinois. Without fully understanding the gravity of it, I was able to cast my first vote for Barack Obama, who was running for the U.S. Senate. He had electrified the 2004 Democratic Convention with a soaring speech. He was young and dynamic, and an early opponent of the war in Iraq. And in 2008, he chose to go against the formidable Clinton political machine. For me, the 2008 presidential campaign was electric and beautiful. In case you’ve forgotten, listen to the end of this speech from Obama on Jan 8, 2008 in New Hampshire. He had narrowly and surprisingly lost the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton (Obama had just upset Clinton in the Iowa Caucuses).

So much can change in four years, in one year, in an instant. I don’t often celebrate the unpredictability of reality. It can be so painful and frightening. But right now, I find solace in the fact that the future is unknown. I love this short reflection from Ezra Klein on advice, experience, and unforeseen change.

Finally, Valarie Kaur’s work on revolutionary love, which we’ve mentioned in past gatherings, has a lot to offer all of us as we navigate painful and divisive times. I’ve broken up her introduction to the Revolutionary Love Compass into three separate videos. The Revolutionary Love Compass has three directions: Others, Opponents, Ourselves. It’s a beautiful vision for putting love into action.

I leave you with this image, this motto, from the Brazilians who opposed Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right authoritarian who was president in Brazil from 2019-2023: “No one let’s go of anyone’s hand.”