Editor’s (admin’s) note: Lightly edited copy of email I wrote in advance of this month’s appointment with my spiritual director, giving her a heads-up on what I’d been journaling on since our last meeting and, more to the point, helping me focus over time by archiving the emails with my journals on this blog. The video above, featuring Kristian du Mez of Calvin University and Jemar Tisby of Simmons College of Kentucky is available on the Convocation Unscripted YouTube channel.
Hi Sister —
A note to confirm our Zoom session Monday and give you an idea — “fair warning” might be a better word this month! — about what I’ve been up to since we last met. It hasn’t been pretty! I’ve always considered myself a master of the worst-case scenario (that way, I tell everyone, life is a series of happy surprises when the sun comes up on schedule the next morning), but the shocks from the Trump regime keep coming, and they’re much, much worse, and spiritually deflating, than even I had expected.
Some glimmerings of hope, though. Debi and I drove by the demonstration outside the Statehouse about 2 or 2:30 p.m. today, and there were as many as 175-200 people out there in a steady drizzle. (We stayed in the car with the heater on, and honked and waved.) And it was good to meet with the Dominican associates’ Anti-Racism Committee Thursday night, just to be with like-minded people (even on Zoom). A lot of the damage will be irreparable, but I think — “hope” might be a better word — much of can be headed off if enough people of good will act.
Writing this, I just had one of those stray thoughts I’m learning to pay attention to. It prompted me, nudged me, to take a look at the story of young Samuel who hears someone calling his name (1 Sam 3); he’s not sure who’s calling, but he answers “Here am I,” and it turns out it’s his call to prophecy. I don’t want to confuse myself with a prophet, but I’ve got a hunch I should sit with that passage for a while. I feel like I’m called to do *something* but I don’t know how or what.
(Here’s a link. It’s one of my favorite stories from the Hebrew Bible: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%203&version=NRSVUE)
I’m only going to inflict one of my journals on you this month. Two reasons: (1) I’ve been so conflicted, I haven’t felt like very much of my journaling is even worth uplinking, let alone sharing; and (2) most of what I *have* posted is decidedly unspiritual. That said, I’ve been more and more convinced in the last few weeks that we are slip-sliding into some kind of neo-fascist regime. Not Hitler’s Germany (although we do have some of the preconditions that were present in the Weimar republic that preceded it, and, as a Lutheran, I feel like I have a special obligation to be aware of antisemitism). It’s more like Franco’s Spain, or Orban’s Hungary. We’re not there yet, but I’ve studied enough history, including church history, to recognize the parallels, and they’re deeply concerning. Which leaves me thinking about First Samuel.
Here’s the journal excerpt: I titled it “‘Up against a shark, what can a herring do? Be wise, compromise?’ But with Trump’s wannabe Russian empire? Nyet!” — incorporating a quote from the Broadway version of “Sound of Music” and some family stories of the Norwegian resistance during World War II (yes, I’m that alarmed). I tried, not entirely successfully, to be whimsical about it. In conclusion I wrote:
The picture at the head of this post shows a home school in Oslo, where the public schools were taken over in 1943 to quarter German occupation troops. It was smuggled out to the Norwegian government-in-exile and is now housed in the National Archives in Oslo. I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for these underground press photos, ever since I thumbed through Alt for Norge (all for Norway) as a kid. And I can’t help but think of Uncle Ingolf gritting his teeth and trying to act pleasant while his dog snarled at a German soldier in wartime Oslo. Or sneaking pictures of Royal Air Force planes flying overhead.
I guess maybe I need my heroes. At my age, I’m not exactly cut out for “deeds of derring-do.” But what about Timothy Snyder’s positive “little initiatives?” Maybe there are little things I can do. Maybe there’s even still a little room for whimsy. Trump, as we so often hear, isn’t Hitler. I’d say he’s more like Vidkun Quisling, or, better yet, Adenoid Hynkel, the “Great Dictator” in Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 movie. Or tinpot wannabe dictators everywhere.
(How about Donald Duck in the 1943 cartoon Der Fuerher’s Face? The possibilities are endless.)
Like my Uncle Ingolf, I’m an old newspaper guy, a compulsive wordsmith. And I do have a little platform. (You’re looking at it right now.) I guess that makes me a keyboard warrior, aptly defined by Urban Dictionary user “Chi z” (on Sept. 28, 2006) as a person who uses “the power imbued in his weapon (ie. text input ability) […] to manifest his true warrior nature in a safe and removed environment.” Ouch! Ironic enough for you?
But a little irony, I can live with. Especially if it’s mixed with enough humility to keep me on my toes. It’s the platform I’ve got, and, more and more lately, I feel obligated to raise my little voice for the rule of law and small-d democracy. I may not be able to get rid of the fascists in Moscow and the White House. (Spoiler alert: I won’t.) But, hey, we have township and school board elections coming up next month in Springfield. I can at least share early voting information to social media. And I think it’s better, like Timothy Snyder says, than to wait for the next terrible things to happen, and keep happening till “at a certain point, it will seem pointless.” (Link https://ordinaryzenlutheran.com/2025/03/03/resistance/)
Whatever I do, I suspect it’s going to be faith-based. I don’t expect much effective opposition from the Democrats in Congress — it requires quite a different skill set from legislating, especially when they’re in the minority — or the universities. In fact, I’d say the most effective has come from faith-based institutions. I’ve been especially paying attention to Kristin du Mez, the Dutch Reformed historian whom I quoted in my journal on sharks, herring and fascists.
Du Mez (whose Calvinism I appreciate more as I see more of Trump in action) joined with three other scholars of religion on a pre-election “Faith and Democracy Tour” sounding the alarm, and they collaborate now on “Convocation Unscripted” podcasts available on YouTube. They reflect different faith traditions: In addition to du Mez’ Calvinism, historian Diana Butler Bass is an Episcopalian, and Jemar Tisby is Presbyterian. Robby Jones of the PPRI research firm is Southern Baptist. I think (“hope?”) between them, they may have the key to something! Here’s a blurb on their latest podcast it’s way too long, but its YouTube blurb gives you an idea):
In our latest LIVE episode of The Convocation Inscription, we all report from our experiences from the road over the last two weeks—from California, Indiana, Tennessee, and New York. We’re sensing that all of the destruction unleashed by the Trump administration is finally sinking in to a broader swath of Americans, including folks in predominantly white Christian spaces. People are beginning to wake up, not only to the incompetence, but to the critical threat Trump and his presidency is to our pluralistic democracy. We urge people to understand the purges of websites, databases, and exhibits of the lives and work of women, LGBTQ Americans, and Americans of color for what they are—the modern day equivalent of a massive book burning. And we give a grateful shout out to Sen. Cory Booker, who took the record from segregationist Strom Thurman, for the longest speech given in the Senate in our nation’s history—this time calling for a more inclusive vision of America. Finally, we urge people to channel their anxiety, anger, frustration into action by looking for local ways to be loud and to use whatever resources they have now, before it gets even harder, to protect democracy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Crfd5_DNc&list=PLvLx0ZfrEvhUhSdfFDPjvWRRkE9-RQhur
No need for you to watch the podcast, like I said, but the blurb probably explains where I’m at now — what I’m ready to say “here I am, Lord” to — better than I could myself.
Welp, that gives you more than enough to wade through! See you Monday at 6 p.m.
[Uplinked April 5, 2025]
Ordinary Time 