What Does Government Look Like in Your View?

Many of us are so taken in by a partisan way of framing the way we think that we have become unrealistic about the role of government and about who and where we are as a country. We are not living a world that looks like it did 250 years ago. We're not a nation of a few million people getting around on foot and by horseback, and we're no longer satisfied with mud streets, reading by candlelight and hand-pumping water from a well. 

'Getting away from it all' sounds pleasant and idealistic which is amusing considering most of us have our cell phones and other devices with us constantly and if the electricity goes out for longer than a few days civilization grinds to a halt.

As much as some of us admire the libertarian way of thinking or claim that we're members of a party which promotes 'small government,' we have moved fully into a society which relies on what the government at local, state and federal levels can provide for us that we cannot provide for ourselves as effectively or efficiently. Call it what you will, but we collectively started working together as members of a civilized society many decades ago and if we don't continue to work together, things will start crumbling. Maybe the outcome would be best, in the long run, but at least consider what we have come to expect:

- We want solid, functioning and well-maintained highways, bridges and infrastructure.
- We want county roads with no potholes. 
- We want effective and well-equipped law enforcement officers and emergency personnel who are at our beck and call. 

- We want a justice system in which crimes are solved quickly and those who are a danger to persons and property are locked up. 

- We want our mail delivered to our front door six days a week. 

- We want a strong military to defend us and national guardsmen for emergencies. 

- We claim that we want all children, veterans, those with disabilities, the homeless and the elderly to be safely housed and well cared for. 

- We want to breathe clean air, drink fresh unpolluted water and eat food which is not going to make us sick or kill us. 

- We enjoy our national and state parks and monuments and want them maintained. 

- We want the fastest Internet and the most reliable power grid and cell phone service possible.

- We want to be free of disease and discomfort and to have the best and least expensive health care in the world.

- We want an outstanding system of public education. 

- We want innovation.

- Many -- within every socioeconomic level -- want and get subsidies, tax credits and government grants for projects.

The list goes on. 

In short, we want it all. We want to live long and prosper, so we make demands. We want safety and freedom. We want convenience and leisure. We want city council to make sure our neighbor mows his yard. We want a strong economy and jobs that pay more than a bare minimum living wage. Many of us don't want regulations. We complain when we don't get everything fast and in the exact manner we believe we should. 

And apparently, especially within the past few years, we have come to expect that nobody should pay for any of it, individually, corporately or as a state or a country. At the very least we want everything at a rock-bottom bargain price. How does this make sense? How does it work? I really am open for suggestions because it sounds like utopia to me.

Ideally, many of these things can and would be taken care of within communities, and I'm a real fan of that notion, but it will take some work getting back to that, and realistically, some things cannot be accomplished at only a local level.

A country populated with less than 3 million people can function in a different, simpler way than a country of over 300 million. Politics has divided us and clouded our thinking in this regard. We have definitely gone overboard in many areas with bloated government, and the pendulum needs to swing back to a more reasonable way of doing things. But if all we're willing to do is throw tantrums when things don't go our way, if we want to continually blame someone else for our woes without taking responsibility for ourselves and those who are less fortunate, if we're not willing to step up and help figure out a more balanced way going forward....well, simpler times will be forced upon us, and I don't think many of us will enjoy it as much as we claim we would.

Remember, Facebook doesn't work without the Internet and electricity.

The Religion of Loudness

Loudness surrounds us. In many circles of public discourse, screeching rhetoric and the need to be the most raucous voice in the room have out-paced critical thinking, common sense, calmness, compassion and consideration for our fellow human beings. This is the case in politics, but it is the case in religion, too, and the two things have become linked together in what should be thought of as an unholy alliance.

Religion, the outward expression of our inward spiritual relationship with our Creator, was not meant to be loud. For those who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus, consider his example. His goal was often to draw away from the crowd, to find time for quiet and solitude, to gain strength from contemplation. When he stepped into the public square, he did not attempt to shout down his opponents and he did not demand that his religion should have any special rights or claims to privilege. 

Yes, he was angry when he drove out the money changers in the temple, and I'm glad he was because it gives us the example we need in a certain context. The anger Jesus expressed was directed at those within his own religion (Judaism in the context of his birth) who were taking advantage of people and misusing power and position. I dare you to find an example of Jesus trying to shout down his oppressors or get in the face of those who were adherents of another religion or philosophy. Did he speak the truth? Yes, but it was the truth in love. It wasn't the "love the sinner, hate the sin" mindset as many have come to understand love. It was simply love. An unconditional love that didn't have anything to prove or an ax to grind, a love designed to heal rather than cause further harm.

But a loud, clanging religion has evolved over time. Rather than the quiet life and loving interaction with the world that is designed to set believers apart, something else has emerged for a large segment of mainstream Christianity in America, something which is less a city on a hill or a candle shining in the darkness and more a white-hot spotlight with a blaring bullhorn attached to it, mounted on a Humvee, roaming roughshod over the streets of the world.

Something dark has emerged which makes it fine to blast (literally and figuratively) other religions, to disparage fellow Christians and to say things in the name of Jesus that are mind-boggling in their hurtful audacity and inappropriateness. For those who are rooting for the likes of Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, that is certainly your prerogative as a citizen, but when support for the mindset they proclaim is applauded in the context of Christianity, there's a problem with that.

Running a campaign laced with rants which feature themes of exclusion, mockery and discrimination based on differentness; demonization of refugees and their religions; talk of carpet-bombing until the desert glows; and other snide, sniping and snarling diatribes, and trying to frame any of it in the context of Christianity leaves me struggling to find words sharp enough to cut through the deception and immorality at the heart of it. 

We didn't arrive at this sad state overnight. Gradually introducing any ideology is the way to make it acceptable and that is how it has come to be that loudness is not only part of our religious discourse, but often it is accepted and applauded in mainstream ways. I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:1, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

It is time to quiet the gongs and still the cymbals. It is necessary for believers to recognize and call attention to the hypocrisy of those who would have us believe hatred is a virtue, and furthermore, we must choose not to take part in it. This situation became acceptable gradually, but if we all were to put into practice the simple loving principle of only doing to others what we wish done to ourselves, then we could shut down the loudness in our own lives and the world would follow.

I have a long way to go before I achieve this in my own life, but I want to always be guided by a still, small voice, not the loudness.