It’s Almost the 4th of July: What Are We Willing to Sacrifice?
Photo by Timothy Wolff on Unsplash
I was stunned by the Supreme Court majority opinions announced last week on guns and abortion. Emotions in the streets and in tweets remain palpable, from grief to elation.
As Christians and as Americans, we share a civic and moral responsibility to discuss these two decisions with one another—across our religious and political differences. Yet there is an even more urgent task.
Whether we feel jubilation, sorrow or indifference right now, we must each grapple with this question: What are you willing to sacrifice? I ask because this bold, fragile republic is on the ropes. Did you notice?
The searing testimonies and overwhelming evidence coming to light in the House January 6 Committee Hearings are the epoch-defining news of summer 2022. If you are not gobsmacked, you have not been paying attention.
So far, we have heard everyday, heroic defenders of democracy speak up. The vast majority are Republicans who served during the Trump administration. Many identify as Christians. Their sworn testimony is reinforced by over 1,000 witnesses who testified earlier along with 125,000 documents (emails, memos, phone call transcripts, videos, texts, tweets) The tremendous body of evidence makes it plain how far-reaching the attempts were to overturn the 2020 election.
The hard truth is this: Former President Trump and his allies blatantly lied to us. They dragged decent, dedicated, humble, public servants through the mud, endangering and forever altering their lives. They pressured Republican politicians and the highest levels of the Department of Justice to promote false narratives. They strategically and cynically stoked the anger and resentment of Trump voters.
They didn’t pour gas on a fire; they laid the wood, kindled it and unleashed a roaring wildfire on Jan. 6, 2021. Had it not been for the dogged integrity and commitment to the truth of Republicans like AZ House Speaker Rusty Bowers, GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and key DOJ officials (William Barr, Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue), the rule of law in the United States would have perished.
As Judge Michael Luttig (a prominent conservative nominated to the federal bench by George H.W. Bush) wrote in his testimony to the House Committee:
“January 6 was a war for America’s democracy, a war irresponsibly instigated and prosecuted by the former president, his political party allies, and his supporters. The time has come for us to decide whether we allow this war over our democracy to be prosecuted to its catastrophic end or whether we ourselves demand the immediate suspension of this war and insist on peace instead.”
In all honesty, I probably disagree with these men on nearly everything. Yet on these things we agree: the fundamental primacy of the U.S. Constitution; the absolute necessity of safeguarding free and fair elections; facts matter. No one—no matter their power or position—is allowed to distort reality to serve selfish aims. Indeed, if we the people do not agree on these points, we do not live in anything resembling a republic.
In his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. voiced his exasperation with white Christians who professed to be on the side of equality, but who were woefully complacent in confronting the moral evil of segregation:
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of [people] willing to be co-workers with God.”
My grandparents, whom I loved fiercely, were life-long Republicans and Christians. When Nixon’s betrayal became known, without hesitation, they vigorously called him and his toadies out. Will we finally do the same now?
Even more: Are we—The People—willing to sacrifice our most foundational laws and principles to see the policies and people we prefer in power? Is outlawing abortion or expanding gun rights in every state worth sacrificing democracy itself? Right now, numerous states are working to restrict voting rights, gerrymander districts and put Trump loyalists in charge of state elections. Earlier this month, a NM county commission refused to certify the primary results until the NM Supreme Court stepped in.
In 1968, King implored us to awaken to the “fierce urgency of now.” In 2022, we are again at an inflection point.
We Christian Americans could unite around the most basic tenets of our Constitution and form of government. We could insist on facts. We could hold liars accountable. We could extend grace to those defrauded and deceived by the Big Lie. We could vote (just 66% of those eligible made it to the polls in 2020) and help others do so. We could insist on laws to ensure our elections remain the standard bearer of free and fair elections in the world.
And we could again discuss, with sincere ideas and hearts, the hot-button issues of the day— abortion, guns, racial inequity, the climate crisis, LGBTQIA rights, gaping wealth inequity—in town halls, around kitchen tables, in our congregations. So many Christians care deeply about all these issues.
My students look at the state of things and wonder how we (anyone over 30)—have allowed so much structural sin to fester: poverty, hunger, homelessness, intensifying weather patterns. They wonder, “Does anything matter if the future is so bleak?” They are more despondent about their prospects than in the prior 18 years that I have taught. When classes resume in August, do I tell them that they are right—the world is going to hell in a handbasket and there is not much we can do?
Through our collective (in)actions in these precious months, we will make the answer clear. I hope you will help me give them—give all of us—reasons to stay engaged, to hope, to fight and sacrifice for our shared democracy.
Dr. Aana Marie Vigen
Aana Marie Vigen, Ph.D. is a parent, educator, and public scholar. Dr. Vigen is Professor of Christian Ethics at Loyola University Chicago and is an active member of the Lutheran Church (ELCA).
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