There is a very good article on the America site by Brother Joe Hoover, SJ:
Listen to the saints and mystics: Let nothing disturb you—not even the election. | America Magazine
All of us are feeling stressed and full of angst about how things are going to turn out tomorrow. We need to take a breath of air.
From the article:
"What if she meant it, Guadalupe? Not just for Juan Diego but for anyone at any time. Like people freaking out over this year’s presidential election: “Listen and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety, or pain.”"
"...What if you could take those words to the bank? What if she was saying this not just for an Indian peasant scared for his uncle’s life but for people intensely scared of Donald Trump being elected: Do not be troubled. No, really,don’t be."
"Or Teresa of Ávila. What if she knew what she was talking about: “Let nothing disturb you; Nothing frighten you. All things are passing.” What if the words of the 16th-century Spanish mystic were a potent bit of advice for anyone terrified of any geopolitical concern, let alone a Trump victory. “Let nothing disturb you.” What if this advice (from a doctor of the church) was defiantly sound, for everything. “Patience obtains all things. Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God. God alone suffices.” Let not Donald disturb you."
"...There are legitimate policy disagreements and electoral fears, and then there is the catastrophizing, apocalyptic nature of today’s partisan disagreements and fears. And the question at the heart of it for any Christian is, do the mystical contours of our faith apply even here? Not merely the election but the fate of everything that comes after: the price of food and the availability of housing and the war in the Holy Land and the immigrants at the door and the vulnerable in the womb and the riots over election results and the vengeance against political enemies and on and on."
"...Do dreamy exhortations like Julian of Norwich’s that “all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well” apply even there? Or are such mystical words just too…mystical, untethered from reality, best left for the mauve hallways of leafy retreat houses and not for meaty intransigent political difficulties?"
"...Do the words of Scripture translate even to such a rancorous election? “We know that all things work to the good for those who love God,” writes the apostle Paul. Does this fit? We are tempted to think: All things work to the good, sure, but not in the autumn of 2024."
"During the Montgomery bus boycott in 1954, Martin Luther King Jr. received dozens of threatening phone calls, including one at midnight which almost drove him over the edge. “N—, we’re tired of your mess,” the voice on the phone said. “If you’re not out of town in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out and blow up your house.” King said that in that moment, possibly the most terrifying of his life, he had to “call on something in that Person daddy used to tell you about. That Power that can make a way out of no way.” He said it was a moment when religion “had to become real to me. I had to know God for myself.” King said he heard “the voice of Jesus saying he would never leave me alone, never, never leave me alone.”
"Is this election our own call at midnight—a time for religion to become real for us? Even if Donald Trump’s election were to be “the end of democracy,” would not the Lord still be in his heaven? Does Christ abandon us if democracy abandons us? Even if Kamala’s victory would continue to pull down the legal defense of the unborn, can anything pull down the power of the most high God? He who can bring good out of anything that happens, anywhere, at any time. And has done so, over and over and over again. As Gloria Purvis puts it, “No matter who’s in the White House, the governor’s house, the mayor’s house, Jesus is always on the throne.”
"...This is not to say all anger and fear is a failure of trust in God. There is a holy kind of mourning and disturbance, the anger of the prophets at shuddering injustice. This is Amos crying out, “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not relent. They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.” A righteous and holy kind of anger....There is even a sort of normal, work-a-day partisan fear about the bad consequences that would follow from your candidate losing."
"But there is also a deeper, toxic disturbance that shakes us to our core, that rips us up from all sense of God’s presence. A disturbance where we give someone or something else undue power over us. Where we try to fatally control things we cannot change. And if the depth of our core is shaken (and it will happen, no one is beyond it), what is that but a chance to take a breath, take stock, go back and get right with God. One candidate will be elected and one will not, and the only path to any kind of human sanity is to accept the outcome and move forward."
"...When we make Jesus “the Lord of our lives,” when we pray first, meditate upon Teresa’s words, light a candle before Guadalupe, kneel in the garden with Christ, we gain a quiet calm and a relaxed power and concentrated but detached strength. Detached meaning we work without clinging to expectations for the political outcomes that we previously insisted God bend in our direction. A strength to work to rebuild democracy where it is threatened, to defend the most vulnerable if they are under attack, to patiently bring the truth to lies and vitriol whenever it rises."
"It is somewhat the same here. Sessions of devout prayer away from the battle can give one “tenfold strength” to serve the very battle we ache to undertake immediately. “Going to God” in this season can be merely a “going to” politics by a back channel; being “detached” means we calmly fight for the very results we desire but no longer demand from God. If Mr. Trump wins, or Ms. Harris, we let go of what we cannot control and deal with things as they are and the power and relief of that letting go is beyond measure."
I have excerpted the article here, but the whole thing is worth reading.
I read a few of the comments. Some of them seemed to take the author to task. Because he is a religious brother with a vow of poverty, and doesn't have anything to worry about like the rest of us do. Except, um, it doesn't work that way. He has to live in the same world we all do.
I would remind people that there have been many more incompetent, venal, and corrupt governments than there have been good ones in the history of the world. As well as some downright bad and evil ones. The Trumps and Bannons want a government like Hungary. The JD Vances, Peter Thiels, and assorted tech bros would prefer one like Singapore. I hope and pray that the majority of voters still want America to be America. We will find out. But as my mother used to quote, "All things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose." Which doesn't mean things are rosy, but that Our Lord will not abandon us.
Thanks. Been thinking a lot about St Julian these days and her "all shall be well" and what that is supposed to mean to a follower of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteIt's not an invitation to apathy. But it is a caution to slow down and to be intentional about the things you do and not to run around making things worse by spreading dystopian scenarios. This is something Raber and I are often reminding each other about.
I do think that we will be judged not only by our personal actions, but by the kind of communities and societies we helped build and perpetuate, and to what extent those communities tolerated injustices and cruelty.
God may make things well. But I think he expects our cooperation in the effort, to the best of our discernment.
I can’t be as sanguine. I believe that a young, celibate, white Jesuit has probably never faced the kinds of challenges and tragedies that others do. His article is referring to the election. I don’t worry about my husband and I - two old, white, educated people with assets that we hope won’t run out before we do, given our $200k$/ year care expenses. But I do worry about our sons, in their forties, and our black daughter- in- law and our mixed grandchildren. Our Polish/French daughter in law and their kids are white but she knows from her family history that being Christian and white isn’t always enough to protect you from evil leaders. Thus her grandfather survived Auschwitz and a German labor camp - one of only two men from their town to survive the war. Her two great uncles, her father’s brothers, were killed by the Nazis. Hitler was elected. It was later that he consolidated his power and began going after the undesirables - Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, babies and children with birth defects or illness such as epilepsy were murdered by his regime. Fake death certificates in the “ hospitals” for disabled children.Old people, no longer physically able were also helped to die in “ hospitals”. Trumps rhetoric is very reminiscent of Hitlers, who started out by promising to Make Germany Great Again.Anne Applebaum has written e extensive,y about this, as has Timothy Snyder. Trump initially went after his political enemies, as trump has promised to do. Young Joe Hoover is not worried about his children or grandchildren. God might help people get through suffering, but God doesn’t make everything right. M Viet Namese daughter in laws parents barely survived as boat people refugees.Our daughter in law barely survived after being born in a refugee camp. None of us have gone through what my daughters in laws families have gone through. Saying “All shall be well” as Julian of Norwich did during the plague is one thing for a dedicated anchorite, but maybe is something harder for those with spouses, children and grandchildren. I’m sure millions prayed that all would be well during WWII and WWI and very other war, but all was not well in an on earth human sense. It cost millions of innocent lives just as it does now in Gaza and elsewhere in the world.
ReplyDeleteHitler started his purge with eliminating political enemies.
DeleteNo one has to convince me how evil Hitler was, or how much harm he caused. The main difference I see between Hitler and Trump isn't that Trump doesn't want to be a dictator and do some of the same things Hitler did. The difference is in their capabilities. Hitler was, I think , 45 when he assumed power. Of course he had been working on it for a long time before that. He had years to solidify his grip on Germany. Trump can't do that. He's 78 and senile with poor physical health. If he is elected it will be touch and go if he even lives to finish out his term. Campaigning is wearing him out. He'll choose toadies and syncophants for appointees, rather than competent people. JD Vance? I don't think he wants to be Hitler. He wants to be a billionaire oligarch. Those are good reasons why neither of them should be anywhere near the levers of power. But I don't believe they can turn America into post-Weimar Germany. However I'll certainly do my part tomorrow to ensure that they don't have the opportunity.
DeleteI expect the most likely scenario would be a Hungarian style soft autocracy - a faux democracy. But I have read a lot about the Hitler - Mussolini era. Ruth Ben-Ghiat says that Trump is more Mussolini than Hitler. Maybe. I think trump is partly running to stay out of prison. His billionaire buddies and right wing advisors might be planning to run the show, propping him up the way the Vaticanistas propped up JPII in his late years - finally literally propped him up, not just figuratively.
DeleteIf he loses, I'd be all for letting Trump go into exile into a country that didn't have an extradition treaty with the US if it meant he would leave off all the bs about a stolen election, and we never had to look at him again. "Able was I ere I saw Elba". I hear Montenegro isn't too bad of a place.
DeleteI was similarly in disagreement with Brother Hoover but my main problem is being calm in a time of genocide as a cooperative project between my country and another. I am not sure if the term “genocide” has ever been used by America Media. But I can see the point of inner peace if it means not going crazy and maintaining the composure needed to stand against evil. I am extremely frustrated with the current state of affairs in Gaza. On the forums, I see it emerging as antisemitism in really rabid posts. For my self, I see the danger as becoming more misanthropic, not antisemitic. So I must leave the anger behind and be motivated only by love. Julian of Norwich can’t hurt. But total personal peace might seem self-indulgent at this time. Just enough to function is ok.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.aol.com/news/inside-nbc-news-decision-desk-090000452.html
ReplyDeleteAbove is a link for NBC news about when they think they might announce the election decision. They seem to think they will have sufficient information to project a winner in PA, MICH. WISC by early Wednesday morning.
However. The last two battleground states, Arizona and Nevada, almost certainly won’t be called quickly. If the presidency comes down to one of these states, forget any thoughts of a Wednesday resolution. It could go again to several days or even a week like last time.
I am not going to stay up Tuesday night. I hate listening to the pseudo commentary. The reality is that while we may have a decision by early Wednesday morning, it usually takes months of analysis to figure out why in a close election.
If the election is narrowly won, I suspect the losing candidate will file lawsuits. Governor DeWine last time around said that is the nature of the political game. Both sides watch the game closely with lawyers ready to file suit at a moment's notice. That is all part of democracy.
I can't see watching election night coverage, either. I am hoping Raber will not get immersed in it. ]
DeleteInteresting story about GOP efforts to get out the Amish vote in Pennsylvania. In my experience, any tally of potential Amish voters should probably be halved because women are generally not involved in making community decisions. They do not cast votes for bishops, speak in church, or, depending on the ordnung, venture into public much. I doubt they would be encouraged or inclined to vote in English elections.
ReplyDeletehttps://lancasteronline.com/news/politics/republicans-are-urging-amish-in-lancaster-county-to-vote-again-will-it-pay-off/article_0728fbae-9897-11ef-af90-7f76d4ed328f.html
Just a little something I'm going to throw out there. If we found the "childless cat ladies" meme offensive and dismissive, can we be so sure that a celibate male under religious vows is not as invested in the country's future as us married with children people?
ReplyDeleteI do think it’s somewhat different for singles and childless people. Unlike Vance, I don’t think that they shouldn’t have an equal vote. . But the level of fear may be different, the sense of threat may be less urgent than that felt by those with spouses, children and grandchildren. Many are willing to risk their own future if necessary, but are less willing to risk the futures of their spouses, children, and grandchildren. I imagine that both marrieds and singles worry about their parents too. But we are usually less protective of our parents than our children. Vowed celibates also don’t have the same financial concerns about affording shelter, and especially about affordable healthcare should disaster strike. The cost of their care will be covered. They have fewer concerns about social security and Medicare being cut, as the trumpers vow to do. They don’t have mortgages and all of the expenses (and ordinary worries) of raising children. I think that the community support that nuns receive contributes to their longevity. They don’t worry as much as mothers do. Perhaps priests don’t worry as much as fathers/ husbands do who feel the financial pressures of caring for a family. I don’t think it’s insulting to point out these differences with vowed religious But Vance was clearly trying to insult women who are childless, whether due to physical causes or by choice. He’s pushing for bigger families. But will he support the policies that might make it more affordable for couples to have more children? I doubt it. Just as the republicans are unwilling to support family and child friendly policies that reduce the abortion rate in other countries.
DeleteAnne, I think you are right that people are more willing to take risks on their own behalf than they are with their children.
DeleteReligious and to some extent diocesan priests are members of total institutions such as prisons, the military, mental hospitals (which in a classical sociological work were classified as Asylums). Yes, they provide a refuge from the rest of the world, but all one's identity is linked to the institution. You are never off duty.
DeleteI am sure that religious and diocesan priests worry about their institution and its ability to function in society. When as members of Voice of the Faithful we talked with diocesan priests they encouraged us to challenge the church but very frankly told us they were not able to join us because they owed their souls to the company story, and the company would not forget any deviation from it. I think priests and religious as just as invested in their institutions as laity are in their families.
As for single persons without children like myself, I do think, if we have sufficient financial resources and/or support of parents, then we able to take risks in our professional and civic lives more than married people with children or priests and religious unless they have the support of their institutions.
So, Donald Trump, a father, would make more prudent and careful leadership decisions than childless Kamala Harris? Not buying that one.
DeleteJean, There are always exceptions!
DeleteJack your point about priests owing their souls to the company store is a good one. They have a lot of security as long as they don’t rock the boat too hard, but they trade their autonomy for that security. Sexual predators and those who protected them get to stay priests, still supported by the institution, because they protected the institution. But Roy Bourgeois was kicked out of the priesthood for openly supporting Women’s ordination.
I think generalizing about people's fitness for leadership based on marital or child status is ridiculous. Too many people out there making a hash of their families whom I wouldn't want running a church raffle much less the country. I'm happy to make you a list!
DeleteOh, I’m not saying that married people or parents are better leaders. But I do think that singles, celibates and non- parents may - not necessarily will but may - find it easier to deal with the anxieties related to Americas future as a result of this election. The future our children and grandchildren may face is a personal issue for us, not just an intellectual issue. But maybe that’s just me. Ive never been able to detach my emotions from the struggles of my husband, kids and grandkids, it’s hard for me to shrug my shoulders and say “All shall be well” because she was referring to the afterlife and right now I’m more concerned about life now. I cry sometimes from movies and stories in the news. I hurt for those I love when they hurt and sometimes even for strangers and fictional characters. I wish I weren’t so over emotional. I struggle to get through each day.
DeleteI don't think St Julian was talking strictly about the Hereafter, but I do hear people parrot that quote in situations where it doesn't apply until it sounds fatuous. Like "everything happens for a reason."
DeleteSo often these tossed off phrases are just a way of ending an unpleasant conversation while trying to sound pious. I see this in my cancer group. There's a minister's wife who doesn't like to hear about people's bad days and tries to cut them off by saying, "I guess we have to just trust in the Good Lord." So I understand why "all shall be well" might bug someone.
What helps me let go of some of the anxiety about the world my children and grandchildren will live in is remembering that my sons and daughters in law are very intelligent , capable people, in their prime years.They have way more power and ability than I do to influence the future in a positive way. I am definitely not in my prime years, but I can pray for them and do what I can to help. However I feel that the future is in capable hands with them and their cohorts. Maybe they can do a better job than my generation did.
DeleteThe polls in the battleground states are all essentially tied within the margin of error. So we could end up with a landslide in either direction if they all break one way, or more likely several results that require recounts or have legal challenges. We may not know the results until January 6th.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to go to a national popular election of a president. We cannot as a national let things go undecided that far. Nor have extensive legal challenges to the president, and have decisions made by judges, or legislatures. Maybe three elections with Trump as a candidate will convince people of that.
I agree, but Congress can't even get rid of Daylight Saving Time or pass a bipartisan immigration reform measure.
DeleteI think Jim Pauwels is a poll worker. Let's pray for all poll workers, that voting will be peaceful n all locations, and no one will be threatened or intimidated.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling a bit nostalgic for the old days, in which my mom and my grandma were poll workers, for opposite parties. And my only job was to swing by after school and mooch a donut out of the box someone always brought.
DeleteThank you for the prayers! I did work as an election judge yesterday. All was peaceful, and as orderly as we could maintain it. Turnout was very high - the highest I've experienced so far. And something like 12% of our voters were people who registered on the spot, and we had more first-time voters than I can previously recall. We were kind of scratching our heads as to why the turnout was so high - we are not a swing state, and the outcome in our state for presidential elections is never in doubt. Nor did we have any statewide races on the ballot. But the community really turned out yesterday.
DeleteMajor news orgs have called Trump the winner, and Republicans have flipped the Senate. I may have seen signs of this at our local precinct yesterday. Fewer young women and more young men than in 2022. In the pre-election analysis I've read, I didn't see much about young men being a key constituency for Trump. But I think they turned out for him in our precinct. Just my impression
Re: poll workers being safe: we did have a sheriff's deputy* patrol through our voting sight in the late morning. I had never seen that before, so I took his presence as a sign that local law enforcement was on heightened alert for troublemakers. There was nothing much to interest him at our site from a law-and-order perspective. Although a couple of times, I was subjected to paranoidy explanations from MAGA types about how easy it is nowadays, with all the electronic screens, scanners, et al mixed into the voting process, to steal an election. I tried to maintain an impassive and neutral election-judge face and didn't really engage - which only made them exert themselves more to try to get me to agree with them. Could have used having a guy with a badge and a gun around at those moments, but if we restricted voting to people without mental maladies, our turnout percentage would drop by about two-thirds.
Delete* We live in a municipality with its own police force, but voting is a county government function here, so the county sheriff's police are responsible for maintaining law and order at polling places. We're not permitted to call in the village cops unless there is a real emergency.
We just did our civic duty at the Eagles Club. There was a sign saying the bar was closed during polling hours. Probably prudent (and according to the law).
ReplyDeleteIt was good to see some younger faces among the poll workers, many of the older people who used to do it dropped out during the pandemic. We had no waiting, I was the 53rd person to vote (@ 9:30 CST). Everyone seemed in a cheerful mood, no problems.
My sister texted that her daughter missed the cut-off date to request a mail ballot. She had to stand in line for 4 hours on Saturday for early voting in Omaha.
ReplyDeleteI voted already via mail-in ballot dropped off at the Stroudsburg Library. I just like sitting comfortably at my dining room table to vote. I can drink a coffee, a soda or a gin and tonic while I do it.
DeleteVoted about 2 pm. No line. So nice to see a few younger women working the polls. They're all Repubs, but today that doesn't matter because they're making democracy tick.
ReplyDeleteI took a photo of myself outside city hall with my "I Voted" sticker as I was waiting for Raber. In a rare fleeting moment of idealistic optimism, I decided I wanted proof that I helped elect the first woman president.
A couple young ladies in bright red hair and miniskirts came out and saw me standing there with my cane and asked if I needed help. (Geez.) I said I was just waiting for the mister and was this their first time voting. They said it was. I was flooded with an odd sense of sadness and deja vu. Wanted to tell them that 52 years ago, I voted for the first time for George McGovern and it doesn't do to get your hopes up.
But kids really don't care about the ancient past, and life will wise them up about politics soon enough. So I congratulated them and shuffled off to the car.
Whenever we spot someone looking 18-ish in our polling place, we ask them if they are first-time voters, and if they are, we announce to the entire room (3 precincts occupying a school lunchroom) that we have a FIRST TIME VOTER! Everyone cheers and applauds. The teens always are good sports about it - for them, it really is a bit exciting to do this adult, good-citizenship thing.
Delete