Is It Holy Ground?

 

We live on the ground between mystery and certainty. It’s holy ground. There is a wonderful story in the Hebrew Bible of a bush that was on fire but not consumed. Moses noticed, walked over to inspect it and then was told to take off his shoes. He was on “holy ground”. The modern, enlightened approach to such a tale is to deconstruct it. Understandably, and rightly, we search for the meaning of the story in something other than its literal truth. What must not be lost, however, is our capacity for awe.

What is it that makes anyplace “holy ground”? When Notre Dame in Paris was aflame, the world lamented the damage done to what is a “historic” space, if not a sacred place in everyone’s mind. The real possibility of losing a place forever – does that make it more precious? As with people, is it also true of places – that absence increases our attachment to them?

Let the steeple on a local church be in disrepair, an entire community will come to its aid. In New England at least, these structures are iconic. One might never darken the door of the church, but that steeple is part of everyone’s story and suddenly critical to local identity. It is on “holy ground”.

From Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi to their toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square, Americans have witnessed, sanctioned – “blessed” if you will – the consecrating and deconsecrating of spaces and places. More than empty symbols, statues, spires and flags on hilltops become “holy ground”. Wednesday, January 6, saw the desecration of what Pastor David Cassidy recently characterized (“On Point” – January 14) as the United States’ “sacred space” – our National Capitol. Self-proclaimed “patriots” sat with feet on desks, broke windows and threatened lives while duly elected legislators cowered in undisclosed locations below.

A murder in a cathedral inspires a different response than if it happens in an alley. When people forced their way into the National Capitol their actions took on an importance far greater than if they had limited their presence to Pennsylvania Avenue. There is a cognitive dissonance in carrying the American Flag, using it as a weapon at one point while desecrating the Capitol, trampling its hallowed halls and looting, all the while professing to be protecting everything that building stands for.

In terms of our identity as “Americans”, the only thing competing with the National Capitol for "sacred space" is the local voting booth. Too many among us are ready to deface one while denying their fellow citizens access to the other. We are left to wonder if there is any place anymore that is for us all “holy ground”.

 

Kramer, Denominators, and Where America is Right Now

 I would sit in Math class with a glazed look on my face, staring at “X” and “Y” and at symbols that I was told meant “greater than” or “equal to”. I grew up in “The Church,” but I never had faith in sufficient amounts to believe that “X” was anything other than “X”. How was it possible that it was a “variable”? Why not just state explicitly what “X” was and call it that? In high school Algebra I longed for the good old days of “lowest common denominators”.

What does 948 have in common with 316? They are both divisible by 3! It’s no mystery! It is easy to discover! And don’t try to convince me that 948 / “X” = 3. “X” has no mystery whatsoever in that example! And it certainly isn’t a “variable”.

I fear in America we have lost any sense of our political “least common denominator”. Not even violence in the nation’s Capitol – and with Congress in session to perform its perfunctory task of validating a legal election – could move some people to concede, to give ground. As our nation was enroute to recording almost 4,000 deaths attributable to Covid-19, legislators were debating the legality of last November’s election. We have learned that a global pandemic will not unite Americans; we will fight over wearing face masks or practicing safe physical distancing. We will literally threaten the lives of elderly, physically compromised neighbors and people of color so that we can have our block party, political rally, wedding or worship service.

But yesterday was different, wouldn’t you think? January 6, 2021 saw rioters, emboldened by a lame duck president, literally storm the Capitol, threaten people’s lives, destroy property, break into offices and walk out undeterred. You would think that would certainly be the bottom line – the absolute limit to what would inspire Senators and Representatives to work together. But even after such an egregious act, forcing our Congress into hiding and lock down – even that was not enough for some (Senators Tommy Tuberville, Roger Marshall, John Kennedy, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz) to jolt them into consciousness as to Donald Trump’s continual proclamation that, somehow, he is a “Prime Number”. Thanks to the current Republican Party, Mitch McConnell’s pathetic nods notwithstanding, we have a nation with no apparent common denominator.

The six senators mentioned – and the 121 Representatives who supported them – are like Kramer looking to see how far he can go before completely running out of gas. A last ditch attempt to put a little fuel into the tank is thwarted by the allure of a thrill that is certain of only one thing – to leave us stranded. It’s comical on a sitcom. It is lethal as a rationale for governing.

Whatever good his supporters might think Trump has done for our country, it is more than negated by the thousands of lies, the exhausting narcissism, the arrogant disdain he has shown for governing. Trump has incited his most extreme supporters to violence; he has driven the entire Republican Party into a wasteland. Were that all, we might recover; but governing is a cooperative venture. Time will tell if the man elected to succeed him has the moxie and will be given the support needed to get our nation back on a path which leads to the greater fulfillment of our founder’s dreams and America’s promise. It is hard to be hopeful given the events of the past year and the past 24 hours; but that’s where America seems to be at right now.