I finished three books on a two-week cruise through the
Panama Canal. With time, space from work, the familiar, and the ever-present
schedule of the day, I could set aside time to enjoy a book or two, or three.
In the book Hillbilly Elegy and in
Dan Brown’s book, Inferno, each
reflected a moral crisis that looms dark and heavy over our own nation, our own
time that is breaking our hearts and shattering our hopes and dreams for our
nation, our world, and its people. Although neither of the books were
particularly religious, they do challenge us to be introspective about our own
spiritual journey and the values that shape our faith and our response to the
problems that we are facing as a nation and as a people.
Vance, in
his book, Hillbilly Elegy, makes this
stunning revelation to me about his ‘hillbilly culture’. He writes this about
his culture, “We choose not to work when
we should be looking for jobs. We’ll get fired for tardiness, or for stealing
merchandise and selling it on eBay, or for having a customer complain about the
smell of alcohol on our breath, or for taking five thirty-minute restroom
breaks per shift. We talk about the value of hard work but tell others that the
reason we’re not working some perceived unfairness: Obama shut down the coal
mines, or all the jobs went to the Chinese. These are the lies we tell
ourselves to solve the cognitive dissonance – the broken connection between the
world we see and the values we preach.” In the ‘hillbilly’ culture that
shaped J.D. Vance they preach hard work and the importance of performing well
in a job, but when they have a job, there is a feeling that it won’t last and so
they live into another story – a story of scarcity, excuses, and blame. They
are living lies that explain their poor behavior and the choices they make.
Such are the lies that are shaping
our time. The lies we are hearing today is that America is the world’s
policeman and we’ve got to stop, pull back and disconnect from the world
because it isn’t serving America’s interest. The lies we hear today is
about how dangerous immigrants are, and how we must close our borders. The lie
that we are living is that the Christian faith is the only acceptable religion.
We are living a lie that believes that some Americans are more worthy than others.
There is a cognitive dissonance in our
nation today – an incomplete story that chooses fear over joy, darkness over light, despair over hope, and
blame over responsibility. We are living in a time of moral crisis. All of this leads to inaction and inaction is not
the way of my faith and is certainly not the values that have shaped 240 plus
years of the American dream.
I recall a particularly poignant
point that Dan Brown made toward the end of his novel, Inferno. He writes, “The
darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in
times of moral crisis.” He goes on to write, ‘In dangerous times, there is no sin greater than inaction.’ I don’t
believe there could be a greater explanation and challenge in our nation today.
We are living in dangerous times and the breach between the world we see and
the world we preach must be repaired. In such a time as this, we are called to
spiritual action. Where will the journey lead you?
