NOTES, 16 JANUARY 2024
Greetings, blog reader. It has been a while since I posted anything here, so I just wanted to touch bases with you today and let you know I am still here. I pray that all goes well with you.
I have not posted anything about the schism lately because there is nothing to post. Both dioceses are moving ahead in an after-schism mode which I suppose is the only thing to do at this point. The Anglican diocese is busy setting up a new diocesan camp since the courts unanimously agreed that the Episcopal diocese was the owner of the venerable Camp St. Christopher. They are also busy getting ready for their annual convention, in March. What they ought to focus on in their meeting is the precipitous and unrelenting decline of the diocese. In the decade after the schism of 2012, the ADSC went from 23,181 baptized members to 18,130, a drop of 22%. Even more ominous is the fall of communicants (active members) from 17,798 to 11,673, a decline of 34%. The Average Sunday Attendance went from 9,292 to 8,353, a reduction of 10%. By contrast, the Episcopal diocese grew from 5,781 members to 7,476.
As far as I know, there remain two unsettled issues in the EDSC, the dispositions of the properties of Holy Trinity and Good Shepherd, both in Charleston. Last year, the EDSC said it would sell the highly valuable property of Holy Trinity, on Folly Road. Yet, I have not seen any announcement of a sale. Too, I have seen no announcement at all about what is to happen to the Good Shepherd property, in West Ashley. Apparently there is no Episcopal congregation prepared to return to the buildings.
As a lifelong student of history, I must admit I am on edge about the year ahead in America. I think we will see a lot of turmoil and even violence although I would not go as far as to predict a civil war, even though there are more guns in the U.S. than people and many people are walking around packing them. Yet, there are moments to welcome in the year, as the Olympics, in Paris, the most beautiful and wonderful city in the world. This is not the first time for The City of Light. It hosted the 1900 and 1924 games. In fact, the greatest Hollywood movie ever made about the Olympics, "Chariots of Fire," was about the 1924 games. If you have not seen that movie, I recommend it. I am so looking forward to watching the Olympics in Paris, a place I regard as one of my homes.
As of yesterday, we are officially in the political period of the Election of 2024. Here is what the Iowa caucuses, of yesterday, told us: ---Donald Trump controls the Republican Party, ---most Republicans (in Iowa) believe The Big Lie, that Trump won the 2020 Election, ---most Republicans (in Iowa) dismiss Trump's legal issues as politics, ---Trump is almost certainly going to be the Republican Party nominee for 2024.
To me, the saddest part of the Iowa events was the role of Nikki Haley. She never had a snowball's chance and she should have known that. 1-she is a woman, 2-she is a woman of color, and 3-she is a woman of color who is the daughter of immigrants from India. In terms of the counter-revolutionary electorate in Iowa, she checked all the wrong boxes. After all her hard work, she won just 19% of the vote. If you have a pulse, you have to feel a little bad for her. I do. Yet, it was her own fault because she profoundly misunderstood the people of her own party. She will never get the nomination of the Republican Party, at least in its present iteration. She is about to go down to a humiliating defeat in her own state. She never had a chance.
Let us summarize, once again, the state of affairs in contemporary America. How did we get to the mess we are in?
We are witnessing a clash between two great historic tectonic plates, revolution and counter-revolution (this kind of clash recurs often in history). The revolution began in earnest in the 1960's with sweeping and profound reforms to bring rights, equality, and inclusion to social elements historically marginalized and/or neglected from the mainstream of American life, namely African Americans, women, hispanics, Asians, gays, and the transgendered. This was a great expansion of democracy which had moved by fits and starts from the colonial period. The 1960's brought in the greatest boost of democracy in America since the Civil War.
The counter-revolution is the reaction against the democratic revolution of the 1960's. It is led by the social elements who feel most threatened by the changes, namely men, particularly lower middle class and working class white men. This group is now the backbone of Trump's Make America Great Again movement. Their goal is to keep white men in power at all cost and they see Trump as their messiah. He can do no wrong.
In Iowa we saw that the white Evangelical Christians (fundamentalists, Born Again, Pentecostal) overwhelmingly and strongly supported Trump, many calling him God's agent. This is a disturbing perversion of the classical Christianity of the Gospels. Trump's personal life and his policies are anathema to biblical Christianity. What the Evangelicals are doing is to extrapolate their social and cultural values onto religion and declare it as God's Will. In the long run, this will discredit and diminish Christianity in the broader society, a society that is already rapidly turning away from institutional religion.
So, all signs show that the Republican Party has gone all in on Trump because they are all in on the counter-revolution. They see Trump as the vehicle to destroy democracy which requires the destruction of the Constitution. They do not have to win the popular vote. They have to win the Electoral College which is made up of the same number of seats as in Congress (535). Each state gets the same number of votes it has in Congress. Twice recently (2000, 2016) the Electoral College elected a candidate that had lost the popular vote. It could happen again, this year. All signs indicate that the Republicans are very well organized in their plans for the counter-revolution.
Recently, the Heritage Foundation published a nearly 1,000 page blueprint, "Project 2025," giving in minute detail how the constitutional democracy will be destroyed after Trump takes office. They plan to set up a dictatorship under the President. This will bring the end of American democracy to be replaced with a fascist dictatorship. The reforms of the great democratic revolution will be crushed.
This is not hyperbole. If you think it is, I refer you to the Project 2025 that is readily available on the Internet.
If Trump wins, we know that is going to happen. He has told us. Right wing groups all over the place have told us. We have been forewarned. They are out to destroy the Constitution in order to destroy democracy.
But what if he loses the election? I suspect what happened in the aftermath of the 2020 Election will seem like a picnic. I think there will probably be widespread and bloody violence. Trump will cry stolen. His followers will cry stolen. As in 2020, Trump could very well incite his followers to try again to overthrow the government. And this time they are likely to be better organized and more armed.
Either way, if Trump wins, or if he loses, we are in for a rough year. I keep asking myself, how did we come to this? Well, I have given you my theory of that.
The challenge we face now is whether we, collectively as a people want to go on with an evolving democracy even as we move into a pluralistic society, or we want to keep the white male minority in power. Is this a country for all people, or is this a country for the white people? This is the crux of the issue.
The United States of America is the greatest nation-state in the history of the world. It was founded nearly 250 years ago on the simple idea that the ordinary people could govern themselves. They did not need kings, hereditary aristocracy, or bishops to tell them what to do. But, to do this, the people would have to have equal rights, equal opportunities, and equal power (and this was in a country that had millions of human beings in slavery). American history has been the evolution of that simple idea of so long ago.
If Americans elect Donald Trump we will be repudiating our own history. And, shame on us. It would be easy to overthrow the Constitution. But, what then? What would take its place? The people had better be thinking about these things in the next ten months as we move to the moment of decision.
I, for one little voice, will do what I can to save American democracy. I can only hope and pray that there are enough other people out there who want to save it too. This has to be done before the fascists take power. Afterwards, it will be all but impossible. Read Twentieth Century history.
Let us summon up the Better Angles of Our Nature. Let us channel Lincoln. As he did, let us persevere in the face of danger with the faith and grace God has given us. Peace.
