Tag: Politics

WSMD?

Some thoughts on the 2024 update of Social Principles of the United Methodist Church

Mary Oliver once asked, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” (From her poem The Summer Day in her collection, Devotions, 2017.)

As I read through the United Methodist Church’s new edition of the social principles, I expected the section on the political community to give some guidance on an important question that goes beyond individual rights and standards of justice and mercy for government policy. To wit, what are the individual Christian’s responsibilities as citizens and participants? This question invites us to reflect deeply on our participation and choices: What will you do with your one wild and precious vote — that allocation of political power granted to you and protected by our constitution.

Should not Methodists approach the voting booth with the same prayerful consideration the General Conference used asking, “What would Jesus do?” The Social Principles seem to encourage this kind of reflection, urging us to align our civic actions with our faith. While some folks wear WWJD bracelets as a reminder, true spiritual discipline goes beyond outward symbols. It calls on us to act with courage, guided by love and prayer, especially in times when the world seems to be moving in troubling directions.

The latest edition of the United Methodist Church’s Social Principles (adopted in 2024) challenges us to confront injustice and to advocate for the vulnerable. Today, we see leaders in government who overlook the needs of the poor. We look on as school boards and legislatures ban books, and promote a growing disregard for science — a key driver of humane progress in all fields of human endeavor. The “culture war” threatens to extinguish the flickering candles of the Enlightenment, while the dream of a truly democratic society feels increasingly distant—even in America, which once inspired the people of other nations to pursue more participatory and humane forms of governance.

In such times, our faith calls us to respond—not with despair, but with hope, courage, and a commitment to justice. Protected only by love and prayer in an ongoing struggle for social and political mercy and justice, we are invited to participate actively in shaping a more compassionate and democratic world.

Most important of all, we should be called to think rather than simply react when we enter the voting arena. In poll after poll there is evidence that Americans dislike and do not trust political parties. Yet the typical response of these same voters, when an executive or representative of one’s own political party does or says something they do not like, is to simply vote for the other party. The intent may be punitive, but the effect is to further legitimize the two party system.

To an extent, every politician is the victim of the branding that voters have been encouraged to use as shortcuts to thinking and placing issues in a context of overall policy.

So, Methodists, do this: read, think, be civil and non-violent in all your political interactions. If you do those things, it will then be fair for you to ask: What would Jesus do? And if you need one of those little bracelets to remind you, get one.

Better yet, get one that suggests the question in a way that would remind us of the expectation Jesus has of us as members of the United Methodist Church: WSMD? I don’t think it will help to take your copy of Social Principles of The United Methodist Church, 2025-2028 into your voting station. It mostly says the same thing but it’s too long to print on a bracelet.

Reflections on Democracy: Lessons from the White House, 1964 and 2025

I had decided to let this thing go, this WordPress subscription. I stopped it but I was informed by the WordPress powers (that’s their spelling with the capital P in the miDDle) that I had recently paid for a year and I could post until my renewal date but no longer if I didn’t renew. So I left it to fallow and let the old posts rot in the field thinking that I would never post again.

I’m not sure what pushed me over the edge and led me to reach out again last night but maybe it was the criminal destruction of the East Wing of the White House. I have always felt myself to be a part owner of the White House with a bit of personal interest in its preservation as a public historical asset.

I went there once in 1964 as a college student invited by President Lyndon Johnson who, working from a mailing list, asked Dr. Phillip Hoffman of the University of Houston to identify and sponsor a student leader to come to a special White House student leaders meeting.

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Voices of a New Silent Majority: Defending Democracy

On Monday, April 7, The Facts ran a guest opinion piece by Janel McCann of West Columbia. (Should you look it up, it was The Facts weekend edition for Saturday/Sunday, April 5-6 that I receive on Monday.) She gave a well-written and comprehensive discussion of some of the bad things and good things the Trump administration has done. The good things, as it turns out, are all corrections to badly planned and executed decisions by the president and his cast of people with little experience in government, and in many cases, with little leadership experience at all. I was so excited to see someone in our crimson-red county speaking out for the value that government brings to our lives. She is a public school educator. Surprise . I responded to her article with a letter to the editor which The Facts ran yesterday in its April 10 edition. It follows:

Janel McCann’s guest column on Saturday provided an important service. Too many of us have sat silently while the administration has set about destroying the government that has been assembled over many years. Yes, government often muddles through on the way to getting things done, but the job of governing is complicated and unprofitable yet gets done when it really matters. After all, the products of government (like social security, defense, public education, health care for elderly, public health services, civil rights for all, pure science research, emergency response, weather prediction, etc.) are essential to the civilized, modern existence we have come to expect. And don’t wait for the private sector to do all these things for us.

Too many have been silent while our eyes and ears were telling us that something we hold dear is being taken from us.

No more. It is time for the new “silent majority” to roar and let America and the world know that the super-negotiator-in-chief has poked a sleeping bear. We are still America. We are still a democracy. We still believe in the rule of law. We still believe in peace, love, understanding, sharing and hope. These are the values that have been and always must be our message to our politicians and to the world.

Thank you, Ms. McCann. Just before Easter, your writing could not have come at a better time. On that day, we celebrate the resurrection of love. It cannot be forever suppressed.