Happy 250th!

(Printed textile bandana commemorating the Declaration of Independence ca. 1778)

It is astonishing to realize the age of the United States is only three human lifetimes long. (I consider eighty-three years to be a reasonable or normal lifespan.)

Many of us get caught up in the day-to-day angst of partisan politics without thinking too much about how it all began.

Our modern two-party system in America was birthed out of debates between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton on the role of government and also the broader debate between Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke on the subject of the French Revolution, which came thirteen years after the Declaration of Independence. (Many mistakenly believe the French Revolution preceded the American Revolution.)

I always thought it was an interesting irony that the French Revolution denounced Christianity and turned churches across France, including Notre Dame, into Temples of Reason, even ceremoniously crowning women as "goddesses of reason", yet descended into the irrational and bloodthirsty mob violence and hysteria of the Reign of Terror. 

And not long after the French Revolution, France ended up with the egotistical, power-hungry Napoleon, who crowned himself emperor in 1804. After assuming power, he went on an aggressive military campaign in an attempt to expand the territory of France and take over Europe. For all the trouble and misery of the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon ended up with even less territory than what he started with. Defeated, he was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, where he died of ulcerous stomach cancer.

The more things change, the more they stay the same—"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"—which, not surprisingly, was quipped by a Frenchman (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, b. 1808, d. 1890.)

Violent revolution rarely changes or improves anything. 

In Christ's time, some of his Jewish followers believed he was going to lead a political revolution against the Romans, that the sole purpose of the Messiah was for a violent overthrow of imperialist Roman rule.

His teachings were especially paradoxical, confusing to these people who believed this was the only way forward, who could only see, understand, and judge by the outward appearance of things. 

They failed to realize, so long as the internal reality stayed the same, an external revolution wouldn't really change anything. Just as the outward show of piety and legalistic religious observance of the Pharisees didn't change the corruption within. Jesus referred to the Pharisees as "whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness." You can go through the motions of church, be a religious person, and miss God entirely.

Or likewise, an outside agency or institution can force you to follow the rules and go through the motions of whatever system they deem right, but so long as the inward reality remains unchanged, nothing has really changed.

A revolution can rage at the hypocrisy and corruption of those in power but never grasp the root of the problem. They assume that with a violent overthrow they can "start new", not realizing the corruption was within the individuals holding power and that they are just as vulnerable. The individuals assuming power in the "new" system inevitably can and will become just as corrupt as whatever it replaced, if there is never an inward change. The pattern would just be repeated yet again, wearing different clothes and waving a different flag.

The Greek word "metanoia", which is usually translated as "repentance" in English, encompasses much more than that. It means literally a reversal or a turn in another direction, a radical shift in orientation and attitude, a profound change in the heart, mind, and soul.

Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is within and the Kingdom of God is manifesting into our present reality, not through a political revolution or system, but an inner transformation of an individual through this repentance. A turning from the fleeting systems of the world to God. This is something you can choose to do or not (which I write about in my post about French mystic Madame Jeanne Guyon.) 

   

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" Ecclesiastes 3:1.

There's a time and a place for politics. Politics certainly serve a purpose in society, but in general, like a lot of people, I am skeptical of politics because the focus is so much on externals and too little on inner change. And you can't force inner change through an external system. (Political parties and movements come and go. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way how frustratingly ineffectual, inefficient, and fruitless they can be.)

Since you can't avoid living in a political system, I have to acknowledge that the United States is the best system and country to live in. As someone who has traveled all over the world and been in numerous countries, I have come to deeply appreciate being a citizen of this country. People all over the world desperately want to come to the United States for a reason.

America is not perfect, but I believe it is the best system and country in that it allows the individual the greatest freedom and autonomy to think for oneself and to make choices and decisions and live the consequences of those choices and decisions. 

Inauguration of George Washington with Trinity Church in the background. My dear friend Don Jenner was a member of this church, which is still standing in lower Manhattan. Alexander Hamilton is buried there.

(Posted 7/1/26)