American Hypocrite — Why?
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I’m writing a series called American Hypocrite.
Why?
My thoughts are still riding the waves of “Deconstruction”. This is a term used quite often to describe people rejecting the cultural aspects of the their “Evangelical” faith. I use the quotes because it’s weird and loaded word. For myself, and simplicity, I’m just going to use the more general word “Christian” though it really is a uniquely American (some would say White) flavor. Apparently it was “founded” by Jonathan Edwards.. a pro-slavery slave owner.. which itself gets to the core of the whole “hypocrisy” theme.
Which brings us to today. The Deconstruction movement, if it can be called that, will be seen by scholars as largely triggered by rise of Donald Trump. Which again, I will get into more later..
So there is the faith aspect here, but also a historical aspect.
The United States.. ha, even the title has a whiff of hypocrisy. United? Really? The Constitution was barely accepted and that was even after some pretty wild compromises (*cough* 3/5ths *cough*). 80 years later there was a Civil War and violence was always simmering just beneath the surface. But more on that in later writings. The point here is American history is stitched together with hypocritical contradictions. They are baked into the apple pie of our history. We are reminded of this almost daily via the news and we grew up being taught them, largely without actually shown all the problems and inconsistencies. Example: Name Columbus’ three ships? Now when did you learn about the bombing of Black Wall St. That may be an age thing, but if you don’t know about that.. go Google it and think about that…
So, with the rise of BLM and myriad of modern day lynchings race has once again shown itself to be one of they many skeletons in the American closet that we need to own and address before declaring our country the greatest in the world.
So, why do this?
I don’t want this to be a dumping ground of negativity or just another place to get people angry. I’ve done that already. I do appreciate a lot of what it means to be an American and a Christian, so, in the words of the Apostle Paul.. “Come, let us reason together”. There is a lot at stake. Everyone is getting angrier and truth seems to be the first casualty. Democracy depends on truth.
I’ve been unpacking both my faith and history simultaneously over the past few years and I struggle to know what to do with this. Aside from processing it with a group of strangers on Twitter (@geoffbaron). I’ve been told by a few people I’ve been helpful.. so maybe this too will be helpful.
So, my hope is to seek and find the truth, and hopefully become less of a hypocrite in the process as I learn to love God and Country in a healthy way: Based on fact, not fiction.
