America used to be the hope of the world - a leader in establishing democracy, being a force for human rights, leading the world in science and technology, and clumsily but persistently trying to improve life for all people.
Then Donald Trump activated the darkest, most bigoted, and most violent parts of the country - white supremacists and white christian nationalists. We have had six years of consistent erosion of dignity, honor, and goodness of our nation. We are being tested; our goodness is being tested; our decency is being tested; our humanity is being tested.
So now, in the time of Christmas coming, I am struck by the deepest meaning of Christmas, to me, the birth of Christ is a symbol of bringing the Light of the Divine into the world. I long ago decided that Jesus is not God made man for the purpose of taking on the suffering of the world to forgive our Original Sin, and the sins that we commit every day. But I do see Jesus as an inspiration of the Christ Spirit in humankind - the spirit of goodness, and truth, and beauty, and decency, and honor, and transcendence. A symbol of opening to the Divine to be inspired to be better people.
Sadly, so much of Christianity, or more specifically so much of white evangelical nationalist Christianity, has turned away from the gentle goodness of Christ himself, and turned toward the brutal "manhoods" of threatening men with guns. Christ replaced by images of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Cowboys who take the law into their own hands and kill people. Onward Christian Soldiers, with guns and threats and violence, seems to have become the twisted idea of Christianity. But...
But, the birth of Christ is a symbol of the power of the Divine Inspiration available to us all, and I can take that hope and apply it to my hope that America once again becomes a true hope to the world.
