I Don't Want to Go Back. Why Do You?

The United States of America has always been a special place relative to other countries. I admit to being biased here, given that I am an American. But who can doubt the unique convergence of people, time, and events that led to America shrugging off the rule of England at a time when England was the strongest navy and arguably the strongest military power in the world. That was special.

And who would question the special leader that was Abraham Lincoln, a man who pursued the seemingly inconsistent goals of ending slavery AND keeping the US united. He prioritized these goals above the rule of law and even over his own life. We lost hundreds of thousands of Americans, brothers fighting brothers, but Lincoln elevated the nation's survival and soul over the lives and souls of Americans themselves. That has been judged the correct decision by most, but it was certainly a courageous and rare type of leadership. He was not defending a throne. Telling people to arm themselves to defend their sovereign was nothing new. He was defending a collective and that community's shared (if contentious) ideas of elected government. The result was a bruised but living United States with an end to slavery. But it would be another century before real progress was made for the descendants of those slaves to approach real equality.

And women were not "given" the right to vote until the 20th century. (Rights exist, they are not "given." In effect, the government stopped denying women the right to vote.) But the struggle for women to obtain equality has continued as well.

And in more recent decades, the fight for equality for LGBTQ Americans has marched forward as well.

Women and minorities always struggle to obtain and maintain equal status. The open society we live in allows those struggles to continue, to grow, and to gain ground. This is why we are special relative to other countries. But we are far from perfect.

In the last hundred years of our country, we have seen women get the right to vote, laws passed to protect people from lynchings and other forms of persecution for their race, laws passed to protect women from violence, divorce become obtainable to anyone, electricity in every home, indoor plumbing in every home, cars in every drive-way (mostly), air conditioning for those who want it, air planes for average people to travel by, interstate highways connecting the country, the Internet connecting the world, cable TV (causing us to waste hours of our lives), a ruling that same-sex marriages cannot be treated as a lower class of family,  vaccines for previously deadly and debilitating illnesses, and thousands of other advancements to improve the quality and length of life. So with all this progress, WHY IN THE HOT HOLY HELL WOULD SOMEONE THINK THIS?

What's so great about Polio? Why would you long for segregation and lynchings? Who wants to live without electricity, indoor plumbing, air conditioning, and the Internet? Who could possible be nostalgic for outhouses, prohibition, and food poisoning from crappy refrigeration?

Ignorant people, that's who! It's people who cannot stand to see "others" getting an equal footing: African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, LGBTQ individuals are growing in numbers and in stature, and that makes some white men (and some white women) very nervous. Maybe it's the same reason a dirty cop never wants to go to prison. People who abuse power, then lose it, are reasonably fearful that the new people in power will enforce retribution. We'll see.

There will always be nostalgia for olden times, but America has never been a country that looks back; it has always faced the future and moved into it with grit and determination even if not always undaunted. These folks need to get Above Their Raisin' and stop dwelling in the fantasy past that they imagine existed. The past sucked. It sucked more for women and minorities, but it sucked for white men too. No one in this country, least of all that white dude on the tractor, has any reason to lament the future. You can still get your farm subsidy while decrying "welfare queens" and go home to your air conditioned home with your big-screen and watch satellite TV while simultaneously playing with your iPad using your WiFi Internet service. The big, scary Black man in the White House isn't going to take any of that away from you.

Throwing Shade on Arkansas

One of the things that I have always appreciated about human beings and human society is that, although it may take too long and require too much sacrifice, we are capable of moments of enlightenment through the intellectual exercise of reason.

Most human beings are taught a moral code based on religious doctrine. Writings considered by said humans to be sacred scriptures, and their interpretation, are used as the yard-stick for "right" and "wrong." Many of these moral standards are universal from one religion to another: Do not kill without certain, defined justifications. Do not have sex with those to whom you are not married. Do not steal. Do not cheat people out of money. You get what I mean. But every once in a while, we lowly humans decide - on our own - that there are moral principles NOT found in scripture.

For example, how a husband treats his wife. For many centuries, how a husband treated his wife was totally up to him. She was his. And if he decided she was disrespectful or - for whatever reason - he could beat her. (The saying "rule of thumb" comes from the English common law that a husband could only beat his wife with a stick as big around as his thumb.) And although you can probably quote some scripture that would suggest that God does not want a man to treat his wife this way, I bet you cannot find one that prohibits all physical punishment of a wife by her husband.

Or what about ending a marriage? The Bible says the only grounds for divorce is adultery. But very few people in our society would suggest making that our law. What if she refuses to ever have sex with him again? What if he takes all the money and loses it gambling? What if she beats the kids? What if he beats her? What if they just HATE EACH OTHERS' GUTS?

But the biggest and best example, IMO, is slavery. The Bible actually has rules on how a master is to treat his slaves, and rules for how slaves are to behave with respect to their masters.

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear, trembling, and sincerity, as when you obey the Messiah. 6 Do not do this only while you’re being watched in order to please them, but be like slaves of the Messiah, who are determined to obey God’s will. 7 Serve willingly, as if you were serving the Lord and not merely people, 8 because you know that everyone will receive a reward from the Lord for whatever good he has done, whether he is a slave or free.

9 Masters, treat your slaves the same way. Do not threaten them, for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Ephesians 6:5-9 So, on earth, slaves are to treat their masters like gods, but it'll all be OK when they get to Heaven because although the almighty is apparently OK with slavery on earth, we will all be equal in the afterlife.  Be a good slave and you'll get to go to Heaven! YAY!  (I'm being a little snarky, but really, isn't this offensive? It is to me.)

It is at this moment when you might think, "Well, yeah, but the Bible was written 2,000+ years ago when slavery was OK." To which I have 2 responses:

The first is: "EXACTLY! So stop freaking trying to impose its arcane moral code on modern people!! We have science now and we understand human beings down to their DNA molecules. We know that people born with epilepsy are neither "demon possessed" nor a "messenger from God." We know (at least those of us who believe in science know) that gay people are born gay. We know that rain is a result of atmospheric conditions, not dancing, praying, sacrificing goats or chanting. We know that men who beat their wives are douchebags. And we know that slavery is a horrific, evil thing. Stop ignoring the parts you have a problem with and enforcing the parts that make you feel holier than thou (or me). It only makes you look like a hypocrite."

The second is: "No, slavery has always been wrong, and the Bible's failure to say so is not a failure in us but a failure in the text."

Which brings me to the point of the blog (sorry it took so long). A man running for office in Arkansas thinks slavery is an OK thing because Jesus did not say otherwise. I don't mean a man who ran for office in Arkansas in 1857 thought this. I mean a mean running for office NOW thinks this.

I have to concede that this man's ignorance is an argument against evolution, but I suggest that not all members of a specie evolve at the same rate. This may be especially true of old, bearded white men in Arkansas. What's worse: there are actual GOP members and supporters who have endorsed him, including the NRA.

I know of no argument to persuade someone like Loy Mauch (R-AR) how wrong he is. I cannot use the Bible to persuade him, that's the book he's using to defend himself. And I sure as hell cannot rely on his own enlightenment. He is an embarrassment to Arkansas, to the US and to everyone who considers him/herself a Christian. All I can hope for, Arkansas voters, is that you will get Above Your Raisin' and vote against this racist, offensive man.