Make America again!

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)   
                                 - Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

If you do not already know the full poem quoted above, then I commend it to you in it's entirety. It can be found here. Spending some time with it will be way more fruitful than this post could ever hope to be.

Hughes' poem has become important to me over the years, and right now more than ever. This is how it concludes, and where the title of this post comes from (please note that not having the word "great" in there is very much on purpose):

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

At the end of my freshman year at Wallenpaupack Area High School, I won the Wayne County Loyalty Day Essay Contest sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, on the theme "What Loyalty to the United States Means to Me." I was a straight white boy growing up in small-town America. Although I referenced "problems like inflation, unemployment, and energy" in my essay, I boldly concluded (as only a fifteen-year old can) that they were "minor when compared to the problems other countries face." I went on to talk about our freedoms: freedom to run our government, to work in a career of our choice, to succeed, to follow the religion of our choice... America was America to me, a middle-class white kid who bought it all. God bless America! 

By the way, the reason I know what I wrote is not because I have a photographic memory; it's because my mother clipped that article (and I think every other one I was named in during high school) and then put them all in a scrapbook that she passed along many years later. This particular article appeared on May 20, 1978 in The Wayne Independent. In addition to sharing kind words about me they also included the essay in it's entirety. 

I find myself wondering: if Langston Hughes had been in my grade and submitted his poem then on this topic, who would have won that contest sponsored by the VFW in Wayne County, Pennsylvania? I'm guessing it would have been me, sadly. 

My mind has changed, in part from listening to voices like Hughes and others over the past four plus decades for whom America was never America either. There have been places along the way too many to mention when I've been discouraged. But the election of Donald Trump and those four years culminating in the events of January 6 and now the recent decisions of what is clearly the Trump Court (and not the Roberts Court) have been more than discouraging. I feel heart-broken this Fourth of July 2022, and fear for my nation. 

I consider myself a pragmatic optimist. One of my former parishioners used to joke that in every sermon I would talk about hope. And I still do, but it's become far more challenging and nuanced of late. I'm glad not to be preaching this weekend. To paraphrase Hughes, America is no longer America to me, and I could not win a Loyalty Day Essay Contest anymore. Most days my emotions run from rage to shame about what my country has become.

And yet...

I ask myself every day: what can I do? Since I'm a priest, I usually ask, "how can I help shape the Church I am a part of to be salt and light and yeast in this time and place?" I am not interested in theocracy for both political and theological reasons, although it seems that is on the table right now as the wall of separation between church and state is being eroded. Lord, have mercy. 

After 9/11, a well-intentioned member of the altar guild in the parish I was serving suggested we move the American flag to the front and center of the church. I said no. I said we needed to be focused on Font and Table on that Sunday more than ever. She meant no harm, but her question is one with which most clergy are familiar and the pull toward civil religion is greatest on weekends like the one upon us. Pity the pastor who decides to skip the patriotic hymns! 

My favorite prayer in The Book of Common Prayer for national days including Independence Day is a "Thanksgiving for National Life" that is found on page 838. It is really as much a confession as it is thanksgiving, and it is the prayer I need right now, and perhaps others do also. It goes like this: 

Almighty God, giver of all good things: 

We thank you for the natural majesty and beauty of this land.
They restore us, though we often destroy them. 
Heal us. 

We thank you for the great resources of this nation. They 
make us rich, though we often exploit them.
Forgive us. 

We thank you for the men and women who have made this

country strong. They are models for us, though we often fall
short of them.
Inspire us.

We thank you for the torch of liberty which has been lit in 
this land. It has drawn people from every nation, though we
have often hidden from its light. 
Enlighten us.

We thank you for the faith we have inherited in all its rich
variety. It sustains our life, though we have been faithless
again and again. 
Renew us. 

Help us, O Lord, to finish the good work here begun. 
Strengthen our efforts to blot out ignorance and prejudice, 
and to abolish poverty and crime. And hasten the day when 
all our people, with many voices in one united chorus, will
glorify your holy Name. Amen. 

Please consider joining me in this prayer in the days ahead, and if that's too many words maybe we can all just pray: Heal us. Forgive us. Inspire us. Enlighten us. Renew us. Help us.

In so praying, perhaps (with God's help) we can make America again.