Interfaith Insight - 2021
Permanent link for "OUR NATION FACING A CHOICE BY HEEDING THE PROPHETS" BY DOUG KINDSCHI on June 29, 2021
As we look to another Fourth of July, do we celebrate the 245th
anniversary of our country’s independence or should we worry about our
country’s future? Our polarization has led to multiple expressions of
concern about our ability to survive and thrive as a nation. Can we
come together or are we on a track to decline? A few years before his
death, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks addressed the question of “Why
Civilizations Fail,” and began by quoting Moses:
"Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God. …
Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses
and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your
silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your
heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who
brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. … You may say to
yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this
wealth for me.’… If you ever forget the Lord your God … I testify
against you today that you will surely be destroyed.” (Deut. 8:11-19)
Reflecting on this passage, Sacks continued with the warning that
it is not the suffering in the wilderness that is the real test. The
real challenge will begin “precisely when all your physical needs are
met – when you have land and sovereignty and rich harvests and safe
homes – that your spiritual trial will commence.”
This is seen as an early version of what many historians have
observed over the centuries as they look at the history of
civilizations. Sacks points to the 14th century Islamic thinker, Ibn
Khaldun, who in his introduction to history was one of the first to
observe that great civilizations become too comfortable and
complacent, leading to a period of decay and eventual decline.
In his “History of Western Philosophy,” Bertrand Russell notes a
similar pattern in what he considered to be examples of great
civilizations. In his introduction he notes: “What had happened in
the great age of Greece happened again in Renaissance Italy:
traditional moral restraints disappeared … the decay of morals made
Italians collectively impotent, and they fell, like the Greeks, under
the domination of nations less civilized than themselves but not so
destitute of social cohesion.”
British historian of the last century, Arnold Toynbee, studied 26
different civilizations in his 12-volume “A Study of History.” I
don’t claim to have read this major work, but according to Britannica
on the web, he concluded: “Civilizations declined when their leaders
stopped responding creatively, and the civilizations then sank owing
to the sins of nationalism, militarism, and the tyranny of a despotic
minority.” The Britannica also noted that Toynbee “saw history as
shaped by spiritual, not economic forces.”
Sacks summarized this spiritual decline thus: “Inequalities will
grow. The rich will become self-indulgent. The poor will feel
excluded. There will be social divisions, resentments and injustices.
Society will no longer cohere. People will not feel bound to one
another by a bond of collective responsibility. Individualism will
prevail. Trust will decline. Social capital will wane.” Is this our
situation today?
Sacks suggests that this decline is not inevitable and proposes
three rules to guard against it.
Rule 1: Never forget where you came from.
He admonishes us to
focus on justice, caring for the poor, ensuring dignity for everyone
and “making sure there are always prophets to remind the people of
their destiny and expose the corruptions of power.”
Rule 2: Never drift from your foundational principles and
ideals.
Sacks explained, “Societies start growing old when they
lose faith in the transcendent. They then lose faith in an objective
moral order and end by losing faith in themselves.”
Rule 3: A society is as strong as its faith.
This faith is
necessary in order “to honor the needs of others as well as ourselves
… (and) give us the humility that alone has the power to defeat the
arrogance of success and self-belief.”
Given this warning from Rabbi Sacks, I have recently reflected on
the current book “The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago
and How We can Do It Again,” by Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Garrett.
They point to an earlier time at the beginning of the 20th century
when as a nation we experienced great selfishness, division, and
income disparity. In their sociological research they point to the
“upswing” that happened in that century, when the disparities and
polarization of the early 1900s gave way to increased collaboration
and care for the larger good. This led to a more egalitarian and
cooperative society that peaked in the mid-century during the
Eisenhower presidency.
This upswing was marked by desegregation of the armed forces,
expanded Social Security coverage, more public housing, and better
health care and education. There was also cooperation on a massive
investment in infrastructure, notably the interstate highway system.
Putnam and Garrett also document the “downswing” during the second
half of the century leading to the current polarization and inequities
that are similar to the early part of the 1900s. But they do not give
up hope but instead analyze how the last century’s upswing developed
-- and why it can happen again.
So where are we this Fourth of July? Have we already gone too
far down this path of spiritual decline? Have we lost our social
cohesion? Do we honor the needs of others, especially the poor? Have
we lost faith in a moral order? Is it too late to regain a collective
responsibility? Rabbi Sacks also makes the distinction between
prediction and prophesy. Prophets do not predict -- they warn. “If a
prediction comes true it has succeeded; if a prophecy comes true it
has failed. The prophet tells of the future that will happen if we do
not heed the danger and mend our ways.”
Can we heed the current prophets like Sacks and look to an
upswing that will bring a renewed commitment to the common good? Let
us also heed the ancient Hebrew prophet’s call “to do justice, love
kindness, and walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Garrett