Frameworks

Our presidential candidates are doing their best to sell us on a vision of their presidencies. Bigotry, hate, anger, selfishness, scarcity, and lack of respect for human life characterize a number of these visions. Such visions are deeply disturbing, scary and sad.
Many proponents of these visions seem to feel that such beliefs are compatible with calling themselves Christians. They are not compatible with the way of Christ. Jesus instructs us to love God and love neighbor. To welcome the stranger. To care for those in need.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes, “I have a dream, God says. Please help me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing.”
Perhaps the silver lining of the harsh and ugly rhetoric of the current presidential campaign is that it is so extreme that it makes us pause and consider our own vision, our own dream for our nation and world. What is your dream for the world? What is your vision for our nation?
After some of the recent Republican presidential debates, parents are reevaluating whether the debates are appropriate for their children to watch. Many parents are using the debates as a lesson for their children in what is not acceptable. When our politicians’ behavior and messages run contrary to what we teach our children, we know there is a problem.
My hope is that our visions are shaped more by love than by fear and anger, and are exemplified by messages and behaviors that are models to our children of who we most hope they, and we, will become.
Christy Laborda Harris is the rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Sebastopol.