Christine Sunderland

Entry into Jerusalem, Giotto

Today is the First Sunday in Advent, the first day of the Christian Year, our New Year’s Day.

I often wondered why the Gospel appointed for the First Sunday in Advent (Matthew 21:1+) recounts Christ entering Jerusalem. This is the Palm Sunday story, not the Bethlehem story, I often thought. Christ enters through the gates, the people welcoming him with palms and hosannas. Why does this Gospel usher in Advent, the prelude to Christmas, when it seems the prelude to Easter?

I gazed this morning upon the Advent wreath and the four candles in the greenery, tapers representing death, judgement, heaven, and hell, the “four last things” we experience. The Church reminds us of these great events in Advent, the season of preparation for Christmas, the season in which we look forward to the Son of God born among us, incarnate love, in our flesh. Today we are reminded of our death, next Sunday our judgement, and the last two Sundays, heaven and hell. Death will usher in judgement, and the judgement will bring heaven or hell. It will be, and is, and ever shall be, our choice, our free choice, for love is defined by free will, freedom to choose.

And so as I consider the itinerant preacher, Jesus of Nazareth, riding on a donkey toward the gates of Jerusalem, I know he is riding toward the gates of my heart. He enters Jerusalem and judges, overthrowing the tables of the money-changers in the temple. He enters my heart and judges, overthrowing the tables of my sins. For we too are temples, incarnate houses of the divine, or would like to be. Christ cries, “My house shall be called the house of prayer; yet ye have made it a den of thieves.” Just so, my heart must be purged of the thieves of time and love, the thieves whispering lies and encouraging greed, distracting me from my true end, God.

Christ enters Jerusalem. Christ enters our hearts. And Jesus Christ enters our world, born in a manger. Advent means coming, the coming of Christ, his entering through the gates of time into our world. The immortal breaks through the boundaries of the mortal. To do this he must take on flesh, become one of us. How does this happen? It happens through love, the sacrificial, suffering, immense love of God.

Advent calls us to focus on death and judgement so that we may fully live today and in eternity. Advent cries, “Wake up! Your time is limited, do not waste it.” Love one another. And how do we learn to love? We welcome God into our hearts and lives, for God is Love.

Many preachers rant against the festivities and trappings of Christmas as being too materialistic. But we are material creatures, and we celebrate with matter, with material goods that reflect the joy of the season. The Advent wreath of greens tells of the tree of life that brings light. The wreath is the crown of thorns become a crown of light, eternity seen in the circle and life living in the branches. We decorate a fir tree, bringing it in from the cold outside and into the warm inside, placing it in the center of our homes and hearts, stringing glittery bits through the dark foliage, hanging bright shiny ornaments that dangle and dance, that hold our memories, setting a star on top, leading us to the manger in Bethlehem. We gather around the tree, warmed by its light, and we are touched by eternity, transcendence. It is the tree of life that will become our salvation on Good Friday.

And what about the gates of our hearts? We are more than money-changers. We are called to love, to give, in this holy season. We consider others and their needs when we choose our gifts, and we wrap each one to sing our love, with ribbons and bows and glossy paper. We share meals with friends and family, and bake cookies with children and grandchildren. We set out a crèche, a stable, and place Mary and Joseph, the angels, the shepherds and the wise men around the manger that cradles the Holy Child. We sing Silent Night and The First Noel and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. We tell the story again and again, as we draw closer to Christmas Day. We tell the story of God with us, Emmanuel.

In America we celebrate our freedom to worship whomever and whatever we choose. Christians can choose to worship the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They can choose to gather together in church, to love God in prayer and song, to call him to come among us. We are blessed to have this choice in a violent world growing more and more hostile to freedom of worship. We must not waste the time or take it for granted. We must embrace what we are given, with joy and gratitude.

This morning in church we lit one candle, one lone flame to welcome Christ into our hearts this magnificent season. This flame will light the second candle next Sunday, and the third the following Sunday, and the fourth the last Sunday before Christmas Day. In this time of Advent, of the waiting for the coming of the Holy Child to be born, we are given the rich rituals of the season to lighten our darkness, so that we can see where we are going.

On this first Sunday in Advent we sang, “O come, O come, Emmanuel…”, calling the Messiah into our world, opening our gates to the Son of God. The hymn is a haunting cry in the wilderness for help, a confession of need, an admission of guilt, and a wail for mercy. Our country and our world cry for him to come, to become incarnate among us, within us.

I looked to the altar and the tabernacle holding the Real Presence of Christ. I thought of his Last Supper and his commandment to love one another and to re-member him in the Eucharist until he returns in judgement. And this we did, consecrating bread and wine into Body and Blood as he commanded. As we knelt and received our communions, we entered Love and Love entered us.

Death, judgement, heaven, hell. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Enter our gates. Teach us to love one another.

This morning as I watched the acolytes and clergy process into our collegiate chapel, St. Joseph of Arimathea, I was thankful. Cal is, after all, the home of the Free Speech Movement. There seemed a chance now for our precious freedom of speech and religion to be protected. I had hope that peace and freedom would return to our land. Our country, held hostage by political correctness, crime, and anarchy, was slipping down a dangerous slope into dark muddy waters. Without shared law and order, tyranny rules. Hopefully, the recent election will cause a change of course, just in time.

This year election day and Veterans Day were close to one another. Americans observed both, the electing of those who govern America, and the honoring of those who protect her. It seems appropriate, for both the voters and the veterans fight for the same thing, freedom and the rule of law. And now, after our national elections, we seek a more perfect union, uniting our many wonderful and colorful peoples.

In order to form a more perfect union, we agree on common laws that keep us safe from one another, that keep the peace. We elect those who will best do this.

For we are human beings, full of self, full of pride, and we butt against others full of pride who disagree with us. Nations pass laws that protect the peace, laws inspired by our better selves, our better angels. It is as though our better angels within us govern those darker angels within, the demons, who seek to do us harm.

In order to form a more perfect union, a more peaceful United States, we give voice to the voiceless through free press and rigorous debate. But speech, being human speech, is also targeted by those lesser angels within us, those demons. And so the war within each of us continues and will continue until the end of time.

This election was a challenge for both winners and losers, for the winners didn’t expect to win and the losers didn’t expect to lose. Our “free” press, largely owned by the Left, muddied the waters of our electoral process again and again, painting false pictures, telling outright lies, sneering and ridiculing, throwing innuendos and salacious dirt into the public square. False testimony, name calling, and gutter arguments appealed to the lesser angels, those who enjoy Twitter tittering and thinly disguised pornography. Confusion reigned, distorting the issues and hiding the facts.

Spreading confusion is a favored tool of those dark angels. Confusion leads to chaos, evident in the violent demonstrations, the attacks on police, and the disruption of peaceful rallies. Chaos leads to anarchy.

But Mr. Trump won in part because of this violence. Americans desire peace and freedom, law and order. They want everyone to be equal under the law, the rich and the poor. Many women voted for Mr. Trump, which was not surprising to me. Women want safe streets and schools for their children. They want protection from assault. They want crimes prosecuted and criminals removed from their communities. They don’t want to live in fear, hiding behind locked doors. Women are mothers and grandmothers and aunts and sisters. They care immensely about family, the next generation and the one after that. They fear for their daughters and granddaughters.

There were other reasons that Mr. Trump won, for he provided real hope and change, not mere words, especially in states hurting from free trade policies and the religion of environmentalism. Workers wanted work and voted for the return of factories and jobs. They could see that Obamacare, when it inevitably became a single payer system, would end their union health care, a substantial loss.

I am proud of America, that her citizens could see through the hype and slander and lies of the media and the elite politicos on both sides. They saw through the fog, the evasion of the issues. Americans refused to fear a Trump presidency, as they were commanded to fear. And they were labeled and punished for their views. They were forced to be silent, to hide. They were accused of racism and judged deplorable. If Trump supporters felt fear, it was fear of their neighbors, fear of alienating their family, fear of even speaking, and even today they fear the childish, dangerous rioters on their city streets. They hide behind locked doors, still fearing to offend.

So the more folks riot and smash windows and spray paint and destroy property and refuse to be responsible citizens in our great land, the more I realize that President-elect Trump is a much needed correction to American narcissism. Their violence validates America’s presidential choice; clearly a correction to the culture of America is needed. Mr. Trump will not be rash or hurtful. He is, I believe, smart and honest and brave. He will rely on good advisers. He will negotiate his path forward, not rule by executive fiat as President Obama enjoys doing. He has a big heart for the American people, all races and genders, and this soon-to-be great nation. He will unify us, assuming the media changes course as well and supports our country rather than tearing it apart, and assuming we all listen to our better angels.

Those veterans we honored on Friday fought for this historic moment. And as we pray for a peaceful transition of power, the free world will soon realize they are better off with a President Trump who will strengthen America and thus protect the West. He was and is their best hope as well as ours. A strong America is an America that can defend peace and freedom, law and order, abroad as well as at home, even on university campuses in California.

Those veterans fought for my right to worship in our beautiful barrel-vaulted chapel alight with song and thundering organ and flaming candles and hovering angels. They fought for my right to write these words. I gave thanks for them this morning. I gave thanks for America.

Saints are those who are so full of the love of God that they radiate His glory. They love as He loves, and thus care for the poor, heal the sick, feed the hungry. Sometimes their vocation is to pray, cloistered from the world, or sharing their abbeys and chapels with any who desire a quite moment with God. They are men and women of sacrifice, for their Lord is a God of sacrificial love. They give half their cloak to a naked beggar, as St. Martin did. They heal lepers and tame wolves, as St. Francis did. They preach the love of God in Auschwitz and offer their lives in place of others. They care for the dying and give shelter to the homeless. Having a vision of God, they write and preach, bursting with a love that cannot be hidden, helping the blind to see.

As our culture becomes increasingly secularized, the idea of self-sacrifice has become unpopular. Even Christians run away from Christ’s commandments, bending their knee to the politically correct dogma of the day. Christianity is not for sissies. And yet, it is definitely for lovers.

My bishop often said that you won’t like Heaven if you don’t like being in love.

And this morning, as we sang the thundering hymn, “For all the saints…”, as the priests and acolytes royally processed up the red-carpeted aisle of our local parish, I was glad to have the blessing of worshiping God in this beautiful sacred space. It was indeed like being in love. In love with glory, in love with God.

The Epistle, our first Scripture reading, was St. John’s vision of Heaven, in particular the saints and martyrs who stand before the Lamb, the Son of God, Jesus Christ:

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb… These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall  wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:2+, BCP, All Saints Day)

In their sacrificial love of God and neighbor, the saints are given a special place in Heaven, close to the throne of God, fed by by the Lamb, Christ himself. They are our heroes, those who thirst after righteousness, who tell the truth, true to God.

The Gospel for today complements this vision of John, for Christ lists the blessings (Beatitudes) given to the poor in spirit (the sad, depressed, despairing), those who mourn, the meek, the lovers of righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those “persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” This last phrase speaks to us today, for Christians are being persecuted throughout the world, as well as here. Our Lord concludes the passage:

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Matthew 5:1+, BCP, All Saints Day)

We are in the last hours of a national election. The vote could go either way. The electorate seems to be split between one candidate who breaks the law boldly, with impunity, immunity, and perjury. The alternate candidate upholds the law and tells the truth. But truth is difficult to bear. T.S. Eliot wrote in Four Quartets, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” And so we have a media of lies as well, denying the reality of international threats, of domestic disorder, and of late-term abortion. It is a media that covers up major flaws in one candidate and exaggerates minor flaws in the other. It’s all upside down and topsy-turvy. Confusion reigns. As a supporter of the second candidate, I have felt reviled, persecuted, and slandered for my beliefs, by media, friends, and family who look down from their lofty and superior perch.

This election is a turning point for America. It is a referendum on her very identity. History tells us that a democratic nation without the foundation of equality under the law will crumble. A nation crumbling will be prey to foreign powers, ideologies, tyrannies. The great experiment in democracy may be seeing its last days.

But today I gloried in an hour of Sunday worship, an hour in which I faced the reality of God, of Heaven, of the Saints. It was an hour of prayer and praise, a victorious hour that reminded me of who I am, why I was created, and my eternal destiny, Heaven. It was an hour bursting with God’s love, incarnate on the altar in bread and wine, a love fulfilling all righteousness.

Please pray for our country, pray for this election, pray that in all things, large and small, nations and people, God’s will be done. May we all be sanctified in time, so that we may in eternity gather by the river that runs by the throne of God.

One of the best arguments for the existence of God is made by C.S. Lewis, that human beings have an innate sense of justice, and there must be a source for that intuition. We complain when we think justice is violated, when the agreed-upon rules are broken. We say, “It’s not fair…”

And so our Pilgrim Fathers left their native land to escape religious persecution, to found a new world in which, in time, every citizen would be deemed equal under the law, regardless of class, race, and religion. We talk about “blind justice,” and while it is not always achieved, Lady Justice remains our ideal.

When those who work in our halls of justice are not blind in rewarding and punishing, or when they themselves are immune from justice, we complain, and our complaint is right and just.

I’ve been editing, for future publication by the American Church Union, the late Robert Sherwood Morse’s sermons. He repeats often the words of Saint John, “God is Love.” And within that love lies mercy. But there’s no need for mercy, Bishop Morse explains, if there is no judgement. And hence we have the source of justice, this seed planted deep within each of us. His Advent sermons in particular emphasize and illuminate the nature of the Last Judgement, describing how we will be both judged and saved by Jesus Christ. Christ will judge our lives in Time, and through the Cross save us in Eternity. Save us from what? Save us from the punishment demanded by justice.

Love begets mercy and forgiveness. And mercy assumes judgement.

Today’s Gospel for the 23rd Sunday after Trinity describes the response of Our Lord to the trap laid by the Pharisees who ask him:

” ‘Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?’ ” But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money.’ And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, ‘Whose is this image and superscription?’ They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.’ ”  (Matthew 22:15)

This passage is often quoted to support the separation of Church and State, as though we as Christians live parallel lives. What we do in church, what we believe, this argument goes, has nothing to do with whom we elect, the laws we enact, the societal mores we choose to uphold or tear down.

But Christ, a Jew with full knowledge of the Mosaic Law, was speaking to Jews also holding to this law, but who still lived in bondage to Rome’s law. The Mosaic Law was assumed, unquestioned. The question was a trap, and so Christ answered without answering.

Christians in America and other democracies are not (theoretically) living under totalitarian governments. We are encouraged to voice our beliefs to inform policy, to choose the good and refuse the evil.

When Moses descended Mount Sinai, carrying the Ten Commandments etched upon tablets of stone, his people could not look upon the brilliant radiance emanating from his face. Just so the law has been burned into our hearts and minds. The Mosaic law bound God to his people and the Children of Israel to God. Christ, the Messiah, embodied that law when he gave his body for us, rising from death, to save us from the judgement the law intrinsically imposed. Christ did not deny the law. He fulfilled it.

The early Church, those first Christians, knew that they must uphold the Ten Commandments, that they should worship only the one true God as the First Commandment commands. They died tortuous deaths for their public witness. They knew that the words of Christ to the Pharisees as he held the coin bearing Caesar’s image did not mean separation of Church and State.

Christians continue to witness to this truth. Those who witnessed against the horrors of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, who gave their lives in the last century, knew they must not be silent in the face of evil.

We are called to bear witness to the great graces given to us in the Judeo-Christian heritage. We are called to honor not only the law of the land, but the law of God, and when they conflict, the latter demands our obedience.

Christ summarized this law of love:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Mark 12:30-31)

Today, for many Anglicans, we celebrate as well the Feast of Christ the King. It seems appropriate that His kingship be celebrated on this 23^rd Sunday after Trinity when we are reminded of law, commandments, and the great Summary of the Law.

God is, indeed, love. But in order to love we must have law and order. And we must have equality under the law. This our Founding Fathers knew. This we must protect for our children and their children.

The winds were high along the Kohala Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii, where we took a few weeks to re-create, rest, read, and reflect. We walked the beach and the sweet stretch of smooth sand was blown by the wind, sliding across the shore. Its unfriendly force pushed us, driving us forward, belying the deep beauty of the blue sea with its dancing whitecaps, belying the cerulean sky cleared of volcanic ash that sometimes drifts from the volcano to the south. This land was a stark reminder that nature does not care about us. Nature will go on long after our footprint has been washed away, or perhaps blown away.

The powerful winds remind us that we human beings are different from nature. We do indeed reflect. We create language that allows us to shape our past, present, and future and consider, contemplate, and choose. We stand apart from the natural world, albeit our feet are firmly planted in it. But somehow we are different, not mere animals. And with this difference comes a deep sense of spirit, of soul, of a connection to someone greater than we are, our creator, as though we creatures connect heaven and earth, eternity and time.

Someone once said that eternity is now. What we do matters, what we think and say and write matters, and how and what and whom we love matters. It all counts. Nothing is wasted, as my bishop used to say. Everything, every breath of life, is noted in the Great Heavenly Book of Love and becomes a part of our eternity. We weave our future each day with the threads of our lives, creating a pattern of good or evil, telling a story in which we will live forever. Have we chosen the right design, the right colors, the right threads? And with Christ’s saving grace, we have the chance, the choice, to re-weave our life-tapestry when we appear before Him in that Great Judgment Hall of piercing light. We are not afraid. We have his promise of forgiveness for those darker dirtier threads that run through our living weave. The piercing light will show them to us. We can repent.

What we do matters. How we vote matters. And as election day nears, what choice do we have? Stay home? Hide under the bed? Neither candidate is perfect, but then candidates have never been perfect. They are human, as one pundit pointed out. But this election will matter far more than any election in the history of our nation. We are hanging by a thread.

Many don’t like Mrs. Clinton, but see Mr. Trump as far worse. Why is that?

Mr. Trump makes offensive comments, many say in a superior tone. I find it curious that the liberal media find Mr. Trump’s words coarse and offensive, even “scary”,  especially toward women. Yet Mr. Trump’s words – and remember they are merely words, not actions or policy – clearly reflect the culture created by that same liberal media. Our culture is far more coarse and degrading (yes, especially toward women) than Mr. Trump has ever been. America is permeated with porn, a state that occurred as religion backed out (was forced out?) of the public square. As Heather McDonald writes in “Trumped-Up Outrage” on the City Journal’s website, quoted in the Wall Street Journal:

“Now, why might it be that men regard women as sex objects? Surely the ravenous purchase by females of stiletto heels, pus-up bras, butt-hugging mini-skirts, plunging necklines, false eyelashes, hair extensions, breast implants, butt implants, lip implants, and mascara, rouge, and lipstick to the tune of billions a year has nothing to do with it… The sudden onset of Victorian vapors among the liberal intelligentsia and political class at the revelation of Trump’s locker-room talk is part and parcel of the Left’s hypocrisy when it comes to feminism and sexual liberation… but the feminists can’t have it both ways: declaring that women should be equal to men in all things and then still demand a chivalric deference to female’s delicate sensibilities…”

The liberal elite feign shock as they smugly peer down from their ivory towers, sneering at the rest of us whom they consider to be “dumbed down.” They question our ability to make decisions about our own lives. But, remind me, who dumbed us down? Wouldn’t that be the purview of public schools, universities, television, movies, popular music, the press – yes, that same liberal elite.

What to do as a deplorable who is irredeemable according to Mrs. Clinton? Do those who find Mr. Trump offensive, and Mrs. Clinton criminal, assuage their consciences and not vote at all? Or vote for a third party candidate, which equals not voting.

Eric Metaxis, author of “If you Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty,” understands the problem of conscience, when to be speak, when to be silent. He researched Bonhoeffer speaking out against Hitler, and Wilberforce speaking out against slavery. He writes in the Wall Street Journal (“Should Christians Vote for Trump?”):

“If imperiously flouting the rules by having a private server endangered American lives and secrets and may lead to more deaths, if she cynically deleted thousands of emails, and if her foreign-policy judgment led to the rise of Islamic State, won’t refusing to vote make me responsible for those suffering as a result of these things? We would be responsible for passively electing someone who champions the abomination of partial-birth abortion, someone who is celebrated by an organization that sells baby parts. We already live in a country where judges force bakers, florists and photographers to violate their consciences and faith—and Mrs. Clinton has zealously ratified this. If we believe this ends with bakers and photographers, we are horribly mistaken. No matter your faith or lack of faith, this statist view of America will dramatically affect you and your children.” (Italics mine)

David Gelernter, Yale professor, writing in the Wall Street Journal (“Trump and the Emasculated Voter”) agrees:

“There is only one way to take part in protecting this nation from Hillary Clinton, and that is to vote for Donald Trump. A vote for anyone else or for no one might be an honest, admirable gesture in principle, but we don’t need conscientious objectors in this war for the country’s international standing and hence for the safety of the world and the American way of life… it’s no big deal of a sacrifice for your country. I can think of bigger ones.” 

It is a windy time, hurricane season. On the edge of an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, I could be burned by the sun, drowned by the waters, blown by the winds. On the edge of the sea, it was beautiful. Yet the beauty scared me, teaching me that appearances could be deceiving.

In the most recent presidential debate, Mrs. Clinton appeared perfect – poised, confident, ebullient, hair coiffed. She was beautiful. Next to the bullish Trump she was serenity and wisdom in spite of her arrogance. But this Stepford candidate, this Barbie doll primed, wound up, and let go, didn’t seem human. She was a porcelain puppet controlled by an unseen master, held up by marionette strings.

James Dobson, evangelical author and founder of Focus on the Family, is voting for Mr. Trump, understanding that the next Supreme Court appointments, if made by a President Clinton, will destroy religious liberty. Pastors will not be allowed to preach. Hospitals, schools, missions for the poor, will be forced to close. Freedom will be given its last rites.

And so, I agree with Eric Metaxis when he mourns the many who will be hurt by a Clinton presidency. “A vote for Donald Trump is not necessarily a vote for Donald Trump himself. It is a vote for those who will be affected by the results of this election. Not to vote is to vote. God will not hold us guiltless.” (Italics mine) We are responsible for our choices. We will be held accountable. Nothing is lost, nothing forgotten, nothing wasted, nothing hidden.

We judge those who turned a blind eye to slavery and concentration camps. Those who chose not to see. We say, how could they do that? And yet, today, with the winds raging around us, we too are tempted to turn away, to leave the sick and the lame by the side of the road, to stop our ears to the cries of the dying.

The winds are rising, whining and howling like the hounds of death. Now is the time to make a stand for religious liberty, for law, for order, for honesty and truth. Edmund Burke was right when he said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Ah, another week of the media drowning the airwaves with the noise of distraction. Another week of the media appealing to our baser natures.

If the noise is loud enough, you can’t hear the music. Or the words. And there has been a lot of noise lately, blared by mainstream news, so that the all too urgent crises we face today have been silenced or ignored. The noise has added to a general confusion and querulous wonder that we as an electorate have stooped so low as to welcome the mudslinging and muckraking.

When I see muck raked from the past with the purpose of clouding our election process, intended to distort and confuse our present, I grow suspicious. Who exactly reported that bit from twenty years ago, ten years ago? And why? Distortion and confusion is a tool of those who desire to, well, distort and confuse, i.e., to lie about the present. Muck raked from the past can be appropriate at times, but must be of the illegal kind of muck, public not personal, to add real clarity to the present. It must, to be legitimate to our national conversation, have harmed the body politic, have done grievous injustice to our citizenry, to have actually broken our law.

And so, cover-ups and lying and private servers are legitimate muck to be raked, mud to be slung. Locker room banter, taped privately, is not pertinent to our national debate. Do we know the difference, and do we care?

We should care. Again and again, this election comes down to one basic issue: the rule of law. Mr. Trump was indeed smart to not pay taxes that he didn’t owe, to have worked within the law to achieve his goals. He might do the same in Washington, for us as a nation. Legally.

His opponent doesn’t care about the rule of law. She pretty much does as she wishes, being royal and privileged that way. Her courtiers sling the mud for her. They rake the muck that will make all of us forget she is prone to acting above the law that we have all agreed should be meted out on an equal basis to every citizen regardless.

And so we have another debate tonight. I’m gearing up to see with open eyes, to evaluate what is important and what is not. For it seems likely we shall see more diversion, more raking and slinging. Mr. Trump might feel he must fight at her level, since that is where she is. He was restrained last time, but will he be tonight? The Clintons have such a rich reservoir of mud and muck. What’s a candidate to do when faced with such a temptation?

The Vice-Presidential debate this past week encouraged my faith in the democratic process. I didn’t know Mr. Pence or Mr. Kaine. What image would they project? Would they appear presidential? Would they discuss the issues civilly and not interrupt one another?

Their performances varied greatly in spite of the fact they were both “politicians.” Mr. Pence owned a presence any president would covet. Mr. Kaine ranted and wisecracked and bullied, interrupting the composed answers of Mr. Pence. While they were both “Washington insiders,” Mr. Kaine spewed talking points and jargon, with rolling eyes and a sneering arrogance, while Mr. Pence gave thoughtful answers to the questions at hand, often pivoting to substance and eyeing the American people directly. Mr. Pence was the sound of music in a public square of noise. And should Mr. Trump win, Mr. Pence will be a heartbeat away, his life support. Should Mrs. Clinton win, Mr. Kaine will be a heartbeat away, her life support.

I have been editing a book of sermons and addresses given by the late Archbishop Robert Sherwood Morse, and yesterday I revisited his 1977 landmark speech in St. Louis, “The Long March into the Desert.” What he said then has come true:

“The major thrust of the Spirit of the Age is against the essential mysteries of Christ – the family and sacramental marriage. The demonic in history are those blind forces which would impersonalize life – eroding those interpersonal commitments that make civilization possible. Without the priority of the family – no nation, church or society can survive. The crisis of our Western culture is theological. For the primary problem of our time is the attack upon the family.”

His words made me think of Mr. Pence and Monday’s debate. When Mr. Pence explained that he thought all human life sacred, he spoke eloquently, touchingly. He was brave to wear the Pro-Life banner, a stigma and anathema to Mrs. Clinton and her friends. And he spoke directly to all of us watching, to Americans who may not care anymore about the family, marriage, and children.

The next president will have the power to appoint justices to the Supreme Court that will either revive the family or oversee its burial. He or she will have the power to uphold the rule of law or not, equally or unequally. The next president will choose to either build our defenses and strengthen world peace or weaken our defenses and welcome those who desire to conquer us, be they political or religious tyrants.

In the end, and we may be nearing the end of the great saga of America, this election will either ensure the death of democracy or breathe freedom into its embers.

The noise is rising, the static is nearly unbearable. Can we hear the words of liberty, the song of America? Can we rise once again, a phoenix from the ashes? Can we ignore the noise and silence the static?

I’m tuning in tonight for the Presidential debate (9 p.m. Eastern). It will be difficult, but I’m going to watch and listen for what they are really saying about the issues, if anything at all. The rest – the mudslinging and the noise – I’m going to expect, but try to ignore. There’s way too much at stake to see this as entertainment. This is our nation’s survival and our children’s future.

I’m trying to imagine a Clinton presidency or rather a Clinton monarchy. The heir apparent (heiress apparent?), according to the all-knowing press, is the only possible choice for any right minded, clear thinking, compassionate adult. Those who might possibly consider the opposite candidate are clearly out of their mind and unfeeling, according to the heir apparent, her courtiers, her water carriers, and her town criers.

The day she announced she was running, that she would bear the heavy burden of the crown, I guessed the contest over such as it was. Any candidate with this much power, in Washington and the media, couldn’t possibly lose. This was long before Mr. Trump sailed to the Republican nomination.

It was, to be honest (a dangerous thing to be, but I’m feeling reckless), when Mr. Trump resonated with large numbers of ordinary voters that I began to have hope that the Clinton monarchy might be challenged. And challenged it has been, and may still be, but I fear the scales are so heavily weighted (should I say rigged?) that even a Jack Kennedy wouldn’t stand a chance.

Let’s see. Bill Clinton reigned eight years (1993-2001), decimating the CIA which led to Nine-Eleven attacks. Hillary Clinton held major positions of power in Washington (Senator, 2001- 2009; Secretary of State, 2009-2013) for the following three terms, 12 years. Now she will reign another eight years. Total years of the Clintonian reign by January 2025: Twenty-eight years. Not bad, for a monarchy that rules a democracy.

It appears to me that for the spouse of a former president to run for president is a dangerous thing. The former president becomes First Gentleman, or First Consort, perhaps. The reign returns.

It has been noted recently that the Clinton sphere of influence over these last two decades has risen enormously. As peddlers of access, they have profited even when out of office, for it is assumed they will return. This peddling of power has solidified relationships at home and abroad, enriching the Clintons through their “Foundation,” kind of a royal treasury with a smile.

How did this happen? How did they become so powerful? The last debate was quite revealing, at least to this writer.

Call me crazy, but I thought Mr. Trump won the debate, or at least tied, but then I decided before I heard the TV spin and read the paper pundits. With his own party seeking his downfall, naively hoping to “come back” in 2020, Mr. Trump has major odds against him.

These debates are not about classic debate skills. They are about talking to the American people. They are about appearance, not substance, and feelings, not reasoning. So in terms of appearance, Mr. Trump looked thoughtful, controlled, composed, and even presidential. Mrs. Clinton looked arrogant, sneering, her voice strident and mean. As expected, the third person in the debate, the moderator, made his loyalty obvious as the evening unfolded. But Republicans are familiar with the two to one ratio.

Americans, while interested in appearance and not substance, even so must rely on others to judge and interpret for them. Many of us cannot think for ourselves. Peggy Noonan writes that the media are partly at fault, for they are so exhausted, that they live on the Edge of Stupid:

“Modern media realities make everything intellectually thinner, shallower. Everything moves fast; we talk not of the scandal of the day but the scandal of the hour, reducing a great event, a presidential campaign, into an endless river of gaffes.”

Ms. Noonan describes the “educated” college graduates who don’t read much, but rely on sound bites and movies. But most profound was her reference to Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows, about the Internet’s influence on our brains. Mr. Carr writes that the media “shape the process of thought…lessening our capacity for concentration and contemplation.” (WSJ 10/1-2/16)

So it appears, unless there really are secret Trumpists out there, that the election was over before it began. Queen Hillary will soon reign over our great land of equal opportunity, liberty and law, along with her Consort, William.

What will her reign be like? She will have power like no other president in the history of the United States. As historian Victor Davis Hanson observes, we should all fear what the presidency has become under President Obama, who “has transformed the powers of presidency in a way not seen in decades,” bypassing Congress, issuing executive-order amnesties, and “allowing entire cities to be exempt from federal immigration law.” He also notes, “The press said nothing about this extraordinary overreach of presidential power.”

The Clintons will silence disloyal subjects, for few will have the courage to speak out, and major institutions will support the monarchy in all they do. The Supreme Court will pass Clintonian legislation once the queen appoints her justices; religious freedom will be a precious piece of the past. Academia will shame faculty and students into a single way of thinking and speaking, the queen’s way.

Ah, what’s a subject, er, citizen, to do? My late bishop used to say (when I thought about things too much), “Don’t worry, God wins in the end.” True, but in the meantime we are called to act with honesty and courage, unselfishly, not as dictated by others, not as dictated by political correctness. My old bishop would say, “All is grace.” True again, for God pulls goodness out of evil every day, miracles happen everywhere, all the time, if we have eyes to see.

In church this morning we celebrated Michaelmas, the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, giving thanks for the good angels who conquered the evil ones: 

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon [Lucifer] fought with his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him…” (KJV Revelation 12:7+)

The Archangel Michael slew the dragon. But the war in heaven came to earth. We must consider carefully the choices we have left this election year. We must watch, listen, and decide on our own. There is no room for pride or snobbery about manners and temperament. There is no room for political correctness. There is far too much at stake. But then, in the end, all is grace. In the end, God wins. And in the meantime, we fall on our knees, before God not the queen, and pray that He write straight with our crooked lines.

Much has been written of late, with implied hand-wringing and dire glances, that we have no presidential candidate worthy of the contest, that we may as well give up, that American politics have become a sham. The whining and squirming, the blame game and character assassination, the robust (to put it kindly) reportage on page and screen, has distorted and darkened this election year.

It is as though a cloud lies over the land. We are discouraged.

And yet, in this time of unprecedented peril at home and abroad, emotions running high may be just the medicine required. For voters don’t read much. Schools watered down history and civics generations ago. Patriotism, citizenship, and freedom are no longer mentioned. I heard that a few schools still say the Pledge of Allegiance, but far more do not, and an uncounted number of schools shame America, slinging mud upon her history of “oppression.” But America is not the oppressor.

In this time of the very real, clear, and present danger of nuclear threat from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran, it is time for Americans to wake up. The United States has become a sleeping giant on the world stage, and when a giant sleeps, others move in and take up residence. We are perceived as uninvolved, desiring illusionary peace at the expense of true peace. Will we wake in time? We have disarmed our military, weakened our intelligence. We have drugged our children with shallow entertainment – movies, Internet, games. We have dumbed down public education, causing a great divide between those who vote and those who rule.

While I do not agree with all of Mr. Trump’s policies, and I will admit he was not my first choice in the primaries, I do see a dire need to shake up Washington D.C. And I believe that this hands-on businessman will assemble the requisite team of experts to advise him in areas he realizes he is not an expert. He understands, whether or not articulated perfectly, the threats to our nation at home and abroad. And he is not afraid to face what must be faced for our country’s survival. I admire his courage and savvy in his remarkable race for the presidential nomination over the last year. He has shown he has the ability to study and master new challenges. He has the drive, energy, and will to protect us. And he loves America, and he loves Americans.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former prime minister of Denmark and a former secretary-general of NATO, wrote in the Wall Street Journal recently that the United States must be the world’s policeman. We are the only nation that has the capacity to deter the forces that threaten democracy, the only nation with the moral fiber to effect this:

“It has become a cliche to talk about the ‘global village.’ But right now, the village is burning, and the neighbors are fighting in the light of the flames. Just as we need a policeman to restore order, we need a firefighter to put out the flames of conflict, and a kind of mayor, smart and sensible, to lead the rebuilding.”

Military historian Victor Davis Hanson writes of the explosive threats throughout the world coupled with a disengaged and tired United States: “War, unlike individual states, does not sleep.” He compares this quiet to the summer quiet before the storms of 1914 and 1939.

George F. Will states that “Modern tyrannies depend on state control of national memories.” In other words, they rewrite history, erasing unfriendly facts. Just so, the study of true history, the past not filtered by political correctness, is necessary for modern democracies to survive. Voters must face what is truly at stake in this time of national forgetting. They must understand so much – and they have not been taught what they need to remember.

And so we consider the candidates and their parties and who is best qualified to engage honestly the problems besetting our nation and our world. For the two – nation and world – are interconnected. If the world goes wrong, we will be part of the resulting firestorm. We will be oppressed by tyranny. Freedom will be something in the far distant past, a word we have erased from our national memory, having refused to teach it to our children. We have refused to face who we are and what we must be as citizens in a free country, a country still governed by a rule of law, a country still striving to honor the dignity of every citizen.

The first presidential debate is tomorrow evening, Monday, September 26, 9-10:30 Eastern. Each of us must see through the media circus and hype. We must judge wisely, adding these words of debate to the tabulated evidence we have accumulated over the last year. We must be our own experts, seeing with unfiltered vision, clear lenses. We must consider the candidates.

Political parties are about policy. Candidates are about character. We vote for the candidate who has the character necessary to truly lead, not from behind, but ahead, with the means and wisdom to study the issues, to assemble a fearless team of experts to advise him, and who is unafraid to confront the realities of rogue states on the march into the power vacuums we have created. We must, above all, vote for honesty and integrity. We must vote for someone to stand up for us against the bullies, whether they be in Washington D.C., Russia, or Iran.

Death is all around us, in nature, in our families and communities. In my own circle of family and friends we have been visited by death way too often over the last few months. Some friends died after living long lives, but others succumbed to illness much too soon. When our sweet black-and-white longhair cat, Lady Jane, died suddenly on Tuesday morning, I held her in my arms and cried. I cried for all of them, I think, all the lives gone, at least from this world. Lady Jane helped me write my novels as well as this blog, sitting on my desk or in my lap (a challenge), purring loudly, finally slipping into a silent happy snooze. Life and death, I thought as I held her, are so very close to one another.

But yesterday I held my great granddaughter, four months old, in my arms. She was warm and soft and smelled of baby, a unique fragrance, a hopeful aroma. Death seemed far away as I looked into her bright inquisitive eyes and felt her legs push, her fragile fingers grab onto mine. Here was life, a child of love, and a child of the future. She would see the next millennium.

The stakes are high for America and her future. The price of freedom is often the willingness to fight for it. Fighting sometimes means dying. But we are a nation of brave warriors and true-lovers. We have fought for liberty before and will again. We will fight for those whom we love, for our families, for our nation, and for the world. We will wake, watch, listen, and we will decide our future.

There are times when words carry so much weight the burden is either overwhelming or empowering.

Words filled with pride, arrogance, and contempt build walls that often cannot be breached. They are words that intend separation from the hearer, as though by building a barrier of disgust and derision, the speaker is somehow sanitized. True believers of any persuasion, political or religious, are tempted by this desire to be clean, and history has shown this to be true with Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and earlier in the religious purges of both Protestants and Catholics. Perhaps every era could own to these times of scorn and cleansing. 

At an LGBT event in New York City (September 9?), Mrs. Clinton pulled out those weighty hate words when she said:

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.”

According to recent definitions of hate speech, where the listener or reader defines such speech by his (or her) degree of disagreement and offense, would I qualify to file charges against Mrs. Clinton for making me feel wronged, slandered, or offended? I certainly do feel wronged, slandered, and offended. Or perhaps I simply need a “safe space” with nice music and soft pillows such as universities now offer students to escape words that trigger their disagreement and nurse their wounded feelings.

But then, thanks to Dr. Ben Carson and many others have challenged the heir apparent. For many highly esteemed Americans found Mrs. Clinton’s words deplorable and irredeemable. Dr. Carson used words that make sense and unify, rather than divide. He appealed to reason, not emotions:

“I believe in expanding opportunity, not welfare; that’s not racist. I believe every life is worth protecting, particularly the unborn; that doesn’t make me sexist. I believe marriage is between one man and one woman; that’s not homophobic. I believe in borders, the rule of law and our sovereign right to decide who to let into our country; that’s not xenophobic. I believe radical Islam is a mortal threat to America and Western civilization; that is common sense, not Islamophobia.”

I agree with Dr. Carson and do not consider myself racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or Islamophobic. I also consider myself an American and, just to be clear, quite redeemable.

It is the glory of these United States that our states are still united. Sort of, loosely. But that is how federalism works – a give and take, a respect for honest debate, never forgetting respect for other points of view, the right to speak peacefully.

I thought of this suddenly as I was speaking about my new novel, The Fire Trail, at Orinda Books yesterday. I wondered if free speech was truly dying, that liberty was no longer protected by law: When a baker is forced to go against her beliefs and take part in a forbidden ceremony; when schools are forced to go against their creeds and support forbidden “health” procedures; when preachers are jailed for preaching their beliefs, when climate change deniers are sued by climate change supporters; when “politically incorrect” speakers are targeted by the IRS.

When the executive and judicial branches of our government take over the legislative branch, it certainly appears like tyranny, downsizing to one branch.

The trends are clear, and it remains for every voter to judge the outcome in the next election, which may be our last. For speech is no longer free. Debate is silenced in the name of a morally superior oligarchy, an elite network of wealthy pundits in media, academia and government who desire to silence America through intimidation, derision, and contempt.  

But yesterday, free speech was alive and well at my local bookstore. I enjoyed introducing my characters to a few readers who encouraged me with their rapt attention and complete silence. No one shuffled. No one glazed over. I could almost hear their minds ticking and their hearts beating. I introduced my characters: Jessica and Zachary, grad students burned by unintended consequences of the sexual revolution and the fragmentation of American culture. I introduced Father Nate and his five cats and his crippled brother Nicholas in the upstairs bedroom. We entered Laurie’s Fine Books on College Avenue, the bells jangling, to meet the proprietress from Kenya and bask in her dazzling smile. And lastly, we heard Anna, fifty-seven, Comerford House docent, recount her memories of Nine-Eleven as she gazes at an American flag, rippling in the breeze at half-mast on the front porch of the house museum.

My guests at the book reading were quiet and attentive, because they were free to roam within my language, characters, and scenes, without thought of punishment. And I was free to speak.

But I feel fear is silencing America. We fear being thought unfeeling, unkind, mean. We want to be good, we want to see ourselves as good. Perhaps we are proud and should repent, but that is between each of us and our God, not Washington D.C. Regardless of our state of goodness, we are afraid we will be placed in the camp of the Evil Offenders, put in the village stocks or sentenced to exile by family, community, and nation, all for our deeply held beliefs.

It is not too late to correct the course. But tyranny triumphs when good men (and women) do nothing. Now who said that? Sounds like it might offend someone somewhere.

Today, Nine-Eleven-Sixteen, our preacher preached quietly, soberly, his hands folded, his gestures muted, speaking about America’s history from the head of the central aisle. Behind him the marble altar held the veiled tabernacle centered between the flaming candles. The red Sanctus lamp burned, suspended high, and the medieval crucifix rose beyond, victorious. It is the place where we re-member the sacrifice of Christ in the action of the Mass. We bring him among us in the bread and the wine.

What happens, he asked, when a civilization no longer re-members its history? No longer teaches its history to the next generation through school and family, cultural icons and festivals? Nations who do not re-member, who do not recreate and bring into the present the best of their past, dis-member their present. They pull apart, disintegrate. But civilizations do not naturally remember, he reminded us. Each of us must teach our children and inform our culture or it will be dis-membered. There must be active intent on our part to pass on our faith as well as our culture.

Many are concerned we are flinging apart, dis-membering into warring communities. We live in a culture of the present that is contemptuous of the past. If we re-member our history, we re-member the wounds and the wrongs. We need to re-member the goods and the greats of the past. This is the history we must reweave into our national life story.

Not all cultures dishonor their history as we do. Islam respects its past, re-members it into their present. Al-Qaeda chose September 11 purposefully as a re-membering of September 11, 1683 at the gates of Vienna. Vienna guarded the borders of Christendom. The Ottoman Empire desired to conquer the West. Since Mohammed, the Muslim call to conquer the world has threatened Western Christian states who have, in time, built a legacy of freedom and democracy. On September 11, 1683, the Turks met defeat at the gates of Vienna, and the course of history changed. Vienna was spared, as was the Christian West. A good re-membrance of the importance and nature of the battle (after a 3 month siege and 300 years of warfare) can be found at Islam Watch where former Muslims explain Islam and its character.

And so the battle came into the present, on our own homeland, fifteen years ago today in New York City. The invaders attacked not only our people but our way of life, our beliefs, our freedom, our Judeo-Christian culture.

Our way of life, our culture, is a product of the Judeo-Christian belief in the God-given dignity of each person regardless of race, gender, handicap, age, born and unborn. It is a culture based on respect for one another, and we strive to protect these “natural” rights. But we seem to have forgotten where they come from. John Stuart Mill in On Liberty as well as Susan Nold in the Wall Street Journal agree that democracy will not survive if it is taken for granted.

Assuming democracy will forever structure our way of life, we cherish our differences, for this is who we are. We welcome law abiding immigrants. Most desire to support our democratic freedoms, for our liberty and laws protect and encourage flourishing, turning despair into hope. But it is, to be sure, a single unique culture that provides these benefits – the Judeo-Christian Western culture. It is this single culture that allows the multi-cultures to live together in mutual respect.

This is the great irony, or perhaps the tragic flaw embedded within democracy. Cultures that do not share the Western heritage do not desire multiculturalism. They desire their own to the exclusion of others. If we take Judeo-Christian foundations for granted or, worse, despise and reject them as exclusive not inclusive, we will dis-member our nation and our world.

I attended a fascinating Writers Club meeting yesterday, where a Persian-American author, raised in the Bay Area, spoke about mining our individual cultural heritage. She used the example of objects passed through generations as living artifacts of memory. She spoke of past journeys, migrations, immigrations and emigrations, crucial to character and plot.

She is speaking, of course, of history, its huge importance to us all, to humanity, and most importantly to Americans. For no other culture enjoys peace and celebrates freedom as we do. Through the centuries since Plato and Aristotle, since Augustine and Bede and Aquinas, since Locke and Paine, Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, it has been this single culture birthed by Britain that defines America. We have this immense legacy, this strong foundation. But without re-membering, we will crumble. There have other systems in the West, of course, but they have been sporadic attempts fraught with revolution and purges. Only England produced Magna Carta, developed common law, trial by jury, representative rule. America improved upon this new Eden, abolishing monarchies, ensuring freedom of religion, and producing a written constitution.

To pretend this is not the case, that all cultures are equal, is foolhardy at best, dis-membering and suicidal at worst. As we embrace many races from multi-nations, let us re-member as heirs of the Judeo-Christian civilization that we will always have enemies who hate our generosity, our freedoms, our respect for one another. There will always be those who desire total surrender and sameness. They will fly captive planes into our centers of free enterprise on historic anniversaries. They will bomb our theaters and public spaces. They will massacre those who express their freedom of dress or manners in public. Their goal has been consistent and clear since the seventh century, desiring annihilation of the infidel. Infidels include peaceful Muslims, Christians, Jews, gays, women unveiled, men unbelieving.

My recent novel, The Fire Trail, a literary suspense set at UC Berkeley, re-members September 11, 2001 in its central chapters. I will be reading from the novel this Saturday at Orinda Books, 3 p.m., unveiled, in public, my speech, so far at least, free. Hope you can come by. It is a time of recognition and gratitude for what we have been given: this glorious nation with its precious heritage to preserve for the next generation. It is a time to remember and not dismember who we are.