Winter, avoiding the extremes while looking for Aslan

Right now, "dead of winter" best describes where I live. Predictably, we are receiving some heavy late-season snow. I find the snow refreshing even if cumbersome to remove and drive in. Yesterday was one of those days that looked like it would snow forever. Early yesterday evening I was out walking that very thought crossed my mind. No sooner did I wonder "Where is Aslan" than I looked to the West and saw a lovely sunset. This made me smile.

Seasons come and go. Each season has its beauties and perils. I have to say that I like the transitional seasons of Spring and Fall more than I like Winter and Summer. Winter and Summer "get old," to borrow a phrase. Maybe that is a sign that I am growing more temperate. If this is true regarding the weather, I hope it is also true regarding politics. As we make our way through life, most people learn that extremes should be avoided. The perspective from an extreme position is a distorted point-of-view.

Photograph from my evening walk yesterday

Yesterday, I read a column by Martin Kettle in the Guardian- "The Labour leadership election only matters if the party breaks with the past." What Kettle asserts certainly holds true for the United States. For this part of his editorial, Kettle relies on Chris Clarke's book on the Labour Party: Warring Factions. In order to win, Clarke insists that the U.K.'s Labour Party must overcome three obstacles: the "dark knight" myth, which "claims that politics is a Manichean struggle between the morally good in-group (in this case the Labour left) and the wicked and selfish centre and right (the Tories and all those who can be tarred with the neoliberal or Tory-lite labels that have become Labour’s curse). This, says Clarke, leads to a destructive exclusivist allure of identity, moral self-regard and complacency." Many supporters of Senator Sanders- though not the candidate himself- fall for this. In terms of practical politics, it is a losing approach. Someone can disagree you without being evil or morally deficient.

The next obstacle is the "puppetmaster" myth that insists "everything is ultimately a conspiracy against the public. In this view, the country is run by an elite of (sometimes foreign) magnates, media and deep-state agencies bent on crushing the public into submission to the status quo. As a result, incremental and reformist politics can be dismissed as hopeless." This, too, is a loser because most people fear rapid, radical change. By all means, support the candidate who most aligns with your own views, try to convince others to do so as well. If your candidate is way out ahead of public consensus, you may need to support a candidate who is on the same track but a slower train, one that makes more stops.

The third myth is that of a supposed "golden age." The "golden age" myth," which is prevalent in politics and religion is a loser because it is never possible to go backwards in time.

Extremism, as we see every day these days, is divisive and destructive. To give just one example: President Trump took the opportunity while speaking to the National Prayer Breakfast to criticize one of my senators, Mitt Romney, for using his faith as a "crutch" to justify voting to remove him from office on one of the two counts brought against him. I understand that any president might not be happy with the decision of a member of his own party to vote that way, politics being what they are. It seems that respect for the conscience of another person is very important. Under no circumstances should the National Prayer Breakfast be a venue in which someone's faith is attacked, especially when someone is seeking to apply his/her faith to carrying the duties of elected office.

C.S. Lewis himself, despite being forthright about certain of his views, was always very moderate. It seems to be hallmark of 21st century U.S. society to be extreme and to denigrate people who seek to practice moderation.

Our Friday, traditio for this first Friday in February is "Lead Me On," a song written by Michael W. Smith for Amy Grant. I've recently been reading a fantastic book, Between the Swastika and the Sickle: The Life, Disappearance, and Execution of Ernst Lohmeyer, by James R. Edwards.

Lohmeyer is a fascinating figure. He was a theologian and Lutheran pastor who drew the contempt of both the Nazis and the Soviets, the latter of whom executed him 1946. After the Nazis seized control of Germany in 1933 and began to ramp their persecution of the Jews, Lohmeyer wrote a letter of support to Martin Buber. In his letter, Lohmeyer insisted that "the Christian faith is only Christian as long as it retains in its heart the Jewish faith." I think he was correct.