What the Russian army did in the city of Bucha near the Capitol city of Kiev as they were leaving is nothing short of barbaric.
Raping women, killing men, women, and children as if they were animals, leaving dead bodies on the street, some with their hands tied behind their backs. The gruesomeness of what they did is overwhelming.
It is incomprehensible that this has happened in 2022, as if the human race has not advanced at all. Indeed, you wonder if as a species we have begun to devolve.
Ukraine should be on all our minds and in our hearts every day. That the U. S. is the primary supplier of weapons and aid is something of which all of us can be proud. An unjust war must be stopped with whatever means necessary.
At the same time, we also need to be worried about what is happening here at home.
The level and type of conflicts and divisions we are experiencing give reason to think that America is also fighting a war with itself. In a recent NYT article David Brooks described it as our country falling apart at the seams.
Whatever words we use to describe what is happening, I believe all of it reveals the fact that there is a problem with the American spirit. We are acting like broken people, angry at anything and everything, quick to lash out as if blaming someone else for our troubles will make us feel better.
If our country was ever a beacon of light in the world, that light is burning very low these days. The reasons are surely many, but I want to suggest an old fashioned one I invite you not to dismiss until you hear me out.
It is this: The root cause of our troubles is moral decline.
Not the superficial, individualistic, Puritanical moral decline evangelical Christians talk about born of their obsession with sex. That kind of narrow view of morality ignores the collective consciousness and character of the nation as a whole.
The moral decline I am talking about is social, it is about our collective moral character, with who we are as “We, the People.” There are, as I see it, two primary manifestations of this moral decline.
The first is a diminishing concern for the well-being of others.
Morality is about human relationships, about how we value and treat one another and conduct human affairs.
It goes beyond lending a helping hand to a neighbor or someone you may not even know. Concern for others means having a commitment to think about the impact our words and actions have on them.
It is true that achieving this goal, of “We, the People” including everyone, has been a work in progress since the beginning, but we had never abandoned efforts to get closer to that ideal…until now.
In the last several years, and certainly during the Trump years, we made selfishness politically acceptable. From America First to my freedom over your safety and health to good people on all sides of racism to blaming immigrants for my problems, we have elevated “me-ism” to the point where criticizing it has been labeled “woke” politics.
When Jesus described concern for others as loving your neighbor as you love yourself, he said something we don’t always pay attention to – that if you don’t like or love yourself, you are not going to like or love your neighbor.
That suggests to me that the moral decline in concern for others points to an epidemic of unconscious self-loathing that is driving the behavior of millions of Americans.
Unconscious self-loathing makes people angry, jealous, and small-minded, and more often than not they don’t even know that is who they have become.
From their perspective, life is a zero-sum game wherein if you gain, I lose. That completely crowds out sympathy, empathy, and compassion.
Politically the lack of concern for others is manifesting itself in voter suppression laws, anti-gay and anti-transgender laws, book banning efforts, anti-immigration rhetoric, even the mantra that all politicians are crooked.
These actions reflect no concern for others. They are all about community busting rather than community building, an expression of radical individualism that undermines the unity our nation needs to confront the challenges we face as a people.
If lack of concern for others were a political problem, a majority of us could vote it in. But morality doesn’t work that way. It has to do with what’s inside people, which means, moral decline necessarily has to do with what is missing.
The second mark of moral decline is easier to identify, but no less significant. It is the loss of a commitment to telling the truth.
If you think about it, the lack of commitment to telling the truth lies at the heart of so many other problems for the simple reason that it has to do with basic integrity.
The behavior we witnessed at the Judge Jackson judiciary hearing revealed a lack of that integrity in Senators Graham, Hawley, Cruse, Blackburn, and Cotton, and it was shameful. They chose to tell lies about her rather than have enough respect to ask her legitimate questions.
The lack of commitment to telling the truth is why people questioned the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election victory when it happened and still do today. It’s why the January 6 insurrection took place. And on and on. We have become a nation where a large segment of the population no longer believes that telling the truth is a fundamental moral principle to which they hold themselves.
They dress up their lack of commitment with euphemisms for lying. Phrases such as “alternative facts” and misinformation” have become regular descriptions of behavior today as if a person peddling either is not telling lies. Politicians who get caught telling lies excuse themselves by claiming they “misspoke.”
Telling the truth necessarily means a lie is a lie is a lie. Euphemisms don’t change that fact. They don’t make a lie something it isn’t. Telling a lie is morally wrong regardless of how someone labels it, and it has a corroding effect on American society.
What is stunning is the naivete of so many Americans who seem to believe that a society can survive when it no longer values telling the truth, when integrity of character is no longer considered a qualification for office.
This is what has to stop, and the way to do that is to reassert telling the truth and concern for others as the essential qualifications for choosing our public leaders, from president all the way down to local officials.
Unless and until we demand the nation’s leaders at every level be people of integrity who tell the truth in public and who have a record proving their concern about others, we will continue our moral decline that will lead us to no good end.
Choosing leaders can no longer be based solely on party affiliation. Instead, it must be based on a commitment from candidates to rebuild our national character so that “We, the People” are represented by leaders who reflect the best about us as a people.
If we allow anything short of that to determine who we support and how we vote, the end of America as we know it will be on us.
linnposts.com 
Remarkably well written and thank you linnposts.com. It is the truth it is worthwhile to read Mr. Linn and much kindness reveals what we are about. It is a pleasure to know Mr. Linn.
Thank you very much for your comment.
I agree that we must make law & policy on the basis of objective fact. We do need to be mindful, however, that objective facts can have different interpretations as to what to do. Sometimes that’s easier to deal with than other times, but it’s hardly ever entirely straightforward. For example, once the facts were made public about the deleterious effects of tobacco, we moved to control it.
However, there are fuzzier areas where the facts are not yet known or are not made widely public. In some cases, verifiable facts may not exist…is there a God? for example. In those cases we may need to accept that there is more than one answer. And that the answer we accept is based on our values.
Even then, there is a pretty good test of how to move forward: does the fact base we choose to build policy on include and unite, or exclude and divide? Emotional truth enters into the picture here, too. If I perceive that there is only a certain amount of [fill in the blank] and I fear I will be on the losing end of any change, I will most likely resist the objective facts and embrace the emotional “truth” of my fear.
I don’t think there are a lot of quick fixes to the disconnect between fact and feeling, but it is solvable on a case-by-case, basis…like untangling fishing line, it takes patience, continuous effort, and a generous view of those with whom we disagree. Speaking for myself, I’m often short on at least one of these.
It’s especially hard to practice patience and generosity in the face of people who are willfully distorting facts, making wild accusations about others, and demanding that policies be built around their distortions and lies. Figuring out a way to confront the nonsense without resorting to the same distortions and “othering” is what needs to unite us..
Charlie, I am not sure I understand what you have written, nor am I sure you understood what I did. I wasn’t make an argument for facts, but for honesty that includes facts but goes beyond them. I am advocating for a commitment to telling the truth and a concern for others serving as primary guides as we deal with information, facts, and decisions that have to be made. I see this as a moral problem, that is, a lack of will to be honest and to care about others and not just myself. Not sure if that is what you heard me saying. I don’t believe unity will come when we learn how to deal with people who discard facts. I am not sure unity is possible right now, but what is possible is a majority of people voting for leaders who give us the kind of moral leadership we need. Hope this helps.
I think we’re more on the same page than not. And I certainly agree that truth goes beyond just the facts, even though that’s where it has to start. I was trying to suggest that what we see as truth is influenced by our values and world view. Unity is certainly not possible if we don’t have at least some agreement on basic stuff.
However, if we can avoid seeing those with whom we have deep disagreements on all matters before us, who have a deep disregard for truth, as evil incarnate, I think moral leadership will provide the hope we all seek.
What Mary Trump has said about her uncle, for example, is helpful to me: to her, he’s basically really sick and needs help. And realistically, she understands he’s unlikely to ask for any. So she’s not obsessing over fixing him, but neither does she want (at least in public) to turn him into some kind of sub-human monster.
Jan,
This post is absolutely the best description and explanation of what is wrong in our country that I have seen from anyone!
Not being a journalist may be what empowers you most. You have no editor to satisfy, no paper or magazine audience to try to please. You simply put forward “truth” that no rational person can deny or disagree with.
Your gift is taking a fine education, a superb career as a theologian, and a good heart and applying them to today’s events. The politicians you name — and many others — lie whenever it suits their narrow agendas, their innate biases, and their chance of reelection.
The person most responsible for this in America is Donald Trump. Until he is gone from the political stage or gone from the planet, our nation is at risk of losing our position as the moral compass for the world community!
Thank you my friend for calling-out the “bad actors” in our society……
Bill Blackwell
Bill, that is high praise from someone who knows as much about what is going on as anyone I know, so thank you. I also think your comment about Trump is exactly on target. Until he is gone from public life the nation’s moral compass will always be under assault. I only hope others see that as well.
I try to hold out some hope but if the tragedy of what is happening in Ukrainian can’t bring us together I don’t know what will. I see the unraveling of the country as the fulfillment of decades old goals of the Libertarian party, Koch brothers and like minded individuals. There is no concern for the welfare of others.
Perhaps those who are new to democracy and are trying their hardest to hang on to it can let us see what we already have with new eyes and renewed engagement of all of us.
Wilbur, we cannot abandon hope, even when little supports doing so. It is the oxygen we need to keep going.
It brings me hope that three faithful men from the Lynchburg College Yokefellow group ( mid 1980s) have hearts that are still broken open for ways to advance the Realm of God. Love never ends and Gods truth is always the truth.
“A heart broken open,” Dixcy, is a beautiful phrase I will commit to memory. You, also, are one of the symbols of hope. Thank you, as always, for being who you are.
Jan I thought this was one of the best blogs I’ve read from you. I couldn’t add much to what you’ve said. Just that we’ve got to move beyond the Donald and see the decline of our moral compass as bigger than him.
My mother used to tell my father just get involved in volunteer work. It takes your mind off yourself. Caring about others has that effect.
Yours
Louise
Thank you, Louise. Your mother was right, of course. Seems like we’ve lost much of the common sense wisdom of the past that
once held us together as a country. Take care.
Many years ago, at one of our Lent gatherings that we have at St Cuthberts chuch, we were asked the question of what our most remembered piece of scripture was. I’ve long forgotten what my favourite passage from the bible was at that time, but I remember someone who quoted John the Baptist’s word concerning Jesus, that: “I must decrease, so that he may increase” Now, that’s one zero-sum game that’s guaranteed to work, for others as well as for me.
Good reminder of genuine wisdom from scripture, Nigel. Thank you.
thank you, Jan, for your words
Hi Jane. Thanks for your comment.
Jan,
You have clearly stated the two most important issues that are conflicting our country, our society and ourselves, the clearest I’ve seen from any of the talking heads on TV. There is much truth in your essay. All the more reason that we must work hard to bring sanity into the midterm elections and those beyond.
Cheerz!
Gene
Your comments always mean a lot, Gene., especially this one. Thank you. “Sanity into the midterms.” – great phrase, one to remember.
Jan,
Feel free to use it anytime. I commit it to public domain.
Continue your good work.
Cheerz!
Gene