Post-Election Hope

I remember the summer of 1968. I remember watching the Democratic Convention come unraveled. It felt to me, at 12, like the whole country was coming apart. That spring Martin Luther King had been killed, which touched off rioting in Detroit, an hour from our home in Ann Arbor. Later, Robert Kennedy was shot. I can remember the exact moment when news of their deaths came onto the television. And then that summer in Chicago—more chaos and fragmentation.

I remember all these moments from 1968 as I watched thousands of people gather in Chicago last Tuesday night at the very place where the Democratic Convention had been held. Maybe now the forces that were unleashed 40 years ago can come to rest. Maybe now the hopefulness that so many people had then, a hopefulness that has been lost to so many leadership messes and betrayals and cynicism and partisan bickering—yes, maybe now we can find, we can be given, some hope again.

I know that Senator Obama’s election is not good news to all of you, and I know that there is still great unease or anxiety with many folks in our country (I was troubled to see how gun sales spiked last Wednesday). At the same time, there does seem to be, at least to me, more hope both here and abroad over this election than I have felt for a long time.

Some of this hope comes from our President-Elect being of mixed race. For those of us, like me, who can remember how the races had once been so segregated (I can still remember “colored” signs), this election seems just incredible. We have, obviously, come a very long way in less than 50 years. This does not imply that we still do not have a long way to go as we live into the Biblical vision that we are all made in God’s image and that we must seek and work for justice among all of God’s children.

I am also sensing hope because it seems that President-Elect Obama really does want to reach across the aisle, that he understands that he needs to be president for all of the people in this land, regardless of whether they voted for him or not. There is a crisis here at home—crises, really—that will need cooperation and reconciliation in Washington. I have been disturbed my some columnists talking about this election as a “mandate,” and encouraging Senator Obama to move ahead even more boldly that he had talked about on the campaign trail. (See Paul Klugman’s editorials from this past week.) I think such advice is shortsighted, if not self-defeating and even duplicitous.

I once read (I think these words come from Abraham Lincoln) that leaders must be “dealers in hope.” The problems and challenges for President Bush and for President-Elect Obama are enormous right now. We must pray for both of them during this time of transition.

Regardless of how any one of us voted, it is time to move on and rally behind and pray for our land and its leaders. Christians are called to be hopeful people because we believe that “…[we] can do all things through him who strengthens [us].” (Phil. 4:13)

As I write these words on this day, November 11th, I am cognizant of and thankful for all those who have served this country, all those who have given their lives, all those families who have lost a loved one in conflict. Please join me in praying for all of them, and please join me in praying for all those who are now serving our country and putting themselves in harms way.

In God’s peace, Jim