the social climate

We watch to see the changes in weather.  We prepare for the harsh conditions.  We weather the storm, because there is nothing we can do to quell it ourselves.

But we have been watching the climate change in our nation for years (since 1981), regarding unchecked greed, and have seen as those in power have created a climate in which greed is not only normal, but good and one of our nation's defining values.  We have seen how systematically that normalization has led to corruption and economic injustice.  We have seen the tolerance for ruthlessness, predatory practices and an arrogant disregard for others' needs grow, while the intolerance for limits, regulation and civic responsibility have also grown.  The climate changed, and the storm came.  It seemed there was nothing that could be done to quell it, and millions were hurt by it.  Even the voices that once organized together to in one voice say, "NO!" to the storm, were silenced by the howling wind of voices that supported the high pressure movement.  The storm blew through us, and it was devastating.  And the conditions for that climate have not been addressed, so we watch for the next storm...

The climate was slowly and steadily changing in one direction for quite some time, but we had a climate anomaly in 2008, that switched the flow of political and social winds and created tempest-rich conditions.  We elected a black President, which marked the culmination of years of the climate of normalized bigotry nearing an end.  We celebrated as the clear, bright conditions seemed perfect and the air was light and breathable.  But the ill winds of former storms, held in check by the normalized higher level of tolerance for one another, started to blow again, seemingly from every direction at once, and the climate changed to dark, heavy and foreboding once again.  We have seen the tolerance for one another evaporate in the heat of the impending storms, while the intolerance for anyone not straight, white, male, middle class or higher, "Christian" and politically "right" has swollen to show signs of a fresh front of bad weather.  The storm of dark intolerance is blowing in and getting stronger.  And while it may seem that there is nothing we can do to quell the storm, there is.  Before millions more are hurt by laws being written to appease the hateful and fearful, we can stand and say, "NO!" to the winds of intolerance.  Before people are economically, socially, unjustly torn apart by the storm of hatreds, we can stand up to them and say, "NO!" to their hatred.  Before others, out of fear created by those whose small squalls of hatred have grown into storm banks, get swept up into that weather front blowing across the land, we can educate and exemplify tolerance and the justice and peace that come with it.  This storm must end.  Now.

Pastor Jamie