History is not a blind alley, and guilt is not an abyss. There is always a way that leads out of guilt: repentance or turning to God. The prophet is a person who, living in dismay, has the power to transcend his dismay. Over all the darkness of experience hovers the vision of a different day.
The above quote is from Abraham Heschel in his book The Insecurity of Freedom. Heschel was one of the greatest religious thinkers of the twentieth century. As a Jew he looked into the evil of that century, including the Holocaust in which many of his people perished, and he did not flinch or blink. He would not ignore or sugarcoat humankind’s inhumanity, but neither would he turn his back on religious faith and his profound conviction that compassion is the essence of who God is and who we are meant to be. He shared that conviction with another Jew named Jesus. Jesus taught that the primary characteristic of God, and the one we are most called to emulate, is compassion.
Part of the reason for Heschel’s deepening faith in spite of the absurdity of his time was his study of and devotion to the Hebrew Scriptures. Heschel was in love with this holy and dynamic tradition. His excavation of its meanings for ancient Israel and for the contemporary age is, in my opinion, unequaled in scholarship. (I invite you to read his monumental work entitled The Prophets. But be forewarned. If you read him with an open mind and heart, you will never be the same again.) And because Heschel was grounded in that which stands forever, he could see the Almighty as loving, merciful, and compassionate even in the face of the worst human beings could do to one another. No matter how deep the tragedy, no matter how dark the night, no matter how impossible a redemptive future may seem, Abraham Heschel always saw God in the midst of and beyond the shadows passionately laboring for a tomorrow fashioned not by our sin and failure, but by God’s gracious and enduring commitment to this world.
Once again we live in dark days, and tomorrow seems to hold even more difficulties as the spiral of violence, greed, hate, scapegoating, and lies continues its relentless course of destruction and polarization. I wake up every morning shocked and disheartened that once again our society has turned to a politics of hate and greed and that 40% of the population is willing to support a President whose heroes and models are thugs, dictators, and crooks and who himself shows no sign of compassion or knowledge of truth.
Against such evil and violence, prophets must speak. To remain silent is to enable evil to triumph over good. As Walter Wink reminded us, we must name the demon in our midst. (I am not calling Trump a demon. As Dr. William Barber II says, Trump is not the problem. He is a symptom of a deeper violence, greed, and arrogance run amok in our society. And to those who quote Jesus saying “Judge not lest you be judged,” I will remind them that he also said, “You will know them by their fruits.” I do not see a single fruit from Trump that even remotely resembles the life and teachings of Jesus. Ultimate judgment belongs only to God, but we must make judgments in our time as we decide how to live and whom to follow. Jesus had no problem calling out the violent, greedy, and arrogant in his day. Of course, we must be careful in our judgments not to be hypocritical as we constantly reexamine our own motives and actions. We must be righteous without being self-righteous. That was the point of Jesus when he said “Judge not lest you be judged.” But to refuse to call out evil when it brings suffering and injustice is to abandon our calling as followers of Jesus.)
So yes, we must work against greed, violence, hatred, and scapegoating in our world. But beyond every word of prophetic truth stands the all-embracing, all-inclusive love of God. And though heaven and earth may pass away, God’s commitment to us in spite of who we are and what we do, remains the creative force which can allow new blossomings even in the ashes of human failure. And yes, that commitment of unconditional love on the part of God includes Trump and those who blindly follow his lead.
