By Xavier Jackson
One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I forget those words were written to describe what America aspires to achieve. I think we sometimes forget. “Under God” is rightly listed first among these American ideals most of us pledged ourselves to daily in our youth. Absent some focus on the divine — the essence of humanity, the tie that binds us all — attaining any of the others is a foolish pipe dream at best. The failings that subjugate humanity to the profane are powerful and pervasive. We do bad things. We are frequently wrong.
An entire generation of Americans is growing up absent any sense of the spiritual dependence we all are born with. A spiritual connection, a sense of divinity, balances us. It curbs our worst impulses while sharpening our best instincts. How you establish that connection is incidental. However, it is essential that each one of us establish a connection in order to be a well-rounded, fully functioning member of our society which is rooted in the ideals that began this column.
Now, let me be clear. I have back-slid. I have fallen from grace, been cast out and have penned a most impressive application for a first-class seat on the Eternal Damnation Express — if that is what you believe. The consequences of a decline in spiritual development manifest quickly in my personal life. I have two baby mamas, an ex-wife and a sizable contingent of others who would probably shove me down some stairs if no one was watching. Years of affiliation with a well-known self-help group has helped me rein in my horses enough to not be a menace, but I am no angel.
I owe the foundation of whatever spirituality I have to my mother’s endless search for God. Growing up I spent lots of time studying the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We sat in congregations of people who spoke in tongues until 2 a.m. on a weeknight down on SW Adams in Peoria as a part of one faith. We also met several mean dogs as I knocked on doors on Saturday mornings to share the good news as part of another. I hurdled many chain link fences while shod in a pair of discount wingtips from Szolds Department Store in those days. I respect the power of spirituality and understand what it takes to cultivate it.
On my spiritual journey I learned that the teachings of Christ included love, sacrifice, humility and faithful dedication to a life of righteousness. He protected the weak. He cared for the sick. He gave his life for others. These teachings provided me with an ideal congruent with my beliefs in my country.
I desperately wanted to believe that, in spite of it all, America is a place that believes in goodness. That we eventually will live up to our promise, even if it is after my time on earth has passed.
Having a sense of the divine is the reason I managed to dodge the worst consequences associated with growing up poor and Black. It gave me a fine-tuned sense of when it was time to go when my surroundings became sinister. More importantly it gave me what I call “the little voice.” We all have it. Call it conscience or the divine spark but it is within all of us. Mine has spoken to me my entire life. It comes from a pure place. Sometimes it is a whisper of a subtle warning other times it is the scream of an urgent alarm. “Hey man. You should get out of here.” or “This does not look right.” or “Do not move in with that stripper!” or simply “Run fool! RUN!”
In my experience, that voice is never wrong. Spiritual development sharpens this wise guide. It makes us all more human. Love springs from this place. It is holy. It is sacred.
My 25-year-old son came up while I was screening “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” When I tried to draw him into a conversation about how Jim and Tammy Faye Baker helped get Ronald Reagan elected, his vague, blurry figure shot past me and out of sight faster than any human this side of the Matrix. Religion is his root canal, third rail and kryptonite all in one. So it goes with virtually his entire generation and most of mine. No one sees the value in, has the time for, or is willing to really invest in a relationship with God or growing spiritually in this era of unprecedented self- worship and mendacity.
The first impulse was to get angry over what we have lost. I wanted to blame rapist priests and philandering pastors for stealing something precious from us all, but fraudulent men of God have always been and always will be. So this is personal. To some extent we are all to blame. We are the feckless bystanders silently witnessing the desecration, the public raping of our society by unscrupulous merchants of graft and strife. Our plunge into our current raging river of contention is proportional to our collective loss of faith and pursuit of the American ideal.
The part of you that loves America and loves God should hate the bullying, vitriol that defines our politics. It should also move you to disavow leaders and media personalities that embrace violence and conflict as a solution or an inevitable future for this country.
When you see images of people violently attacking the Capitol, what does your little voice say? When people in powerful places in the media and our political system defend those people, what does your little voice say? When lawmakers seem hellbent to undo 60 years of already agreed upon social policy so other Americans are deprived of the same privileges and immunities that you yourself demand by virtue of the 14th Amendment of our Constitution, what does your little voice say?
My love of America stems from my love of our ideals. Even though that love has always been unrequited, I will love America till the day I die. If the words that began this column are truly in your heart, then that voice inside you that values truth, justice and the American way should be disgusted any time someone suggests you attack a fellow citizen in a new civil war. That voice inside you should condemn any politician or religious leader willing to victimize the helpless or prey upon the weak. Our American institutions only have value when they are rooted in our ideals and aspire to the divine.
Without that America will continue to devolve into a nation without a God, tearing at the seams with a promise of chaos and violence … for all.