Hope tiles
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash
Iowa Annual Conference | Nov. 14, 2023
It is the morning after our 2024 presidential election, and I’ve come across a prayer from W.E.B. Dubois’ book Prayers for Dark People. Dubois writes:
We ask Thee tonight, O God, for better government in this land; for a keener sense of responsibility among those in authority—remembering that public office is not for private gain but for the greater good of all. Give to those who choose officials equal realization of the great responsibility that rests on them, knowing that a land is after all what its voters make it. Let us realize too that even we the disfranchised have our duties—the duty of thorough preparation, the duty of careful observation, the duty of intelligent criticism. All these things go to make a civilized … state, such as we wish our land to be. Amen (p. 35).
When we read and study the scriptures, the historical, cultural, and political contexts provide meaningful layers of understanding. We discover in the scriptures, stories of God at work—unfolding, evolving, transfiguring—amid our human sociopolitical contexts. This shifting sociopolitical context is the backdrop for our continuous and linear individual, familial and collective narratives.
When we look at the electoral results map, we could construct a narrative that we are a divided nation. My individual identities out of which my life experiences arise could influence me to go further and create a more specific narrative. Something like: America is unable to value and accept Black, female leadership. But when I lay my pain aside, I must accept that the catalysts for the 2024 election results are more layered and nuanced than this explanation. And this would be true even if the results were reversed.
The reasons we choose one candidate over another are often more complex than we ourselves even consciously realize. What is clear from this election is not that we are divided but that we are disconnected. As a result, collectively speaking, we don’t understand each other. We speak very different languages, using different jargon. We’re not listening. We’re not seeking understanding. And when we don’t understand, we humans tend to create narratives—true or not—to fill in the gaps. Israeli author and historian Yuval Noah Harari, while speaking about his new book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from Stone Age to AI, cited his research when positing that humans tend to seek simple explanations[1]. The problem is people and the world are not simple, and neither are the solutions to our challenges. We are complex and our challenges are complex.
What we need to do now more than ever is to build bridges of understanding. We all exist. Therefore, we all belong. Divisive political rhetoric might influence us to reject this fact. Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, in an interview with Trevor Noah about her new podcast, said in response to a question about how she carries herself in the world, “I walk through the Earth with a disbelief that I’m unwelcomed. My default is not that I’m unwelcomed. My default is to seek welcome[2].”
"This attitude that a part of humanity can win while another loses is naïve. Like it or not we are interdependent."
I don’t want to believe that as a Black, American woman, my physical, emotional and moral safety and the safety of my two sons are threatened by Trump supporters and by a Trump presidency. I know Trump supporters, have them in my family, and I know they would not intentionally cause harm. A leader has no power without people. Suppose we shift our focus from any individual presidential candidate or political party to the people, to connection, to building bridges of understanding. In that case, we will discover that we each carry an extraordinary amount of power. And we all have an opportunity here to lay our pain, judgement and/or self-righteousness aside to build understanding across differences with those who are open to participating. We can commit to building bridges and to seeking welcome.
This attitude that a part of humanity can win while another loses is naïve. Like it or not we are interdependent. We can see this in our relationship to nature. Nature cannot lose for too long before we as humans are impacted by the consequences. We are dependent on a thriving ecosystem to survive. Similarly, we will all be better off if our political policies reflect this interdependent reality. And they won’t reflect this reality if we are disconnected from one another. As a faith community, God calls us into relational braveness and humble service. The historical, cultural and political contexts will change, but in our faith community Christ will always be king and God sovereign. And the central theme of our continuous and linear narrative as a faith community will continue to be caring for humanity and loving our neighbors.
The good news is we all belong here and whatever the socio-political context at any moment in human history, God is still with us—unfolding, evolving, transfiguring. Our work is to keep it moving.
I hope we can all go out and begin to build bridges of understanding across differences with those who are open to participating. You might begin by listening to these three podcast episodes about building bridges of understanding, belonging and storytelling.
What Now? hosted by Trevor Noah, episode: “What’s In An Accent with Lupita Nyong’o.
Mind Your Own hosted by Lupita Nyong’o, episodes: “Freedom Fathers”. “The Sound of Home.”
[1] Noah, Trevor (Host). October 2, 2024. Making Bureaucracies Sexier with Yuval Noah Harari. What Now? [Audio podcast].
[2] Noah, Trevor (Host). October 23, 2024. What’s In An Accent with Lupita Nyong’o. What Now? [Audio podcast].
Jocelyn A. Wilson is a seminary-trained, licensed clinical social worker in Ames, Iowa.