Michael Gerson and the Gettysburg Address

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Michael Gerson (May 15, 1964 – November 17, 2022)

On Thursday Republican speech writer Michael Gerson died after enduring a series of health problems that his friend David Brooks compared to the Book of Job. And on Saturday we celebrated (okay, some of us celebrated, others remembered, and most people just forgot) the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

Michael Gerson was a man of deep faith, as a conservative Republican and as a devout Christian. He was committed to his principles, but he was respectful in his arguments. In our United Methodist struggles, we would do well to model his behavior.

Gettysburg is the spiritual center of America. For three sweltering days in July of 1863 the armies of the United States and the Confederate States engaged in an epic battle. They were, as Lincoln suggested in his address, fighting about the most important phrase in the Declaration of Independence, which declared that “all men are created equal.” Gettysburg was the most important battle in the war to determine whether or not we would allow one race to enslave another.

Almost exactly one hundred years later, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and declared what he called “the fierce urgency of now” and called on the nation to honor the central promise of the Declaration.

“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence,” he reminded the nation, “they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

But sadly, he said, “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”

“But,” he said, “we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.”

Gettysburg was a struggle to determine who we are as a nation. It was bloody and brutal. It ended with a victory against slavery, but the racism on which the slavery was founded would endure and pollute our culture and politics to this day. The armies limped away with nearly 50,000 casualties and left behind over 7,000 dead.

In a typically insightful column on the anniversary of Lincoln’s address, Heather Cox Richardson writes about the aftermath of he battle:

“With the heat of a summer sun beating down, the townspeople had to get the dead soldiers into the ground as quickly as they possibly could, marking the hasty graves with nothing more than pencil on wooden boards.

“A local lawyer, David Wills, who had huddled in his cellar with his family and their neighbors during the battle, called for the creation of a national cemetery in the town, where the bodies of the United States soldiers who had died in the battle could be interred with dignity. Officials agreed, and Wills and an organizing committee planned an elaborate dedication ceremony to be held a few weeks after workers began moving remains into the new national cemetery.”

The primary address at the cemetery dedication was given by Edward Everett, a Unitarian Minister from Massachusetts who had been a U.S. Representative, Senator, and Secretary of State. Everett spoke to the crowd of 15,000 for over two hours and by all accounts he lived up to his billing as a great orator.

Dr. Richardson observes, “And, almost as an afterthought, they asked President Abraham Lincoln to make a few appropriate remarks. While they probably thought he would not attend, or that if he came he would simply mouth a few platitudes and sit down, President Lincoln had something different in mind.”

Those fighting to preserve their “right” to enslave other human beings based that claim on the Constitution’s protection of property rights, which they understood as including the right to enslave Black people. For the enslavers, Cox reports, the protection of property rights “was the heart of the nation.” Lincoln called the nation back to what he saw as the fundamental founding principle, “that all men are created equal.”

George W. Bush’s speech to the nation following the 9/11 attacks cannot be compared to the Gettysburg Address; nothing can be compared to that speech. But it was a brilliant speech and it owes that brilliance in significant part to the work of Michael Gerson.

The speech calls the nation to embody our highest ideals. It gives thanks for the support we received around the world. From children in Seoul praying outside the American embassy to our National Anthem being played on the streets of Europe. The speech promises the defeat of the terrorists but reminds the nation that Islam is fundamentally a religion of peace, and cautions against Islamophobia.

“As deep as his own Christian religious beliefs were, Mike was tolerant, accepting, even admiring of those who prayed differently. And while he was by and large a social conservative, Mike knew that not every question involving faith and truth could be resolved along the bright battle lines of the culture wars, or literally be set in scripture.”

– Karen Tumulty, Washington Post

Michael Gerson was a Republican in the spirit and legacy of Lincoln.

I listened to a remembrance on NPR by Ruth Marcus and David Brooks. Marcus, a liberal, served as an editor for Gerson’s conservative commentary. She was asked what it was like to edit his work. She said first that it was a joy because “Michael wrote like an angel.” His writing was excellent. And then she went on to say that Michael Gerson came from an era when Republicans and Democrats agreed on the goals for our country even though they disagreed on the means to get there. She said that we all wanted to protect the weakest members of society, to lift up the downtrodden, to provide equal opportunity. And beyond the ends they shared, Michael also believed that it was important to treat others well, not to demean your political opponents.

Gerson’s Washington Post colleague Karen Tumulty wrote an appreciation titled, “Michael Gerson followed his faith — and America was better for it.” She recounted one of his favorite Bible verses from Colossians, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

She said that the only time she ever saw him really angry was at a forum on religion and politics when Elliott Abrams, who also served the Bush presidency launched into an attack on Islam.

“It used to annoy me enormously when President Bush, for whom I was working, would say Islam is a religion of peace,” Abrams said, “because the real response to that is ‘Where is your theology degree from?’ ” Abrams claimed that the “average American” was justified in thinking “this is crap … because all these people who are doing beheadings are Muslims.”

Gerson responded, “We praise Islam, and every president from now on will praise Islam on religious holidays because there are millions of peaceful citizens who hold this view … every tradition, religious tradition, has forces of tribalism and violence in its history, background, of theology, and every religious tradition has resources of respect for the other.”

Tumulty went on to say, “As deep as his own Christian religious beliefs were, Mike was tolerant, accepting, even admiring of those who prayed differently. And while he was by and large a social conservative, Mike knew that not every question involving faith and truth could be resolved along the bright battle lines of the culture wars, or literally be set in scripture.”

“Even when strength fails, there is perseverance. And even when perseverance fails, there is hope. And even when hope fails, there is love. And love never fails.”

– Michael Gerson

She concluded her remembrance by quoting from a sermon that Gerson delivered as a guest preacher at the National Cathedral:

“I suspect that there are people here today — and I include myself — who are stalked by sadness, or stalked by cancer, or stalked by anger. We are afraid of the mortality that is knit into our bones. We experience unearned suffering, or give unreturned love, or cry useless tears. And many of us eventually grow weary of ourselves — tired of our own sour company.”

In the sermon, Gerson went on to affirm that even in our most difficult times we are not alone in the dark.

“Even when strength fails, there is perseverance,” he said in his sermon. “And even when perseverance fails, there is hope. And even when hope fails, there is love. And love never fails.”

For those who fear the influence of religion in politics, Michael Gerson was a reassuring rebuttal. A man of grace and integrity.

May his memory be a blessing.

The Rev. William C. Trench is a retired clergy member of the New England Annual Conference. This post is republished with permission from his Facebook page