How often do politicians, local or religious leaders busy soothing the people by telling us that everything is wonderful when in fact it’s far from being so and we all know it?
The ongoing climate crisis denial is one troubling contemporary ongoing public lie, deep in denial of the inconvenient and critical truth to our survival.
The more we lie the less we are able to try and salvage. But the science is silenced and the prophets of doom are silenced or ignored.
Jeremiah, the prophet of doom and gloom saw the reality of Jerusalem’s final decades, deep in denial of its wrong strong headed policies and hubris. He knew that the public lie has become the ultimate so-called truth and he called them on it.
The people in power and the rest of the people did not want to hear about what they could do to save their kingdom because that would have require too much truth and too much change. The leaders sailed the ship to the rocks, and the religious leadership went along, murmuring prayers.
Jeremiah resorted to a slogan that will be heard again - but only by him and by Ezekiel - another prophet trying to wake his people up from the smug euphoric day-dream that everything is fine as is - that business should go on as usual.
Jeremiah was particularly mad at the priests and the spiritual sooth-sayers for numbing the people with platitudes instead of riling them up:
The aspiration to keep things harmonious and peaceful even when so much rumbles beneath the surface is a familiar and sometimes wise choice. But when too much is at stake and no action is taken to admit what’s going on and how to fix internal, domestic, communal or collective problems -- peace is a lie and a pretense, which only leads to greater crisis. Jeremiah knew it, as did many prophets over the ages.
So did Patrick Henry, that famous American who cried out ‘give me liberty or give me death!’
Henry recognized that many of his neighbors in pre-revolutionary war Colonial America did not want to fight for independence and risk their fortune and wellbeing. He also knew Jeremiah well enough to quote him in his famous speech delivered in March 1775:
“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
It was too late for Jeremiah’s rebukes - but Henry managed to help the revolution happen, disrupting the false peace for a new, if imperfect, reality.
Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson amplifies Jeremiah and Patrick Henry as he calls on us to consider where the peace in our lives is only skin deep, and where disrupting the peace is not in fact a crime but a carefully and gratefully much needed brave gesture of care:
“There are no shortage of leaders – elected politicians, appointed clergy, self-appointed twittermeisters – who will happily lull us all back into doing nothing. And the few who shout out in protest, well, they appear extreme, insensitive, out of step.
Can you think, in your own circle of concern, of a festering issue or a moral outrage that demands attention, but that the “reasonable” leaders in your community avoid solving, and most people simply look away?
Jeremiah would like a word with them. And with you.”
Comments and responses are welcome. In the spirit of Elul, the month of reflection and resolve to repair — we’d love to learn from each other how to walk this prophetic talk, each in our world, and all together now. What’s the peace your soul wants to disrupt today for the sake of a better future?
Image: Modern portrait of Patrick Henry
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