Although President Barak Obama popularized a quote supposedly made by Martin Luther King Jr. it actually was the Rev. Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810-May 10, 1860), an American transcendentalist and abolitionist of the Unitarian church who, in 1843, said the following: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eyes reach but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete figure by the experience of sight, I can divine by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
Are we about to enter into a new phase of morality in America? Is that long arc — finally, at long last — beginning to bend towards a form of justice we’ve talked about since the beginning of the Republic, but have never been able to bring into existence? Is karma finally catching up to the mendacity, the patent falsehoods, the outright lies our country has been living for centuries?
Indeed, it could very well be that we are on the cusp of our nation finally living up to the promises and declarations enshrined in our founding documents and given voice to by every president since George Washington: to become a truly moral nation, instead of being one where the majority of those that call themselves moral (and pretend to be Christians) have condoned — or often actively engaged in — behavior that totally ignored the main principle that all of the world’s moral teachings are based on: The Golden Rule.
Could it be that the God these rascals pretend pray to — while at the same instant perpetuating unspeakable acts upon their fellow human beings for reasons as nonsensical as skin pigmentation — is finally going to demand these religious fakers reform their ways or suffer terrible consequences?
Did it take putting someone in the White House whose behavior goes so far beyond the pale that it strains credulity — someone who throws rocks of hatred and then tries to hide his hand — for even the most patient of deities to get fed up and visit a plague upon earth? One of such magnitude, intensity and timing — particularly the timing — that its meaning slowly pierces the hardest of hearts, sending an unmistakable message to even the slowest of the slow, and informing the most hate-filled of haters that a reckoning is indeed at hand?
While religious charlatans of every ilk and stripe constantly use biblical references of “End Times” to pimp their foolish flocks and separate them from their hard-earned money, could it very well be that we going through the real “End Times” right now, right here in America?
Maybe we had to be driven to the brink of totalitarianism for a cleansing to occur. But we, as a nation, are presently being offered the opportunity to take our future into our own hands and bring about our own salvation — right at the ballot box — by rejecting the purveyors of hatred and division and instead turning to candidates that will usher in a bright new future for America.
One Response to “MANSFIELD: The Arc of the Moral Universe”
Jay Westbrook
Blunt, straight talking Mansfield Frazier shares his inner optimism and summons forth our “better angels.” He is expressing a shared hope that many of us have: by seeing displayed before us a deeply rooted racial hatred and a thirst for violence, the majority – overwhelming majority will reject hate and division. I pray that we are alarmed by gun toting militia plotting to kidnap governors, prowl the halls of state government and planning to “watch” polls. This is the extreme of the night riding KKK, Boogaloo, Proud Boys. But, this extreme thrives in the homes and hearts of the thousands attending Trump “Super Spreading” events. Supporting Trump is not just the idle toying with the politics of a narcissistic totalitarian. It is the host where terrorism takes hold. If America rejects the institutionalization of supremacy, we need to make sure that we don’t breath a sigh of relief and go back to old ways. We must get busy working for a “common good” that is GOOD FOR ALL!