There is much sadness in the world today. Sometimes I wonder if God isn’t sad, too. Although, if He actually exists, and is as He has always been purported to be, I doubt He regards us as much more than the latest iteration of the fallen. We are certainly not the first bunch to disappoint. The great religious texts of all flavors are loaded with the lamentations of man before his many gods. The entire idea of salvation is predicated upon screwing up. There can be no rebirth without first falling apart. Sin, redemption, and salvation. Order, disorder, and reorder. Thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Triptychs dominate our mythologies and lore of renewal.

This is, of course, the promise of devotion: that out of suffering and sorrow hope emerges. That beliefs and behaviors change. That the good rises up to conquer evil. That the weak become powerful. That humanity finds itself again. That out of our suffering—to which we finally and sincerely surrender—we are reborn.

Embracing suffering is much more difficult, however, in our modern era of abundance. The last generation that truly suffered was my parents’ so-called Greatest Generation. Since the last crisis—the Great Depression and World War II—our collective sense of entitlement has made our society weaker in each decade and generation that followed. Today, the only strength entitlement provides is a strength of defiant stubbornness. We easily default into our claims of victimhood when events don’t favor us, while we fervently deny our own culpability. “Woe is me” has weirdly become an American refrain of patriotism. Do we need any further evidence of a sick society? Of one that is on the edge of collapse?

Anger, fear, deceit, blame, and shame are the coin of the realm in today’s America. They are nourished in the peat of hate, minted and fomented within our failing character. The rest of the world—both allies and adversaries—look on confused and bemused. Contempt is fast becoming their common bond. Neighbor-allies like Canada and historical adversaries like Russia have found contempt for America as common ground. However, this too shall pass. Eventually, their contempt will give way to pity. The failure of empires is seldom graceful and never pretty. The blaze of glory that defined the greatest superpower in the history of the world will not be extinguished with a whimper; it will drown in tears before it can be resurrected into a far more humble shell of its former grandeur. While deeply disappointing (okay, depressing), this process is both inevitable and natural.

The path forward toward renewal will not begin until we shift away from the hate-based emotions of anger, fear, deceit, blame, and shame. Look no further for proof of this claim than the modern movements in America. They all incorporate hate-based emotions and have largely failed, or are failing. Occupy Wall Street! Me Too! Black Lives Matter! Reparations! Deport Immigrants! And, yes: Make America Great Again! There is not a shred of love in any of them. No compassion. No empathy. No embrace of shared […]