Politics and Old-Time Religion by Elder C. Burr

Sunday morning about 1960

            As a young child, I had no problem imagining God as “Father.” Every Sunday my mild-mannered dad preached about a loving God from a Methodist pulpit.  In the early days when I was in kindergarten (1959), he led a sing-along on Sunday nights in a beautiful brick church in Burr Oak, Kansas.  People of all ages attended.  We would raise our hands and request our favorites: “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder,” “Love Lifted Me,” “Give Me that Old Time Religion.” My weekly request was “Heavenly Sunshine.”  The songs were usually up-tempo and men, women, and children sang with gusto.  I rarely hear that type of congregational singing anymore.

            Another part of my religious upbringing seems to be missing, especially in politics—a regard for decent, respectable behavior toward others, even those with whom we disagree.  

            My parents and church taught me to respect the Ten Commandments, including do not kill, cheat, lie, covet, and steal, and to honor the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” If we kids got caught cheating, lying, or bullying, we were scolded, spanked, and sent to our rooms.  As a child, I naively thought all adults learned these lessons and they would never surrender to bad behavior.  But, of course, I was wrong and now I get daily reminders of how wrong I was.   

            None of us is perfect, even if we sit in a church pew on Sunday morning, but I'd like to see our leaders try harder to respectfully disagree with their political opponents without name-calling, without shouting over one another.

          Lately (October 2018), a 24-hour news cycle exposes politicians or leaders flaunting “alternative truth” messages or admiring, even advocating, vocal and physical violence toward others.   Bad behavior makes headlines and it seems the media and politicians feed on one another in a dizzying assault on our good nature. 

    I’ve grown grumpy.  I desire a return to “old-time” virtue and ethical living that my preacher daddy taught me around the kitchen table and from the pulpit. 

         My dad and I are often not on the same page politically, but we refuse to let our differences put a wedge in our father-daughter relationship.  I credit our bond to love and a strong ethical foundation based on respect for others, learned from grandparents, parents, and old-time religion.    

--- C. Burr

--revised in 2024.  

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The Maple Tree Outside My Window" A Poem by Kansas Elder Myster E.

The maple tree outside my window

Talked to me this morning

In language, I never heard before

She talked about patience and waiting

Breathing in and breathing out

And being still

She talked about pointing up toward heaven

And rooting deeply down

Grounding with the earth

She talked about stretching wide

In communion with the neighborhood

Offering refuge to strangers and friends

She talked about beauty

In being full, in being empty

And the wonder of being old

She talked about bending with the wind

And weathering the storm

About standing strong

She talked about taking a little

And giving a lot

About being one with All

The maple tree outside my window

Talked like I never heard before

--Myster E

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Bessie -- A Foundational Salt of the Earth by C. Burr

Bessie (photo taken about 2005 on Mother's Day)

“Maybe there is no such thing as time; there are only moments, each with its own story.”  Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Robin Kimmerer inspires me to sit and listen to nature. One morning in early June,  I reclined in my backyard, noting how each oxygen-filled inhalation is a gift from trees, grasses, shrubs, flowers, mushrooms, and mosses.   As I breathed in whiffs of a neighbor’s lilacs, I thought of my mother-in-law, Bessie, and the gentle ceasing of her breath a few weeks previously.   “Death lost its sting” for me during her sacred transition, and although I’ll always feel sad about her leaving us, I am comforted by HER words of comfort. She told us not to worry; she was ready to go.

              I offered to write Bessie’s obituary, meeting the challenge to collapse a life story into a couple of paragraphs—a story absent of awards, degrees, and distinguished honors on a list of who’s who, but a life that affected dozens of people over her 93 years.  

                A friend pulled me aside, after reading the obituary, and said “There are people who are the salt of the earth and then there are people who become a foundational salt of the earth.  Bessie is one of those people.”  He went on to explain that her goodness laid a foundation that will live on in her children, grandchildren, and other people who knew her.

I know what he means.  This tiny woman lived significant verses of the Christian Bible without asking individuals if they were “saved.”  She didn’t judge others, practiced kindness, remained humble, and cared for her ailing husband, Albert.  She respected her flesh and blood temple, taking excellent care of herself and she was a good neighbor, visiting the lonely and the sick.  As salt of the earth, she preserved loving-kindness as Jesus taught.   

Bessie’s story lives on in so many of us that her kind essence will expand beyond the grave through numerous descendants over decades.   And yet, when I consider a 1.5 billion-year-old Sioux quartzite ushered into Kansas from the ice age and when I scan the midnight sky for stars millions of light-years away, I realize that Bessie’s life – all of our lives-- are but tiny specks.  

 Even in our smallness, says Kimmerer, “Isn’t it miraculous that each life, stone, and star has its own story?”     I pray my brief moment on this earth, my tiny spark of a life story can be as foundational and fruitful as my mother-in-law Bessie’s.

                                                            

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,

   for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,

   for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

   for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

   for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,

   for they will see God. . . .

You are the salt of the earth.        Matthew 5:3 – 8; 13.

  

                                                         ---- Elder C. Burr

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