I’m starting 5769 on an ecumenical note. Actually double-ecumenical, since what I’m passing along to you here originated with an Evangelical Protestant, then was relayed to me by my friend the Gallimaufry Lady, who is Catholic.
What the Lady calls “a good piece of writing” also has a nonpartisan political component that’s particularly appropriate as we approach the presidential election coming so early next month. (You will remember to vote, won’t you?) And it has a sweeping moral message in the best tradition of what used to be called, in all good faith, America’s shared Judeo-Christian values.
The Rev. Jim Wallis, who wrote this good piece, contributes regularly to the magazine Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace. But nobody has to be Christian, and even Christians of other denominations don’t have to agree with his particular religious views, to add “Amen!” to what he said in this article, published just before Rosh Hashanah. He began:
“We are all familiar with the crazy-looking street preacher in some public square, haranguing every passerby with a message of doom and gloom while holding up a sign that reads ‘Repent! The end is near!’ Well, as members of Congress go home to their districts in honor of the Jewish holiday, it might be appropriate for their constituents to welcome them with just such a placard….
“And I can’t think of a better thing for the members of Congress — Jewish or not — to do while at home than repent….”
The week before, Wallis had suggested to his regular readers that “…the financial managers who helped precipitate [the current] economic crisis be paraded down Wall Street in sackcloth and ashes. Now it may be time for their Congressional colleagues to join them.
“In the midst of a crisis that is both structural and spiritual, it is indeed appropriate for us all to reflect on what repentance means. Biblically … a turning around, a reversing of one’s course, beginning to walk an entirely new path….”
So, what might our congressfolk repent of? According to Wallis:
“1. Putting ideology, re-election, partisan advantage and public posturing ahead of the national interest and the common good…
“2. Looking after their own interests, including their own financial success and career goals, over the interests of their most ordinary constituents…
“3. Paying more attention to the benefits to the country’s financial institutions (that significantly benefit them) than to the benefits coming to the average Americans who vote for them…
“4. Focusing more on a Wall Street bailout than on the relief of those suffering disastrous housing foreclosures or loss of jobs, preferring a top-down rescue rather than a bottom-up one…
“5. Substituting political calculation for political leadership, crying for credibility, and partisan blaming for moral authority, and rejecting imperfect solutions for no solutions at all…”
Those were Wallis’ suggestions for the first five of the Ten Days of Repentance. Here are the other five, his reflections on needs for forgiveness intended not just for people in high public office, but for all Americans:
“1. For being seduced into lifestyles beyond our means…
“2. For living on far too much credit rather than within our limits…
“3. For sometimes putting economic values ahead of family values…
“4. For letting the relentless assault of advertising, and a culture of consumption, seed in us the sin of covetousness…
“5. For valuing our lives too much by the cultural values of worth instead of by the values of God…”
Wallis explains to his Christian readership that Rosh Hashanah begins those days “during which Jews spend time in self-reflection and repentance, particularly in seeking to mend relations with those they may have wronged during the year.” The culmination, he goes on, is “Yom Kippur, when one repents of sins against God. Judaism believes that while God forgives sins against God, each person must repent and seek forgiveness from other people against whom they have sinned.
“Maybe we should all go to synagogue or church in those ten days,” he concludes, “in order to repent. Because if we don’t, the end of a lot of things may indeed be near.”
And in a bit of a coda that I find particularly charming, Wallis adds this: “For the students at Harvard, where I sometimes teach, the fact that half of you want to go into investment banking as a career is a sign that something has gone wrong with the culture. Repent, and make sure your vocation benefits the common good.”
Please join me in that “amen” as we start our new year!
E-mail: harrietg@texasjewishpost.com