LEMMING'S LEAP and LINCOLN
(Written when President Obama
and Congress were considering
how best to respond to Assad's
atrocities against his own people.
The neo-cons were beating
their war drums.)
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What can we say? The herd mentality may work just fine for Wildebeests, but for Americans wrestling in September, 2013 with how to exercise our vast military power in the Middle East? Not so much.
Of course we need to hear from each other. We need to know what others are thinking on the matter. Abraham Lincoln was right to insist on "a decent regard for the opinions of mankind . . ." and he famously
structured his cabinet with men of vastly different points of view.
But then, Lincoln was a free thinker . . . had an independent mind . . . and sometimes risked going against the grain of popular opinion. Though he struggled long and hard to avoid, and then conclude, what became the Civil War . . . when it was upon him, he led the Union effort with sorrow never very far from his heart. An unconventional man of profound faith, he rejected the easy jingoism of "God On Our Side" theology.
(See below for the lyrics to Bob Dylan's song by that name.)
Peter Cartwright was a Methodist circuit rider and evangelist who preached the conventional sort of hellfire and damnation sermons that helped spread the Great Awakening in the mid-19th century. An incumbent legislator in the Illinois General Assembly, he was defeated by Lincoln in the election of 1846. Shortly before that election, "Lincoln attended one of Cartwright's revival meetings. At the conclusion of the service, the fiery pulpiteer called for all who intended to go to heaven to rise. Naturally, the response was heartening. Then he called for all those who wished to go to hell to stand, unsurprisingly there were not many takers. Lincoln had responded to neither option. Cartwright closed in. 'Mr. Lincoln, you have not expressed an interest in going to either heaven or hell. May I enquire as to where you do plan to go?' Lincoln replied: 'I did not come here with the idea of being singled out, but since you ask, I will reply with equal candor. I intend to go to Congress.'"
As Congress considers how this nation should respond to Assad's use of poison gas against his own people . . . a instance of the use of a weapon of mass (indiscriminate) destruction . . . let us pray for our elected representatives, that they might approach the matter with the independent and spiritual gravitas of Lincoln.
This is not a time for lemmings.
