Being a black American and coming from the Cleveland sports market is not a good formula for optimism.
If you don't know anything about Cleveland sports (which is not the point of this post), suffice it to say that no major Cleveland sports franchise has won a championship since 1964 -- the year before I was born.
There have been many lean years of horrible teams in baseball (the Indians), football (the Browns) and basketball (the Cavaliers), but there have also been years -- especially recently -- that have been filled with promise that would not be met.
These recent years have been the worst ones to handle.
When your teams stinks and you know it from the start, you kind of get used to the idea of losing. It even becomes a badge of honor of sorts. You talk about how much you have suffered, you share stories of frustration with other long-suffering Clevelanders. You talk about the Drive, the Fumble, the Shot and any number of times that our teams "coulda" or "shoulda" won but didn't.
And now, I am in the midst of a trifecta, of sorts. In successive seasons, the Cavaliers (to a lesser degree), Indians and now Browns have performed below the lofty expectations that analysts had predicted for
them.
This was to be the Indians year to win the World Series. Not even close. The Browns were supposed to break through this year to be a force in the NFL. Last night, they lost their third game to the start the season and seem to be headed for disaster.
Normally, at my age, I find that sports no longer affect my morale. But as I dejectedly turned off the game last night I realized I was feeling something that went beyond football.
That's what brings me to the real subject of this post.
THE PROBLEM WITH HOPE
I realized while lying in bed (the game ended after midnight for me here in Paris) that what I feel about many things right now parallels what I was feeling about my floundering football team.
Indeed, as I have struggled to bring myself to write about the U.S. Presidential election, I realized that in many ways I am expecting it turn out for me just like so many sports seasons.
And, frankly, as we say here in France, "J'en ai marre!"
That means, "I'm fed up!"
I'm tired of losing. And I'm especially tired of the pessimistic feeling that when push comes to shove, my team will find a way to lose. Or, the other team will find a way to win. They always do.
This is OK in sports. But in the real-life world of issues that count, I find myself slipping into the same attitude. Injustice will continue to flourish. And, most importantly to me, my Christian brethren will continue to walk with huge blind spots about many key justice issues.
This runs counter to everything I'm supposed to believe as a Christian.
It runs counter to the things I teach when I talk to people about reconciliation. In the end, one doesn't embark on such difficult things as reconciling fractured relationships without the feeling that it can happen. That we can succeed. That ideas can change and evolve.
That's what makes us able to endure the struggles. The hope that we can achieve the goal.
Without the hope, we can't do the hard work necessary for change.
I know that first hand. But yet, there I lie, feeling hopeless after the Browns lost.
HERE WE GO AGAIN
But I was also feeling hopeless about this election cycle. Not about who would win or lose, but rather about how. About how my fellow Americans -- especially those who share my faith -- are thinking and talking about this election. And about what all of this means about the state of this faith, and my home country.
You see, this election was supposed to be different. Many Christians had risen up to stand against the idea that abortion and sexuality were the only "moral" issues. They weren't going to buy into the idea that one party had a monopoly on God's politics.
They were going to think about economic morality and morality in foreign affairs. They were going to realize that schools and health care and wealth distribution were all moral issues.
They were going to think and see Scripture through eyes that had been closed for many years. And perhaps this is the case for many.
But, on this night I found myself thinking about the recent visit of some retired missionaries who came back to see some of the people they knew when they served in France.
I work with the son and daughter of the couple they were visiting.
The daughter immediately called to get my opinion on what she considered a shocking lunch, during which she, her brother and parents learned that Barack Obama was a Muslim and/or the Antichrist.
Yes, if Barack Obama wins this election, the retired missionaries told them, then this was a sure sign that Jesus would return soon!
OK. I'm no expert in eschatology. But this seems to be a bit of a stretch, theologically speaking. Does the Bible say the Antichrist will refuse to oppose abortion or denounce homosexuality? I missed that.
The missionaries went on to explain to my friends that no real Christian is supporting Obama and that his popularity is demonic.
My French friends were bewildered and quite shocked by this. Their opinion of Obama is pretty high, based on what they've heard from him and read (interesting idea: they listened to Obama and read in order to form their opinion).
They've read his speeches on working together as well as his explanation of his conversion to Christianity, what it means to follow Christ for him, and his way of viewing faith and its application to war and other issues is in line with the way they and many other Evangelical Christians here see things.
So, how could it be that this missionary couple, who they have always admired as faithful Christians, could have such a divergent view of things?
When they told me the story, I shook my head and told them it's complicated. You'd have to live in the States for awhile to understand, I said.
But then, I'm not sure I understand it either.
SINKING FEELING
I can't understand why so many Christians seem to buy the idea that helping the wealthy will eventually help everyone, even the poor, even when the evidence all around them suggests that the gap between rich and poor has been steadily growing (and, overall growth hasn't really been helped either).
Or why they get upset about some welfare mother getting extra food stamps because she's "stealing our tax dollars," while they seem to have no problem with the billions being spent to bail out the rich and the powerful who have abused their privilege because of greed.
Or why, whenever these issues are brought to the table, they allow themselves to be distracted by silly patriotism debates and other matters that neither candidate is going to spend much time addressing once elected.
How they can still believe that Obama is a Muslim when they could easily read his own faith story and check out his record to see what he believes.
I won't go on today about this here, but I'm struggling not to be disappointed in what I see. I had hoped for so much more. But I keep seeing my brothers and sisters dropping the ball.
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