Washington’s story is filled with paradoxes. In a way, this gives us hope that things may be different in the future in regard to many issues of oppression and power abuse. Or, depending upon how we see the “glass,” we may despair.

I choose to be hopeful. It’s the only perspective that keeps me moving on in faith, acting in small ways on the things that I can change. Impacting others’ lives. Speaking out about bigotry and challenging the status quo that chooses to ignore reality.

Maybe that’s why someone recently suggested that I should change my web address to www.takehope.org I still prefer courage. It feels much more proactive. But that’s just my opinion.

The rules have changed, some people say. When it comes to what constitutes abuse, that is. The rules have changed. Just as the rules about slavery have changed.

The principles have NOT changed. As Malcolm X reminds us. “Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it.”

Slavery was wrong, no matter what the manmade rules were regarding slavery. Even in New Testament days when the writers made it appear to not be wrong. It was. Check it out. Does Jesus give us any teachings that would condone slavery? Correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t believe he did.

You may recall that people very quickly began twisting and reorganizing Jesus’ teachings to fit them into something acceptable for the culture. Rules change. Principles do not. 

If we stop at the law, Jesus taught, we do not measure up to Kingdom standards.  We have to use standards that are higher.  It's not about "what we can get by with."  It's about what is right because it comes from a very pure heart, something none of us ever can claim, try as we might.

George Washington was a slave master. He was also a gambler who was deeply in debt because of his gambling. Most likely a mental health professional, after an in-depth interview, would probably declare him to be a compulsive gambler, based on documents now uncovered by historians.

In spite of this he managed to do some remarkable things. He showed courage as a general. He sacrificed greatly. Most of all, he spoke out against the institution of slavery at times while holding those back who wanted to take action to abolish it. And just speaking, in that day, was an act of courage that could have cost him his life!!

Just as we grapple with ourselves and others when our behavior does not reflect our belief system or when we pledge our allegiance or align ourselves with organizations that exhibit inconsistencies, isn’t it a wee bit liberating to realize that we have not come upon something new in ourselves. Or in our world.

It is a part of the human condition. While we have ideals…. Ideologies. Aspirations. Hopes. Dreams. Fantasies. All of these! When history is written--our own history, even--it will be written. Not based on what we wanted or dreamed for. Nor on what we believed. The facts of history will be only what we actually did. About how we translated out our beliefs into action. Our courage will be measured by those who follow us, using standards and values that may be very different from what we hold today. Scary as that may seem.

While recently standing in line next to me, a lady expressed alarm at the book I was reading. It didn’t surprise me, after we began a congenial conversation because of the book cover, to discover that she was from a very fundamentalist church.

The title of the book was An Imperfect God by Henry Wiencek. If my new acquaintance had not been so focused on the title, she would have immediately noticed the picture and subtitle that clearly indicate the book to be about George Washington. Wiencek wasn’t writing about theology at all, but about the way Americans have been led to make the first President into something of a perfect god.

Truth is, Washington was plagued with a nagging internal conflict. Like all internal conflicts, it grew when he didn’t find a way to fully resolve it. It was played out, in fact, even after his death. By his heirs who conspired to go against their grandfather’s clearly written will that would set his slaves free.  Diminishing the estate, of course.

The conflict was between his role as a slave holder and the fact that he espoused “liberty for all.” Even as he held a position of influence in his church, so devoted to keeping the status quo that protected the institution of slavery!

Ironically, these paradoxical forces interfered greatly with this founding father’s pursuit of happiness.

Poverty and weakness are not virtues. Courage is. Of the three, only courage allows us to find real power, the kind that moves mountains and transforms lives, starting with our own.

For 2008, I’ve decided to set my goals less around projects to be accomplished and more around specific people with whom I want to connect. That’s a change for me, I confess.

No doubt the projects will align themselves around the people. There will definitely be some goals that will be project-oriented, like getting closets built in rooms where there never have been closets, in our house that will soon have it’s 100^th birthday. 

My tendency is to put off making connections with people until I get my projects in order. Perhaps I will make some progress in reversing that mode of operation this year. I hope so.

Jews are, first and foremost, a political entity. They are a convenient target. Just as “the weaker sex” and children are convenient targets of violence. Things get much more complicated when theological “reasons” are given to justify violence against a weaker group, especially when the aggressor considers it’s enemies to be much more than the ones they can so easily scapegoat.

I see such a strong parallel here to the fundamentalist Arabs who see themselves as people appointed by God to fight “the infidels.” A strong parallel, that is, with the ideological aggression that is coming from fundamentalist Christianity that sees the majority of the world as “infidels.” Both are deeply offensive and hold rigid beliefs. Beliefs that, ironically, are steeped in theologies that codify oppression--gender oppression, racial oppression, and often exhibit these in a frightening nationalism that seems blind to larger truths and scientific or educational processes that show respect for “the infidels.”

Power, in itself, is not evil. It is the misuse of power that is.

Individuals and institutions alike have power failure when that power is either abused or ignored. The former is a sin of commission. The latter a sin of omission.

When we run ourselves down or too easily accept that there is nothing we can do, that is as much power failure as the abuse of power.

Wisse says that there is a danger in accepting one’s state of powerlessness, as much as in resisting an oppressive power.  I would add that this is especially true if we see the powerlessness as permanent or inevitable when it is not.  All of these are forms of denial, just as much as denying trauma.

While resisting or protesting can have dire consequences that are obvious, withdrawing from the struggle and simply accepting “fate,” believing that there are no choices and underestimating one’s individual power, can also be self-destructive.

Adaptation, in itself, is a means of survival. Yet, ideally, it should not be a permanent way of life.

Survivors often blend in and adapt, on the surface appearing not to be phased by the past. Nor to be phased by the present stigmatization. Like Jews, it’s possible to even romanticize the state of powerlessness. While it’s okay to realize that life has been impacted and changed, sometimes even for the better, because of having faced the past, it is not okay to ignore the difficulty one has faced in getting there. To ignore or minimize the challenges is to put oneself at danger of not recognizing present threats to living life to its fullest.  The result can be a lot of new power outages because we fail to see the "faulty wiring" in our daily lives.