By Tom B.
When my son was young, on long car trips we counted American flags visible from the highway. We included flag decals on cars, and I'm sure we counted well over a hundred between Portland and Seattle. Later, we went on a vacation to Hawaii and decided to play that game, but we soon realized there were no flags to count. Apparently, the Hawaiians don't celebrate having been conquered by the United States. So we counted chickens instead, which was more fun anyway.
Before MAGA came along, I didn't like American flags because, to me, they represented American imperialism, and I suspect other people had similar feelings. However, when I went to No Kings protests and saw people carrying American flags, I realized they were reclaiming that symbol for democracy. Now that's what I think of when I see it.
I experienced a similar feeling when watching a video of James Talarico's speech after he won election as a Texas senator. He had a sign on the lectern that said, "Love Thy Neighbor," and he told the story of David and Goliath as a metaphor for his battle against Elon Musk. I realized that Christianity, like the flag, could be reclaimed.
I haven't called myself a Christian in decades, but I attended church as a child. We cut out pictures of the disciples and glued them to popsicle sticks and put on tiny puppet plays of events from the life of Jesus, so I know most of the stories, and later I learned many of the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus, as portrayed in many of the Bible stories, was a man of peace and compassion and love. The stories where he is not portrayed that way were made up to deceive people. If Jesus were around today, he might be knocking on doors for Indivisible because, like us, he believed in nonviolence. He said the poor shall inherit the Earth, so I think he would be in favor of a wealth tax on billionaires so all of us, not just entitled rich kids, can inherit the Earth. I'm sure he would NOT approve of ICE chasing down, imprisoning, and deporting law-abiding immigrants. And just as he turned over the tables of the greedy money changers in the temple, if he went to Congress, he would knock over the desks of all the politicians taking money from corporations and Super PACs. I'm sure he wouldn't be a Republican, but I sincerely doubt he would be a Democrat either.
I have not heard of Senator Talarico lecturing Southern Baptists about hypocrisy. That's not his style. But his example as a man of peace and love apparently struck a chord with some evangelicals because you don't win by a landslide in Texas without votes from a lot of churchgoers.
I love James Talarico, but I don't agree with him on everything. During a Texas House debate, he said God is nonbinary, but I feel pretty certain she's a woman. It's no problem if James and I differ on some issues because we have a big tent at our revival, so there's room for many faiths and opinions.
That's my dream for democracy. It should be a way where we all come together and talk about what we believe and listen respectfully to what others believe. Together, we make plans to solve our problems, to help one another, and to protect the Earth for future generations.
As the results came in on election night, I felt that dream get closer.
