Rome Falls Again

          There were two principal causes of the fall of Rome.  One was the invasion by barbarians, and the other, as argued by Edward Gibbon, was the disintegration of political, military, economic and social institutions.  In truth, the former would not have been possible without the latter. 

          While the Roman Empire lasted around 600 years, the American experiment in democracy is showing the same signs of disintegration after barely 200 years.  Our political institutions have lost the respect and confidence of the citizenry; our military power is shrinking; our economy is being crushed by intractable debt; and our society is increasingly characterized by drug abuse, sexual predation, and all sorts of criminal behavior. 
          To be sure, there are people calling for personal responsibility, integrity, and righteousness.  But they are met with accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious extremism, their voices drowned out by the shouts of the greedy, the power-hungry, and the corrupt. 
          Our leaders preach compassion and hope, but betray their words with lies and broken promises.  They pay lip service to the Constitution, but break their oaths of office with impunity.  They seek equality for all, but pass laws that do not apply to themselves.  They empathize with the poor, while treating themselves as royalty.  They place personal aggrandizement ahead of the good of the country.
          Sadly, we have an electorate that is mired in ignorance and motivated solely by self-interest.  For too many, a candidate’s character doesn’t matter.  A prime example is the continuing popularity of Hillary Clinton, in spite of growing evidence that she is the most mendacious, unethical, and corrupt public figure on today’s political stage.  Yet, we should not expect Obama’s Justice Department to prosecute her or congressional committees to overcome her stonewalling.  Nor should we expect her party to abandon her; she will be the Democratic nominee for President, no matter what.
          The sad state of American politics is but one sign of the disintegration of our democracy.  Are we going the way of the Roman Empire? 

 

 

         

Oil Folly

          The good news locally is that Hertford gas stations are finally competing price-wise with the ones in Elizabeth City. The bad news is that our politicians in Washington still don’t get it when it comes to energy policy.

          Putative Republican candidates for the presidency have been outdoing each other in Iowa to reassure farmers of their undying support of corn-based ethanol.  This is in spite of clear evidence that the over-production of corn has been a huge ecological mistake: deforestation, chemical pollution of our waters, and increased production of carbon dioxide, not to mention higher food prices and damage to automobile engines.
          Meanwhile, our government seems incapable of enjoying the success of the increased production of fossil fuels.  Oil fields in North Dakota, Texas, and elsewhere produce so much oil they have no place to put it.  As a result, 38% of rigs have been shut down since November, and 74,000 workers have lost their jobs.  The solution to this problem would be to export the stuff, but there currently is a ban on U.S. exports of oil.  Congress could lift the ban, but it doesn’t seem to be able to pass even slam-dunk legislation these days.  President Obama could do it through executive action, but he hates fossil fuels and is delighted at the forced reduction in oil production.  The irony is that exporting our excess oil would keep prices down, both on world markets and at the pump.  And it would put a sizable dent in our balance of payments.
          In January I paid as low as $1.83 a gallon for gas.  Now we’re looking at an average of $2.35.  Until someone knocks some sense into our politicians, look for prices to creep up higher and higher this summer.

         

Whose God?

          In her letter to the editor of the Perquimans Weekly on March 4^th, Nancy Theodore attempts to refute Warren Boiselle’s assertion that because of all the atrocities we see committed by Muslims these days, Christians and Muslims must worship a different God.  Ms. Theodore makes the case that if some passages in the Koran have Allah advocating violence, the God of the Old Testament does as well.

          Although Ms. Theodore is correct as far as that goes, I’m disturbed by her attempt to equate today’s jihadist violence with examples of Christian excesses of the past.  In that she echoes President Obama’s recent speech in which he admonished Christians to “get off their high horse.”  The facts are clear: a long list of atrocities perpetrated by Muslims since 1979 were all committed in the name of Allah.  There is no modern equivalent among other faiths.
          We can argue all day that ISIS perverts Islam, and that the majority of Muslims are peace-loving.  That misses the broader point, which is that all religions that claim to have a corner on divine inspiration are inherently flawed.  God does not speak to us in a human voice; divine inspiration must be translated in human terms—by prophets, mystics, and others with spiritual insight.  But humans are not perfect.  Sometimes they get the message wrong, as when they invoke divine authority to justify evil. 
          Warren Boiselle was right.  Christians and Muslims do have a different God, because they hear their God speaking to them in a different voice, in their own language. Paradoxically, God does not make us in His image…We make God in ours.
          People of all faiths must come to understand that sacred texts are not authored directly by God but by men prone to misunderstanding and error.  Jews and Christians for the most part no longer subscribe to a literal understanding of the Bible. Yet, that does not prevent them from professing their faith in a loving God.  Muslims must do the same with respect to the Koran if they are ever to break the shackles of Islamic fundamentalism.