The darkness before the dawn

Dear George:

I am struck by the letters I have read on this site. I am amazed at how strongly they line up into two camps, either strongly for you or strongly against you.

As someone who thinks you are the most immoral and destructive president in my lifetime, perhaps ever, I am touched the most by the letters of those who support you, some with great fervency, and with great affection. I know they are sincere.

I guess it makes me even madder to think that you represent such a betrayal of the trust that these good people are putting in you.

I feel that a lot of things that started in the “sixties”(whenever that really was) are coming to a head again. Our country has made such progress since then, becoming more compassionate, more open, and freer than ever, more tolerant of differences, and becoming stronger in the process. This has very little to do with politicians, by the way, except in that they often get in the way.

In my mind, you represent the last of the forces opposing such changes. In your own way, you're trying to make us, as a people, less compassionate, less free, more intolerant, and weaker than before. Certainly you are making our country more and more divided, both along cultural lines, and economic ones.

And as an evangelical Christian, who knows exactly what you mean when you talk about a personal relationship with the Lord, and a closer walk with Him, I have been challenged in my faith in ways I never thought possible. How can someone who seems to have such a sincere faith produce such rotten fruit? It's made me question everything I've ever known in church. Perhaps it's something like what Luther felt before he nailed his theses on the door at Wittenberg. So I pray for a renewal of faith in the churches of America.

But I also know that when change occurs, it's not always comfortable. When healing comes, it sometimes seems the most painful time of all, like the darkness before the dawn.

And that's my hope. I've known for thirty years that we Americans made great strides in the sixties, and I mean strides in the softening of our hearts, and renewal of faith, of openness and freedom, and real strength, despite an array of forces against us. This is truly the greatest land on earth, and if anyone doesn't think God has been blessing it these last thirty years, well, that person just hasn't been paying attention. But I also always knew that there was more left to do.

You make me feel exactly like I did back then thirty years ago. It was a dangerous time, with violence on all sides. Yet we came through it a better and stronger nation. It is my hope that this time, when the stakes are high again, we'll advance again.

Paul
Age 52
Castro Valley, California