Support early childhood plan
Like many of us, I have been wondering since November how to become more active in my community. My reflections have led me to local action, and specifically to Santa Fe’s early childhood initiative.
As a lifelong Christian, I have for years been becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Christianity as reflected by the so-called Christian right. The direct, explicit commandment from Christ’s own lips that we “judge not” (Matthew 7:1-3) seems to be wholly forgotten. It is presented as “Christian” to judge harshly and with condemnation the moral choices of women, the feelings and lives of LGBT people and the humanity and sincerity of anyone who disagrees with these judgments, or even has doubts about them.
Somehow, too, on all other matters, the unflinching judgments of the Christian right always seem to align with hard conservative Republicanism, no matter how dedicated Republicans show themselves to be in promoting war, enriching the already wealthy, ignoring the need to steward the Earth and taking away the hope of the poor. When the evangelical right supported the licentious money-grubber Donald Trump, it seemed to me that Christianity had become a parody of itself. I have thought that I must leave the church rather than be associated with such embarrassing hypocrisy.
And yet religion, at its best, is a call to all that is best in us, a call to orient our lives to the best that is possible. Go high, it tells us, reach for the highest possible thing. I don’t want to surrender that goal, no matter how often it is made to look foolish. What’s more, I don’t want to treat anyone as an enemy. For me, that is the great teaching that speaks more loudly than every ugly betrayal that has been done in the name of religion. To live as if there is one God who loves all the world is to aspire to the ending of judgment and hatred. That’s worth everything.
With this in mind, there seems little good to be done by shouting out opposing judgments and condemnations. Instead, I thought at last, it is more effective to work harder, locally, on practical ways to open hearts and minds. Just as I was reaching this conclusion, I heard about Santa Fe’s early childhood initiative.
The initiative seeks to provide affordable access to universal pre-kindergarten education in Santa Fe. This not only gives great benefits to our children, it also helps struggling families. Supporting this initiative gives me a way to express a kind of Christianity that does not get enough publicity, a kind of faith that acts on the conviction that we are one world and jointly responsible for ourselves and our common future.
We should try to avoid judging people. It is much better to give them, from childhood, the empathetic education and economic space to become themselves people of action and compassion. Support Santa Fe’s early childhood initiative.