Day 64-66 Omaha, Nebraska

 

Day 64-66 Omaha, Nebraska

 

      I arrived in Omaha late Tuesday afternoon and was greeted by Gary and Cathy Peterson.  They hosted me in their lovely home in a leafy section of Omaha.  Gary had retired 11 years ago from his work on developing vaccines for large animals.  They have used this time fruitfully in creating major renovations to their home, spending time with family, and bicycle touring.   Gary had biked by himself across the U.S., but claims he did this the easier way-tracing the banks of the Mississippi River from the Canadian border to New Orleans.  The kindness and hospitality he had received during his trip has inspired him to creating a space for other cyclists. 

     They were the second Mormon family to host me during this trip and encouraged me to spend a second night there.  During this time we had interesting conversations about the structure and function of the Church of Latter Day Saints.  They operate with no paid clergy and call upon their entire community to support and encourage one another.  It is intriguing to me how a large organization can thrive without benefit of paid managers.  I have always believed that when an organization reaches a certain size, it is necessary to hire people to do those tasks for which you cannot recruit volunteers.   Among the many such tasks are; creating a budget and overseeing expenditures, recruiting committed board members, and cleaning the bathrooms. 

      I am attracted to, but skeptical of, organizations which claim to be able to function and grow without clearly defined guard rails maintained by those in authority that are paid to exercise such oversight.  Is it really possible to call solely upon the good will of this entire community to seek and work for the common good? 

      In our conversation over these two days I was reminded of a committed anarchist who was the editor of an anarchist journal.  He did not see the irony of exercising control of an instrument of an organization which is ideologically opposed to external agents of control.  I asked him; How do you decide what is included and excluded from the journal? How did you come to hold this position?  Who decided how long your term of office is?  Is there any way which it can be decided that you should be replaced?  If so, who would oversee the process of your replacement? I understand the appeal of anarchy.  I cannot, however, imagine how it can insure that everyone’s voice is heard.  If there is not a structure to insure that there is room at the table for everyone, the loudest voices will exert themselves.

     I realize that I long to participate in a community which works towards a common goal, is inclusive of all those who seek to join, and relies on the good will of its members to achieve these goals.  The forms of government with which I am intimately familiar (both secular and ecclesiastical) have relied on well paid professional bureaucrats, political manipulation, byzantine legal constraints, power struggles,  and confusing jargon.  Perhaps this is simply our human condition.  It does, however, make me feel tired, lonely, and suspicious of those who aspire to positions of power.

     The Book of Common Prayer states “We like sheep have gone astray; we follow too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.”  I know this to be true and I wonder how we can best construct a loving corrective to this which respects the dignity of every human being.   I wonder as well how can remove all the planks and specks from all of our eyes.

     Although there is much about Latter Day Saints that I find profoundly problematic, I am intrigued and inspired by the way in which they hold each other mutually accountable.  In the absence of an ecclesiastical CEO, this requires the good will and trust of the individual members.  In our conversations over these two days, Gary and Cathy shared some of the horrible tragedies they have experienced as a family and the love and acceptance which has sustained them through some very dark days. 

     I was touched by their description of the pastoral care exercised in their church community.  Everyone has 3 or 4 other people that they contact frequently to see how they are doing.   In many instances, such people have not been involved in the church for some time.  They do not ask, “When are coming to church?”.  They ask “Are you okay?, how has your family been faring during these difficult times?”  These were particularly meaningful in the midst of Covid.  I wonder if we were all to call up several people every day to inquire about their welfare, what a difference our community could make.

     The care and mutual support which members of the LDS church have offered to each other has been a cause of suspicion to the outsider.  The hostility which they have experienced periodically in U.S. history is similar in quality to anti-Semitism.  They experienced violent persecution as they travelled west to find a homeland.  Along the way their common code of contact and dress has marked them as “different” and they have often found it difficult to procure building permits in parts of the country shaped by evangelical Christianity. 

     On our way to dinner, the Petersons received a call requesting that they give someone a lift to the weekly addiction recovery meeting.  This was a ministry that they have committed themselves and we delayed our dinner so that we could render this service.  Their demeanor indicated that they did not find anything exceptional about their altruism.  I believe they thought of it an act of basic human decency.

     There are many obstacles to our working cooperatively on a common enterprise without external forces exerted on us.  If we are to become the beloved community about which Martin Luther King Jr. writes, we must

·         Articulate common values and goals.

·         Communicate these values in such a way as to be attractive to others.  As Ruth Bader Ginsberg has stated, “Fight for the things that you care about.  But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

·         Trust others to be honest and forthright about their values and invite them to work together wherever possible.

·         Believe that our better angels will emerge if given an opportunity to do so.

·         Not care who gets credit for victories 

        I have been reading recently some essays by Albert Einstein and I was struck by his observation: “Strange is our situation upon earth.  Each of us comes for short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a diving purpose.  From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others-above all for those upon whose smile and well being our own happiness depends, for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy.  Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received and am still receiving”

-Albert Einstein, Living Philosophies