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Morning Meditation
October 13, 2026
Moreover, as a great democratic society we have a special responsibility to the arts. For art is the great democrat – calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion, wealth or color. President John F. Kennedy, November 29, 1962.
These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything. Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise, The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, p. 2, Oxford University Press, 2023.
Colossians 3:15
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called together in one body; and be ye thankful.”
James 1:19
“Wherefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, let every individual be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”
Meditation by Glenn Beamer
In September, I wrote about President Kennedy’s address commencing what would become the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts. President Kennedy’s speech traced cultural development from Ancient Greeks through Dante and Goethe to Mark Twain and Dostoevski. In doing so President Kennedy conveyed thoughtful respect to his constituents.
As I’ve prayed to understand how we can best protect our nation’s cultural traditions I’ve focused on the above passages from James and Paul’s epistles. With the internet ordinary Americans, indeed people throughout the world, have access to more information than thought possible just 35 years ago. Unfortunately as facts have become ubiquitous, their validity and reliability have plummeted. This development has been incredibly deleterious to our political and policy discourses.
One need only look at recent Senate hearings to observe this deterioration. This year United States Senators have asked an accomplished public servant “Who the f---” he thought he was, spouted that a witness was a dirtbag, and opined that a witness was “trying to cover his ass.” I worked for two United States Senators in the 1980s. Neither senator used any of these phrases in private let alone public.
These epithets reflect more than the erosion of decency and thoughtfulness. They reveal that our public discourse is neither a search for the truth nor a means of discovering acceptable solutions to legitimate problems. This search and discovery are what God calls us to.
If we are to regain thoughtful debate, let alone our dignity, we should take Paul’s and James’ scripture verses to heart. From Paul, we need to take the time daily to find and nurture peace in our souls. Much of the profanity we experience today reflects undirected anger pinging around on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and whatever other media sustain it. But responding to anger with cheap shots is not going to lead us to the path God wants. Cheap shots will amplify our conundrum.
If we are to take to heart Paul’s admonition, we need to subscribe to James’ path of listening closely, speaking slowly, and not ironically becoming slow to anger. This doesn’t imply we agree with whatever our fellow citizens propound. It implies we recognize the genuine hurt that motivates our peers’ anger and seek God’s peace amidst the babble. We need to demonstrate our ideas’ validity & contributions by starting them modestly & adjusting them appropriately. From those beginnings we can lower the temperature, restore decorum, and find common ground in God’s grace.
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