Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Lots of my friends have been raving about watching Hamilton this past week when it premiered for television viewing. It debuted on Broadway to acclaim and felt like a fresh way of presenting some parts of the founding myth of America. It is fundamentally a conservative project and I mean that in the best way. It seeks to preserve that which is best in our founding story and present it in a way that is durable and lasting so that the myth continues to shape and mold our imagination.

Of course, there are those who have strong takes on its adherence to the facts - and crucially to what facts are not presented. For example, slavery gets hardly a mention and there are uncomfortable facts about the complicity of our founding fathers in that evil. It is crucial that these questions be raised. Yet, if our work is only deconstruction - the tearing down of what once held fast - then what is the creative vision that will compel us to a lasting future?

The myths don't fail - they hold up when we fail. Here is an example of what I mean. In Harry Truman's private letters you can see that he held some rather racist views. His personal view of African Americans was crude and belittling. Yet, he also had this sense that a military that was segregated fell short of our founding principles. He could not see us fighting an enemy who proclaimed racial superiority while we too went to such lengths to prop up racism.

The myth compelled him. Even though we had fallen short of the idea that all are created equal over and over again Truman still felt the pull of its moral vision. He knew we should aspire to it even if his own views might have made him question whether it was a realistic proposition. His story too now becomes part of our mythology as a nation. Each generation has a chance to build it, shape it, and make it come alive as they prepare to pass it on.

This feels to me like one of the chief projects of the Church. Its complete vision of the interconnectedness of people with one another, of us with God, and of all Creation is one that demands that we strive again and again for a deeper way of caring for one another and the world around us. It demands that we act both as stewards of that which we have received and caretakers for the next generation. The Church is a fundamentally conservative institution in the way Hamilton is fundamentally conservative - we hold fast to that which is true, beautiful, and loving and we carry it forward to shape not just the imagination but the reality of future generations.

That moral imagination shaped how Martin Luther King would preach to a nation. It shaped how Mother Theresa would adopt the streets as her home. It can and should shape who we are today and what we think is possible when our own personal history or imagination are too impoverished to imagine the riches of God's grace and mercy. Let's remain dedicated to the mythic power of our shared stories - the stories of saints and angels, powers and principalities, the heavens and all that is therein - for those stories may shape, mold, and compel us to a more compassionate and just future.

Fr Robert