Glen Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally was a fascinating exercise in how we deal with change in this country. We either look forward and declare our intention to "be the change we want to see' (Gandhi), or we look in the rear view mirror and declare our loyalty to what used to be. The rally was carefully managed to "avoid" political commentary, but they forgot that the language one uses conveys a great deal about one's power and privilege. The extensive use of the word "God," along with consistent identification of that word as a masculine being revealed what Sam Keen calls "the gravitational pull of the political ideologies implicit in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" (In the Absence of God: Dwelling in the Presence of the Sacred, Harmony Books, 2010). The implied loyalty to the privilege and power of European-Americans, and their lock on the values of the past was evident. I believe we must always be cautious when someone uses the word "God" with the assumption that "everybody knows what we mean when we say that word." The mystery of God can never be fully held in a word. Even the word "honor" has ambiguities. It can refer to moral integrity, but it also can refer to power and privilege. Power and privilege that are not held accountable are not honorable. As the fellow said about his experience of being ridden out of town on a rail: "If it weren't for the honor of it, I'd just as soon have walked."
