At the beginning of the year, in the throes of the US presidential election’s woundedness, I borrowed these words penned by Rev. Frank Dunn, my former priest. Now I find myself needing to find anchor again as we go through the woundedness of Kenya’s recent elections that have come with so much anger oozing out of unhealed scars, loss of life and malignant hate.
These words so perfectly reflect the storm brewing over a young nation struggling to hold itself together, but daily surrendering to the savage seduction of propaganda, the spread of malice, the rejection of what is true, and using God to stamp every prejudice and loath for fellow humans.
[Brackets mine]: I commit-
“I commit myself to telling the truth, as much as I have the light to see the truth. This is the age of lies, and it is getting worse. We are reaping what we have sewn: debased journalism; an internet where any assertion passes as fact; a disdain for education; the mockery of independent thinking, a pandering to anti-intellectualism; the ossifying of political opinions and letting them pass for “truth;” an embrace of racism [ethnic bigotry], xenophobia [othernizing], patriarchal privilege [political privilege], and brute force as a means of addressing conflict.
“There is no issue in the entire thesaurus of human activity that is not at some level a spiritual issue. That is to say that behind all our problems, including the suppression of truth, is a refusal to accept our own complicity in living falsehoods, and our reluctance to become conscious of our connection with everything–every single thing–in the universe. Instead, we imagine ourselves to be superior to other species, to be the gods of creation, the “stewards” of nature with which we can do whatever we please. Within our own species we view ourselves as locked in a contest to see who can amass the most power to manage and manipulate others.
“I commit myself especially to challenge religious falsehood where I see it. That opens me up to the criticism of being arrogant, self-righteous, judgmental, and guilty of the same ills which I would point out in others. I know that. I accept that. And if I should prey upon a brother for the speck he has in his eye while ignoring the log I have in my own, I should and must be called out. I submit myself to that criticism. Moreover I commit myself to an honest self-examination and an openness to accept my limitations and my errors to the extent I am able to do so. I pledge myself to be and remain in communities where I can be held in mutual accountability for facing and telling my own truth.”
– Words by Rev. Frank Gasque Dunn | Dec 2016. With gratitude.