The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.
Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The Lord Almighty—
he is the King of glory. Psalm 24: 1 – 2, 8, 10 NIV Version
Thanksgiving
The year 2024 A.D. has been a momentous year for the world and America. Whenever I see the number 24, I think of the 24th Psalm, sometimes referred to as “The King of Glory” psalm. I was born into America in 1955 when most everyone was grateful World War II was over, evil had been defeated, and heavy-duty peace and family time had ensued. Couples excelled in family production; 1955 was the exact middle of the Baby Boom.
While we overrate today how the 1950s and early 1960s were conformist, there was general acceptance and pride that America had a common culture owing to God and Scripture. President Eisenhower instilled “In God We Trust,” and it made great sense to most. Even secularists saw the truth: how the Bible had shaped American history and how Christian and Jewish faiths had sustained America fighting two brutal wars across the globe.
My memory tells me that the adults who raised us, who survived the Depression and won World War II, understood Allied success as no less than a miracle. Even as a child, it was easy to see this via dominant American culture.
We don’t have a world war raging now, but with the wars in Ukraine and Israel and growing tension with China (surrounding Taiwan), we have an increasingly dangerous situation that feels like the 1900s or 1930s to some extent; it was a presidential campaign issue this year. Without question, America now needs a strategy, direction, unity, and prayer. Though the November 5 Election guarantees nothing, at least we have a clear result. And beyond that, much of the country has renewed hope.
Like today, Praxis Circle has often posted on Thanksgiving Eve in the past. The colonists in Virginia (1619) and the pilgrims in Massachusetts (1621 and 1623) originated Thanksgiving in North America, and Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a public holiday after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. So, necessity (involving strife or war) remains the mother of invention, even when it comes to thanksgiving and worshipping God. In addition, with heightened anxiety, fear, and desperation, we often encounter humility and reconciliation—even redemption.
America rwealthiest country in the world (in aggregate, though not per capita), and we are still not directly involved in war. Most of our citizens are safe and well-cared for. As a result, each one of us should take a large drink from the cup of humility. We need to strive for reconciliation, healing, and seeing issues from both sides. Toxic empathy accomplishes nothing, and often only makes matters worse.
God deserves praise for the remarkable year 2024. On Thursday we might particularly remember our fellow Americans in the military, law enforcement, and public service who risk their lives every day keeping us safe. Their care allows our flourishing in peace, which makes the world stronger and a far better place. We’ll need lots of God’s Providence in 2025.
American Culture
It’s generally accepted today in the elite academic think tank, university, and media spaces that culture is upstream from politics (usually stated “politics is downstream from culture”). Increasingly since the 1990s, either those on the Left cite this observation to highlight their control of American social institutions or those on the Right to express fear and loathing having lost authority since the 1950s (or to encourage each other to charge up the cultural hill to retake lost ground).
Perhaps the main point in this post, beyond the need for national gratitude, is that no one in America, or anywhere for that matter, has a monopoly on how art shapes culture in a genuinely free society. Indeed, great art is partly defined by the flexibility it offers to inspire across worldview and cultural lines. Postmodernists understand this point better than anyone; it’s one of their worldview pillars and arguments against truth (not a good one, I might add). Once released by the writer, “text” carries its own meaning over long stretches of time separate from the writer, becoming the reader’s province in his or her time, place, and cultural milieu.
This observation hit hard from the football stands as my son, grandson, and I watched these University of North Carolina cheerleaders dance and the students sing together to Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline“:
Sweet Caroline was a hit when released in 1969 when I was 14 years old, but it was extremely counter-cultural, being unabashedly happy, even saccharine. There was no way to listen to this song in public during the intensely serious and self-described “radical” days of the late 1960s, when the Vietnam War was still killing young Americans up close and personal.
One could not be a cool, Southern young man, who liked generally white-produced Southern rock (1971) and generally black-produced old school beach and soul music (1968) more formally referred to as rhythm & blues (1973), and listen to Sweet Caroline at the same time. (The song sections just linked with release dates alongside are more or less random from a list of hundreds.)
No, one could not be cool listening to any of Neil Diamond’s songs, even though his gold records seemed second in number only to the Beatles. Clearly, men could only like Diamond’s songs in the privacy of their own room or alone in a car when no one else was looking.
And there I was in 2021 in the pre-pandemic confines of Carolina’s Kenan Stadium in the heart of Chapel Hill singing “Sweet Caroline” with the rest of the students in the crowd with the aid of the Carolina varsity cheerleading dancers, known as the Carolina Girls. As said in Monty Python’s Holy Grail, “I got better.”
Generational differences became apparent. While more prone to social justice considerations and canceling deviants, today’s college generation has a sweet, innocent, and almost communal character, unlike during the 1970s. Here was a sing-along in the 21st century, when I thought they had died with my grandparents. Clearly, my generation had no monopoly on culture using art of “my day” (thank goodness), and it was a terrific way to experience Blue Heaven again in such a fun-loving way.
Great times create culture, and we’ve seen this in spades during the second half of 2024. Often art or music, whether legit or kitsch, created years or decades before is adopted and used for reasons completely unrelated or contrary to the creator’s original intent.
When adopted for a later specific use, it can seem providential that the work already existed. Examples are many, but here are a few. When I was in graduate school in the 1980s, It’s A Wonderful Life hit a nerve of cultural simplicity needed after the Disco craze. The movie’s recirculation created a pathway to broad acceptance, even to becoming an American “icon,” when the movie had failed in its own time in 1946. More recent: Ray Charles recorded “America the Beautiful” in 1972. It became America’s perfect song after the September 11, 2001 tragedy. (Take 3:35 for that last link, presenting the song’s official 50th Anniversary video.)
Now today we have the Village People’s “YWCA” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” used in the Trump campaign, the former having led to the “Trump jig.” I should also note Kamala Harris’ excellent “Mirror, mirror on the wall” skit on Saturday Night Live. In closing, I’d like to reference one of Aesop’s Fables—”The Lion and the Mouse”—and the movie portrayal of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Reconciliation
“The Lion and the Mouse” is a simple, ancient tale of a lion that decided to let a trapped mouse go once convinced that the mouse might one day rescue him. But how could a mouse ever help a lion?
Only days later a trapper’s net ensnares the lion, but the mouse comes along again to chew away the net, setting the lion free. The moral of the tale: good deeds return others.
C.S. Lewis plays on this theme in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe after the White Witch (Jadis) binds and ritually executes Aslan on the stone table. The next day near dawn, mice swarm Aslan’s body and chew away the ropes that the Witch had used to hold him to the table. While still dead, Aslan is freed for the resurrection scene with sisters Susan and Lucy (presented at top).
Below is Aslan’s death scene followed by nature’s subsequent embrace (via compassionate mice). We also provide the BBC’s 1988 version (just the first half of that clip is needed). It’s interesting to compare them, with each having a different but quite successful cultural appeal:
Here’s what a Google search yields about the mice scene in Narnia. I have no idea whether this is AI or not (!), but it makes good sense to me:
In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the mice gnawing on Aslan’s ropes symbolize the small, seemingly insignificant acts of resistance against a powerful evil, demonstrating that even the smallest creatures can contribute to the fight against tyranny; essentially highlighting the power of unity and collective action against a seemingly unbeatable force, represented by the White Witch who has Aslan bound.
Without question, Narnia makes a useful discussion piece tying together the 2024 Presidential Election and culture. To be clear, what I’m not doing is making the comparison that Donald Trump is Aslan or that Kamala Harris is the White Witch in any true metaphorical sense. Of course not. That is laughable. Both candidates were problematic or vexing not only to their opposition but to many supporters.
But it’s worth noting that The Chronicles of Narnia do present Christian allegory, and the 2024 presidential campaign did resemble the spiritual warfare of good vs. evil as presented there, where both sides were determined to conquer the opposing army and kill its leader. The White Witch suggests it’s all about love in the 2005 version of Aslan’s death above. For entertainment or enlightenment, pick your side and employ the metaphor.
The DP commonly referred to DJT as a fascist and even Hitler, and the GOP implied the Biden Administration is an Evil Empire. Many Trump supporters believe Trump shared Aslan’s willingness to attack and rescue the little person, and he obviously declared an intent to “Fight, fight, fight!” in surviving the assassination attempt. We are hearing now in the media that the Left was cool and rebellious in the 1960s, and now the Right is cool and rebellious. So, who is Darth Vader (mixing movie metaphors) and who is Aslan?
I’ve also heard it said that if one brings good vs. evil into politics, then one is bringing one’s religion into the discussion. But is that true? Did not each side present their case as good vs. evil? Don’t avowed secularists, agnostics, or atheists show signs of a religion, too? What do those terms, good and evil, mean? How can, do, and should we apply them?
Can we separate our religion or, more widely speaking, worldview from what we do everyday? Do we water down the potential for solidarity or reconciliation when we seek only the most common or universal denominator, if any? More specifically, can and should Christians leave God outside the public square when they’re tasked to capture everything for Christ? And what about Christian nationalism? To be continued at Praxis Circle later this year and into 2025.
“Thankful Mice, Everyone!” – Tiny Tim
I’ve also heard it said in the news that if the President-Elect had not won, he would have been totally “up the creek” (without a paddle), just like Aslan when he turned himself in to the Witch. In others words, had Former-President Trump lost the Election, he might have spent the remainder of his life in prison.
Americans understood this at some level, and they saved him just like the mice do in the Narnia movie. Ancient Roman emperors and senators understood it was stupid to make a martyr out of any leader of people they ruled and feared. (And they made several spectacular mistakes that backfired badly, before and after 0 A.D.) Apparently, the Democratic Party never got the memo at all.
What we’re starting to see, however, is the dire consequences predicted from a loss by both sides will not likely come to pass. The country wants change, and we will move on. The GOP is not a bunch of fascists, and they’re getting on with preparing for the business of governing.
In concert, the Democrat Party is doing some healthy self-reflection, and there are even signs of a modest degree of reconciliation between those still in office who must work together over the next four years. One could even argue it was Providence (for the good of the country) Trump lost in 2020.
My personal hope is the constant ad hominem attacks and name calling will cease. This is childish, and it accomplishes nothing. The public is sick of it. I also look forward to a new generation of politicians taking over (JD Vance’s generation) and a Rebel Alliance prospering in favor of limited government in the Founders’ tradition.
We’re all grateful we live in a still predominately peaceful country where power can transition smoothly. Our Constitution appears to be working, as it has so well in the past. And who should be the most grateful man or woman in America tomorrow at the dinner table?
I’d argue Donald Trump: grateful to be spared on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania and then again on November 5. After all, it was the mice—”We the People”—who made the latter happen, but ultimately grace and divine providence allowed both.
That should give the sparing of each turkey’s life a whole new meaning over the next four years. Mr. Trump says he’s humbled, and we should believe him. I hope he stays there mentally and performs well for all Americans. I have confidence he will.
With God’s blessings and help, we’ll make the true Lion proud in 2025.
P.S. – So, here’s a bonus feature riddle for your middle school children and grandchildren: What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Give up? Pumpkin Pi!
