August 1, 2025 No comments

Whaddya Think?

Whatever it is—your thinking, that is—just know this: according to some, it might be the source of most (if not all) of your problems.

That’s the gist of a book I just picked up. I was at Barnes & Noble to grab a copy of Orwell’s 1984 (a story for another post!) when a small stack of books caught my eye at the checkout counter. Sitting on top was a tidy little hardback with an irresistible title: “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.”

Cute. Creative. Clickbait for the analog world.

It piqued my curiosity. Plus, the book had that satisfying heft in the hand and, thanks to some B&N credits, it was basically free.

Why the curiosity? I’ve long wrestled with my own thinking. I think a lot. Too much, I think. Sometimes it serves me well. Other times, it takes me down mental rabbit holes with no cheese at the end.

See? There I go again—thinking about my thinking.

So I figured: maybe this Nguyen fellow might provide some valuable insight.

Setting the Stage

But before diving into the book’s ideas, let me offer three quick caveats—wisdom gleaned from four decades in politics, marketing, communications, and the occasional stint as a high school English teacher. As for the latter, when analyzing a piece of non-fiction, I typically advise my students to do three things.

First, look up the author. Mr. Nguyen has a well-polished online presence: website, blog, Instagram, YouTube. But here’s the catch—no bio. No credentials. No clear academic or professional background. It’s all sizzle, very little steak.

Second, when it comes to nonfiction, follow the sources. In this case, there aren’t many. Vague personal anecdotes, sure. But no studies, no citations, no bibliography. It’s kind of like eating soup with a fork—you’re not sure you’re getting the full nourishment.

Third, consider the style. Nguyen writes in a self-help, motivational speaker kind of tone. Lots of “You can do it!” and “Here’s the secret I discovered!” Think Tony Robbins meets the latest “lose weight now!” commercial.

The Big Claim

Nguyen’s core message is clear: “The root cause of our suffering is our own thinking.” (pg. 21)

OK. I get it. As someone who struggles with overthinking, I can relate.

Yes, anxiety is rampant. A 2024 poll from the American Psychiatric Association found that 43% of U.S. adults feel more anxious than last year. That’s up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022.

Why the uptick? Some blame the economy. Others point to climate change. Or political polarization. Or gun violence. Jonathan Haidt, in The Anxious Generation, puts the blame squarely on technology.

But Nguyen? He says it’s just our thinking. There’s a good case to be made. Most of us experience over-thinking – aka “rumination” – at some point in our life. According to one study “nearly 73% of 25 to 35-year-olds and 52% of 45 to 55-year-olds experienced overthinking in their day-to-day lives.” According to this and other studies, this “rumination” tends to decrease with age. I must be the exception to the rule.

So Nguyen is on to something. But it’s the diagnosis—and more importantly, the prescription—that gets my brow to furrow.

First, Nguyen draws a sharp line between “thoughts” and “thinking.” Thoughts, he says, are neutral. Thinking is what gets us in trouble. Interesting… but also a little like separating “fire” from “burning.”

Further, he claims that thoughts come from “the universe or our higher selves,” while thinking comes from “our egos” (pg. 78) Really?

Consider these “thoughts”:

– White people are the superior race.
– People I disagree with are assholes.
– Let’s get drunk.
– Money is the most important thing in life.

Is that our higher self? I don’t think so (there I go again!) In his book, Nguyen’s thinking (dog gone it! I did it again!) is akin to Rousseau—humans are born pure and corrupted by the world. But Hobbes might have the stronger case: that in our natural state, humans are solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Me? I think the truth is probably somewhere in between.

Second, Nguyen suggests that thinking prompts us to think in terms of “black and white” – “good and bad.” He suggests that there’s no such thing as “good” or “bad.” He quotes Shakespeare’s Hamlet that: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Yes, many philosophers (and therapists) urge us to reserve judgment, especially in the moment. What seems “bad” today—a lost job, a breakup—may turn out to be the beginning of something better. But denying good and bad altogether? That’s not just philosophical fastidiousness—it’s potentially dangerous. It risks numbing us to injustice and inaction. As Dr. King reminded us, we must respond to “the fierce urgency of now.”

Third, Nguyen claims it’s not what we think—it’s the mere act of thinking that causes suffering.

(Wait… is Nguyen asking us to think about that?)

I don’t know about you, but some of my biggest regrets came from not thinking. And some of the world’s greatest advances —personally and societally—have come from people daring to think in new and challenging ways.

Sure, overthinking can lead to what psychologists call “ANTs”—automatic negative thoughts. It can be paralyzing. But the antidote to bad thinking isn’t no thinking. It’s better thinking.

So… Think Again?

Philosophers from Aristotle to William James to Viktor Frankl have praised the power of thoughtful reflection. And science agrees—positive thinking improves mental and physical health.

Which brings to mind the words of St. Paul:

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be
any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Thinking isn’t the enemy. It’s a tool. And like any tool, it can be misused—or wielded with wisdom.

So yeah. Don’t believe everything you think.

But don’t stop thinking either.

Think about that.

July 2, 2025 No comments

Help Yourself

man holding a sign "seeking human kindness"

A couple of weeks ago, I came across the oft-cited phrase, “God helps those who help themselves.”

According to some, it is the most quoted Bible verse that cannot be found in the Bible. Its origins appear to date back to an Aesop fable. Its popularity in the United States is – ironically – attributed to Ben Franklin, a deist who didn’t even believe in a personal God. But Franklin was a printer, entrepreneur, and a tireless self-promoter. Even though he didn’t think God helped anyone, he probably thought the phrase would “stick” and be a hit among Puritans, Calvinists, and 18th-century entrepreneurs who were his readers.

And it was!

If you’re generous, you might think the “God helps those who help themselves” expression has good intent – that its goal is to motivate someone to work, seek, and act, and in doing so, show them that the more effort they make, the more good things will happen to and for them. It makes sense from a human perspective. Hard work leads to success. Laziness to ruin.

The problem I have with this “human perspective” is that it suggests we only help people who help themselves. It also begs an important question – who defines what constitutes the “help yourself” part?

For me, the expression is even more troublesome when you focus on the “God” part. “God helps those who help themselves” suggests that God loves and helps those who are hard-working. Lazy people, not so much.

That’s not the God I know. I am a Christian and can’t speak for Islam, Judaism, or Hinduism, but I don’t think these words would ever come out of the mouth of Jesus. I checked just to make sure. He didn’t. As I was going through the Gospel accounts, I read about a Jesus who helped and healed a lot of people in his time, mostly the lame, the blind, and the sick. Before he healed people, I’ve yet to read about him saying anything like:

“O.K., before I heal you, Jerry, I’ve got to ask, have you been helping yourself? I’m going through my notes, Jerry, and it doesn’t look like you’re doing much on the self-help front. I don’t think you’re trying hard enough! And if you’re not doing enough to help yourself, why should I help you? Sorry, Jerry, I don’t help the helpless. Try coming back after you’ve put in a bit more effort.”

The phrase “God helps those who help themselves” makes God small. It suggests our relationship with God is transactional, not relational. That we do things because that’s the “price” we pay to get God to like us and give us something. That if we try hard enough, God owes us something. I don’t think that is the way it works. At least I hope it isn’t.

Second, I look around, and the phrase lacks existential evidence. That is, it doesn’t fit with what I see around me. Do you know someone who worked hard, did everything right, went above and beyond, but despite all their efforts, got a bad deal at just about every turn? I do. Plenty. Good people. Worked hard. Put up with a lot of crap. Turned the other cheek. Went the extra mile. And they failed. Economically, socially, and physically. No one lent a hand. No one helped them up. I don’t see evidence that God’s help works that way.

Finally, I think the expression often gives rise to a form of “spiritual bypassing” – an easy excuse not to serve those in need because we think they aren’t doing enough to “help themselves.” It makes it easier to blame others for their own misery. It is a screen behind which people – and I include myself! – can hide and provide an easy excuse to not sacrifice in support of others.

As I noted above, I can’t speak for other faiths and would welcome their thoughts. But if we’re to follow Jesus’ example, should we only “help people who help themselves?” I don’t think so. If we follow Jesus’ example, we help others regardless of merit, regardless of their effort. Indeed, Jesus’ example suggests that those who can’t or won’t help themselves are likely the most in need of having someone lend them a hand.

Unconditional. That is God’s love that I know.

And that is, I believe, the love we’re called to share.

May 23, 2023 No comments

Jerry’s Gumbo

There are three things at which New Orleans excels: food, music, and having a good time.

Let’s talk food.

N’awlins cuisine is not just about eating it, but also about preparing it. For me, it was a combination of watching Justin Wilson on local public television, learning a thing or two from Leon Soniat (a Jefferson parish legend), and my friendship with Rita Godchaux.

Rita was a grade ahead of me as were my two best friends Veazey and Alfred. Rita made it through Louisiana State University (LSU) with a degree in “general studies” which, at LSU, translates into a degree in specialty #3, that is “having a good time.” In fact, I’m pretty sure that if there were a Dean’s List in having a “good time,” Rita would have been there – every semester.

After graduation, as many of my friends, Rita ended up working on offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. But women back then didn’t qualify for being a roustabout or roughneck. Rather, Rita apprenticed and later became head chef, knowing that being a cook for roustabouts and roughnecks is about as close to being God as possible. It didn’t hurt that Rita was pretty hot.

Like other rig workers, Rita had a “two week on, one week off” schedule. She would often spend her “off” weeks at The Palm Beach Club – aka Veazey and Alfred’s house just off Jeff Highway in the heart of Jefferson Parish’s Harahan. Rita would trade a week’s worth of lodging and partying for a day’s worth of cooking. The latter would generate enough food to last until her next appearance.

Here’s what I learned from Rita about cooking gumbo. (I learned a lot of other things from Rita, but we best stick with gumbo for now.)

Before you start, have a bottle of wine. Maybe two. Check that. At least two.

A good gumbo takes about a couple of hours and the better part of a bottle of wine. White for seafood gumbo. Red for sausage and ham gumbo. Let’s go with white and seafood.

Regardless of which color wine and dish you choose, the foundation of a good gumbo is a good roux. Like many things in life, a roux is simple but challenging. The ingredients are simple – oil and flour. Typically it is one-half or 3/4 cup each.

The first thing to do is to heat up the oil in a large deep cooking pan. Put it on medium temperature. After a few minutes (use the time to open that wine bottle!) drop on a sprinkling of flour. Make sure that the oil is hot enough to make the flour sizzle. If so, slowly feed in the rest of the flour. Use the back of a spatula to work the flour into the oil until it is totally mixed together. Turn the heat down and spend the next twenty minutes using the back of a spatula to work the flour and oil mix until it is a thick golden brown.

Take your time. This is the zen part of Cajun cooking. A good roux requires requires patient attention. Rita said that you need to work the mix at least once every minute or so. In between, you’ve some time to (a) drink a little wine and (b) dice some vegetables. They’re both part of the recipe!

The vegetables consist of three onions, two bell peppers (one green and one red), and 4-5 stalks of celery. Find a sharp knife. Use your best dice technique. Mix them all in a bowl.

Take a sip of wine.

Once the roux is a dark golden brown (about a full glass of wine’s worth) toss in the vegetables and stir with the goal of coating all the vegetables with the freshly made roux. Continue to work the vegetables until the onions caramelize and the peppers and celery soften.

Now comes the multi-tasking.

In between working in the vegetables, do three things. First, find a place on the stove for one of your bigger, deep cooking pots. That is where everything is going to happen next. Second, open up a small can of tomato paste and a big can of whole or chopped tomatoes. Finally, open up a box of seafood stock. And when the vegetables are nice and soft, combine all three – the vegetables, the tomatoes, and the seafood stock – in that large pot and crank up the heat.

Have another sip of wine.

While the stew begins to heat up, prepare the shrimp. You’ll want a couple of pounds of medium size shrimp. I like them fresh and raw. Rita said that the best way to prepare shrimp is either to bake or steam them. Baking works best for bar-b-que shrimp but that’s another recipe, so Rita typically leaned towards steaming. That requires another pot with a couple of inches of water and a colander large enough to handle 2 lbs of shrimp. Once the water is boiling, put on the shrimp and cover. You’ll want to stir every 15-20 seconds or so. Shrimp cook quickly and, if overcooked, they get a bit rubbery so you’ll want to stop once the shrimp get nice and red and the skin begins to separate. Drain and let the shrimp sit for a couple of minutes.

Everyone has their own way of peeling shrimp. Rita said the tail goes first. Then you grab the legs at the top of the shrimp and peel around in a circular motion. Once that’s done do something similar to the bottom half. That works for me … but you do you.

This is optional, but if I’ve time I often get a pan and lightly sauté the shrimp in a garlic butter mixture. Low heat. Careful not to overcook. I find it provides a bit more flavor.

Then there’s the okra. Can’t have gumbo without okra. But watch out. Okra is a bit dicey to cook. Slice them to about ¼ inch. Then slowly cook 2-3 tablespoons of butter. Add the okra. Stir constantly. Consider adding a bit of Worchester sauce (but not too much!!!). Don’t overcook as overcooked okra can get gooey quickly.

Put the cooked shrimp into the large pot of vegetables, tomatoes, and seafood stock. Add a large can of crabmeat and – if you’re brave – a can of whole oysters (with sauce). Then add the okra.

Have another sip of wine.

At this point, you should have a hefty pot of gumbo. Boil then simmer. Once that’s past another sip of wine you add the basil, bay leaves, (very small) thyme, chili power (cayenne pepper is better), a dash of Worchester.

Now for the hot sauce. Feel free to toss in Colonel McIllheny’s Tobasco sauce. But if you’re really brave and want to show your native roots consider Crystal Hot Sauce from my hometown of Jefferson Parish.

While everything settles, get busy cooking a box and potful of Uncle Ben’s rice. A medium-size box of Uncle Ben’s Original Long Grain White Rice should do the trick

Finally, know that gumbo tastes better over time. So if you’ve time, let it sit for at least a hour or so.

Time to finish off the first bottle of wine and open another.

When you’re ready get a nice, rounded scoop of rice and serve the gumbo over it so it surrounds it like a moat. Season and spice to your taste. Rita liked to add a dash or file powder to hers.

Sidenote. If you really want to show off, have a couple of baguettes handy, slice, butter, maybe a bit of garlic powder and lightly toasted in the oven.

You’ll have enough for anywhere from six to ten servings, depending on the size of the serving. Rita’s mix usually lasted the better part of the week.

Enjoy! As they say in the Crescent City, “Laissez les bons temps roulez!”

Ingredients

2 lbs of shrimp

2 dozen oysters (medium size can)

½ dozen crabs (medium size can)

¾ oil (or, if you’re adventurous, lard!)

3 onions, chopped

4-5 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 6-oz. can of tomato paste

1 16 oz. can of whole or chopped tomatoes

1 ½ quart of seafood stock

2 cups of chopped okra

½ tsp. of thyme

1 tsp. of basil

4-5 bay leaves

½ tsp. of chili powder (use cayenne!)

½ cup of minced parsley

Dash(es) of Crystal/Tobasco hot sauce

1 stick of butter

https://youtu.be/eK4umRMJlrs (Justin Wilson)

January 8, 2023 No comments

Education: Red & Blue

Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash

When Republican Glen Youngkin was campaigning for governor of Virginia, I was teaching U.S. History & Government in Loudon and Fairfax County Public Schools. So, like many teachers in Virginia – particularly folks like me teaching social studies – I not only watched with interest but also experienced in real time Youngkin’s signature campaign issue: education.

It wasn’t that Virginia had poor primary, secondary, or higher education systems. Not really. When it comes to academics, Virginia’s schools are quite good. More about that later. No, Youngkin’s critique was more about ideology than academics. Among Youngkin’s complaints were that some Virginia schools (a) required students to wear masks during COVID (b) affirmed transgender rights and (c) taught “inherently divisive concepts” including “Critical Race Theory” or CRT.

(Side note. I’ve taught social studies in two different school systems. I’ve still not found anyone who teaches CRT!)

Since then, conservative Republicans have gone “all in” believing they have the high ground on a hot-button campaign issue that traditionally has favored Democrats. But their focus seems to be less about whether Johnny and Sally can read, write, and do math and more about schools’ social and administrative policies.

A good example: the methodology used by the conservative Heritage Foundation in its recently released an “Education Freedom Report Card.” Their grading rubric for evaluating a state’s public education gives scant weight to academic performance. Rather, their grading focuses on things like whether the state provided school choice (aka charter schools) and whether a school system practiced “indoctrination” (whatever that is) and critical race theory. There is a section on spending and budgeting. It gets a bit wonky, but suffice it to say that a state got dinged if the Heritage Foundation didn’t like the way they spent their money.

Based on the Heritage Foundation’s methodology the top performing state school systems were Florida, Arizona, and Idaho. The worst performing states were New Jersey, New York, and Maryland.

Florida #1
Arizona #2
Idaho #3
Indiana #4
South Dakota #5

New York #50
New Jersey #49
Maryland #48
Massachusetts #47
Connecticut #46

Heritage foundation state school report card map

I was stunned. I went back and reread those “top five” and “bottom five” states/ I even went to the Heritage Foundation’s color coded “best” and “worst” map.

I thought to myself, something’s not right.

Mind you I have nothing but profound and abiding love for the Deep South. I grew up there. I went to school there. But my home state of Louisiana in the “top ten” best school systems in the country? Neighboring Mississippi ranked #6^th? Really?

And then there is the Heritage Foundations “worst five.” Massachusetts? Maryland? You gotta be kidding me! I know the K-12 systems of both states. They are widely recognized as being quite good.

The more I thought about this, I couldn’t help but notice a curious thing. States that were heavily Republican scored well in the Heritage Foundation’s report card. States that are heavily Democratic scored poorly.

Hmmmm. So, I asked myself: but what about academic performance? You know. Those “ABCs” that schools are supposed to teach? I checked with the folks best known for assessing the quality of schools and academic performance: USNews.

As most folks know, US News is famous for its school rankings. While their methodology has its critics, in US News’ assessment of K-12 system they focus on the following:

How well did student perform on standardized test scores (math and reading)?
How many students made it through and graduated from high school
Did the school help the student become “college ready”? (SAT & ACT scores)
Was there a high level of enrollment in preschool programs?

In sum, US News methodology was based on a system’s academic performance, not its fiscal and social policies.

I looked at the US News list. The differences couldn’t be starker.

New Jersey, one of the five worst states ranked by the Heritage Foundation for “education freedom”, was the #1 school in terms of US News ranking of “academic performance.” Massachusetts, also in the bottom five of Heritage’s list, was ranked #2 by US News. Connecticut, another “bottom five” school in the Heritage Foundation’s report card, was ranked #3 best in the country by US News.

But wait, there’s more!

I thought about this new-found passion around the politics of education. Just for grins I decided to take both ranking systems – Heritage Foundation and US News – and put them next to a snapshot of who’s actually running the state school systems. That is, was the state’s education system being run by Republicans or Democrats.

Here’s what I found:

Bottom 10 States according to USNews ranking

You can interpret the data any way you like. I’ll leave it for you to decide. Regardless, K-12 education, is likely to remain a “hot button” issue for both Republicans and Democrats. But at some point, people will need to decide what is more important to them – ideology or academic performance.

July 24, 2022 No comments

Christian Nationalism: A Cautionary Tale

Recent Supreme Court decisions have set a spark to simmering dry tinder surrounding the issue of separation of church and state. As for one of the Court’s most controversial decisions, some go as far as to suggest that the Court was guided more by religious doctrine than by the U.S. Constitution. But at a broader level, the conservative Court and its decisions have emboldened the evangelical right.

Commonly described as “Christian nationalists,” they suggest that the line between church as state – at least when it involves the Christian church and the state of the United States – should not be that clearly separated.

To those, a lesson from history. When the Roman state and Christian church first merged, it was government that gained and the nascent but growing Jesus movement that was the big loser.

In 313, Emperor Constantine formally enacted the Edict of Milan legalizing Christianity. Later that century, on February 27, 380, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the imperial religion. Some Christian historians believe that these two acts were the worst thing to befall Christianity in its early history.

During its first two hundred or so years, the “Jesus movement” spread rapidly throughout the Roman empire. Operating outside the machinations of government even to the point of persecution, Christianity was a religion of choice, a religion of charity with a particular focus on caring for the poor, orphaned, widowed and otherwise vulnerable. Its attraction was not only in its unusual teachings – that the first will be last, that the poor are blessed and woe to the wealthy, a call for humility, to serve rather than be served, that God is love and that in Him we find forgiveness. Its attraction was also in its familial and communal network of care, kindness, and support.

Rome’s adoption of Christianity changed a lot of that and in many cases not for the better. Here are five to consider:

From familial to institutional and bureaucratic – Early Christians didn’t meet in churches; they met in each others’ homes. To be sure, much of that was because of persecution by various Roman emperors – from Nero to Trajan to Marcus Aurelius and finally Diocletian. But the move to legalize and later adopt Christianity as the imperial religion led to not just the allowance of public worship. It also led to created structures – both physical and social – that quickly eroded the original communal nature of Jesus followers. In many instances, Emperors seized infrastructure from other pagan faiths and “donated” them to the Christian church leaders. “Church” became a building, not a people. Church became a “dome” not a “home”.

From bottom up to top-down conversion – The establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the empire reversed the method of traditional Christian evangelism. In the early days, Christianity was a religion of choice, spread primarily among families and communities via personal appeals. As an imperial religion, that changed. Instead of being spread “bottom-up”, Christianity was spread from the top down. That is, newly conquered rulers were “convinced” by their new emperor to accept Christianity and those rulers, in turn, “convinced” their countrymen and women to do the same. Adoption of Christianity became more often a choice of politics and material gain rather than that of faith.

From diversity to rigid patriarchy – As suggested above, the early church was a loose affiliation of familial converts with widespread diversity and autonomy in the practice of their faith. To be sure, if these assemblies got out of line, they’d likely get a letter or two from Paul or other apostles and disciples. But even in their chiding, the apostles called for unity, not division. Again, association with the Roman government changed that. Over a short period of time during the 4^th and 5^th Centuries, four major patriarchies were established in Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople. Each developed their own doctrinal theory. Each competed for influence and dominance and worked to impose their doctrine on others. Bitter, vitriolic doctrinal schisms emerged over what some might consider arcane doctrinal issues including the Trinity and Christology. Bishops were ex-communicating each other right and left, East and West, North and South. Amidst all this, Roman emperors jockeyed amongst the various patriarchs not out of any attraction or personal belief but rather as a power grab, throwing their lot with whoever they thought would end up on top so they could preserve unity within the empire.

From apolitical to totally political – When responding to a question about taxes Jesus famously made the distinction between church and state. Jesus said “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s”. His meaning was clear – the two were very different. But with the Roman adoption of Christianity as the “preferred” and later the state religion, imperial and religious power became one and the same. During the late 4^th and throughout the 5^th and 6^th centuries, rendering unto Caesar and rendering unto God became one in the same.

From Godly to worldly – From its origins, Christianity was “otherworldly.” In John’s account, Jesus tells his followers that the reason people are upset with them is because they are “not of the world.” Later, Paul admonishes Christians to not be “conformed to this world” but to be “transformed” in mind and body. As an imperial religion, Christianity went from Godly and spiritual to worldly and carnal. Christianity went from being “not ‘of’ this world” to being a servant or slave to the world – specifically, the world of the Roman empire. Christianity became less about serving the poor, widowed, and orphaned and more about serving the Roman empire and its search for political predictability and stability.

All this should be a cautionary tale – both for Christians and others. As Father Mickiewicz, pastor of St. Mary’s parish in Oneonta, New York wrote:

“Emperors Constantine and Theodosius did Christianity no favors. They were the catalyst that caused the edgy Gospel message to be diluted — and, we have to ask, at what price? The price of the soul of Christianity?”

So be careful. History has a way of repeating itself.

Photo credit: Alastair Rae Creative Commons 2.o

June 27, 2022 No comments

Mr. Johnson’s Vocab Quiz

I just spent the better part of the 2021-22 school year with the students of Lake Braddock High School in Fairfax County, Virginia. I taught them about the U.S. Government, the American legal and court system, and current events. All three timely subjects. And I hope I helped some of our next generation of citizens to think critically, judiciously, and fairly through many of the important issues facing our society.

But as often happens, the teacher learns from his or her students. I know I learned a lot from mine.

One of many was bringing current my language and vocabulary skills. It all started when one day at the end of class, a student in the front row said, “You know Mr. Johnson … you’re a real girl boss.” I paused, not quite sure how to take the comment as I am neither a girl nor, for that matter, anyone’s boss. She assured me, it was a compliment. Others concurred. Indeed, a high compliment they claimed. I’m still not quite sure. The kids were pretty good at “playing” Mr. Johnson! All in good humor.

Clearly, I was behind and befuddled by the current nomenclature of GenZ. So my students came to the rescue! Together we devoted an entire whiteboard to it – that is, getting Mr. Johnson’s vocab up to snuff. You’ll see the last version above and I thought I’d share, knowing that many of you will likely know these things. It was all new – and often a bit odd – to this old guy.

If you go to class in a suit, you’ll likely be accused of having a nice drip. One morning I was told by a student that I was drippin’. I was informed this had nothing to do with liquids.
If you hear the word slay, don’t call 911 or go into active shooter drills. Rather it is someone telling you that you did something real cool.
Another student once told me the class was fire. See slay above. Don’t call 911.
Say less means that you’ve said enough. They’ve got it.
Rizz is something you want to have.
Speaking of, the opposite of shredded is swole. You want to be the former, not the latter.
It used to be you’d have a “crush” on someone. Dial that up a bit. Throw in some bit of the blues and a bucketload of hormones. Then you’re down bad with him or her.
Don’t get the above category confused with flicking up. I’m told “flicking up” is something those of all ages, genders, and ethnicities do often and is legal in all fifty states and even in most school districts. When a student first asked if I would “flick up” with them I was mortified. Stunned speechless … only to find out all they wanted was a selfie.
And finally, I learned that dumpy was not an adjective to describe a run-down home or apartment. Rather, it is a noun and something you may have. Specifically, a body part. Look it up.

I’ll leave you with one of my “goodbye” notes from a graduating senior. It read: “Thank you for being such a slay teacher and flicking up w/ me in class, you are a real G!”

Who knew? Not this old guy.

Thanks, students of Lake Braddock! You taught your teacher well.

May 31, 2021 No comments

Jesus, Critical Race Theory, and American Exceptionalism

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I ran through several titles for this post. This is what I ended up with.

It is not quite as provocative as a bunch of others I thought about. Like “Jesus would support critical race theory. Or “American exceptionalism is unchristian.” But I figured titles along those lines would unnecessarily antagonize. Lord knows we have enough of all of that.

But here’s the nub of the issue. Critical race theory (CRT), which has been around for decades and never raised much of a fuss, has all of a sudden set conservatives in an uproar. The Heritage Institute claims that “when followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based.” Evangelical pastors and their churches have also been set ablaze. In pulpits and bylines across America, they are supporting states’ efforts to ban mention of CRT in public education. Scholars and theologians from the Southern Baptist Convention claim that CRT is “unbiblical” and inconsistent with Christianity. Others have called it “something of a Christian heresy.”

So what exactly is CRT? If you listen to a lot of conservatives or evangelicals you’d think it is the coming of the anti-Christ – a humanist theology seeking to replace Judeo-Christian values. But that’s simply not true. In one of the most informed and balanced pieces I’ve read on CRT, Education Week’s associate editor, Steve Sawchuck, describes CRT this way:

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

That’s it. Racism creeps into legal systems and policies. This is a surprise?

No, CRT is not some Marxist or Satanic plot. CRT is a description, of what is and less of a prescription of what to do about it. CRT merely says that racism goes beyond individuals and eventually becomes systemic. That is because people construct societies, and in the process of constructing those societies people bring with them their individual biases and prejudices. These biases and prejudices infect and shape the institutions and societies people create.

Makes perfect sense to me.

It also strikes me as consistent with what I know of Jesus’ teachings. Let’s start with the concept of sin and racism.

Man’s sinful nature isn’t a new concept. It has been a central theme of Christian theology since – well – since the beginning. St. Paul. Augustine. Martin Luther. Calvin. All saw Jesus as the means to escape an inherently grim human condition. By the time this got to Calvin, he went so far as to describe our condition – that is, the condition of all human beings – as that of “total depravity.”

My interpretation of scripture doesn’t go that far. The total depravity part, that is. But I find the concept of “sin” and “sinner” experientially relevant. That is, I see it (sin) in myself and others. And our recognition and repentance of what constitutes these bad thoughts and behaviors – are central to Jesus’ teaching. When I was growing up in church, I was encouraged to publicly confess not only that I am a sinner but that my “sin” thing was largely an incurable condition. That while I should seek God’s help and guidance to overcome it, I’m sorta stuck with it. Sin, that is. And I did so because deep inside me I know that was a pretty good description of me and folks around me – even those that I admired. But Jesus provides hope because as Paul wrote, “while we were yet sinners” he sacrificed his life for ours.

So here’s the question: If Christians are ok with standing up and saying “I’m a sinner” why do they freak out when someone asks them to confess “I’m a racist”? Surely racism falls into the “sin” bucket. What makes it so hard for Christians to accept the reality of our own prejudice?

I think beneath the religious panic is political mythology.

Could it be that the real reason for the freak out of CRT is that it punctures the balloon of American exceptionalism? That CRT somehow makes Americans and American history look less like a Marvel Superhero and – well – more “human.” That somehow makes CRT unpatriotic. It doesn’t quite fit into Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” Bible!

Any (good) student of U.S. history knows that Americans’ self-perceived “exceptionalism” has been part of our story since the colonies. It has been linked to our Puritan or Christian “specialness.” Winthrop had his “City on a Hill.” Jacksonian Democrats and Teddy Roosevelt had John O’Sullivan’s Christian-based Manifest Destiny. Ronald Reagan claimed America as “set aside as a promised land.” America is exceptional. Perhaps by extension, God has a special thing for the U.S.A.

Here’s the problem. I’m not sure Jesus would agree with this either.

Whatever happened to “red, and yellow, black, and white … they are precious in his sight”? It wasn’t just the American children that Jesus loved. As I remember it, it was the “children of the world.” And it’s a big world out there.

Sadly, throughout American history, legitimate pride and patriotism have often fallen prey to nativism, imperialism and … you got it! … a sense of (white) American superiority. Sometimes it was even Christian superiority. Sometimes it was even the superiority of some types of Christianity (Protestantism) over other types of Christianity (Catholics). Go back to your U.S. history books and read about the “No Nothing Party.” Not sure how that aligns with Jesus’ views on the beauty of humility and the ugliness of pride. Humility was high on the “blessed” list in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Last I read in the books of Matthew and Luke, exceptionalism didn’t make the cut.

It reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It was the story of two people praying. The Pharisee was in the front of the church and thought pretty highly of himself. His prayer was – literally – “God, I thank you that I am not like other people.” He went on to say that he was especially thankful that God made him better than the scum tax collector in the back of the room. Sorta sounds a lot like exceptionalism to me. A bit like “I’m thankful God, you made me an American and not one of those awful socialist wussy Dutch, Danish or Swedish types. Jesus wasn’t too happy with the Pharisee. Rather, Jesus sided with the tax collector – the guy in the back of the room who didn’t claim to be better than anyone. He simply asked God “to have mercy upon me, a sinner.”

[Sidenote: I also think that Jesus would likely challenge anyone who makes the claim that “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” or “they don’t have a racist bone in their body.” I do. You do. They do. We just need to deal with it.]

Finally, let’s put Jesus and Christian theology to the side for a moment, and just talk about American history. Facts. Truth. Stuff that actually happened.

I don’t want to pick on any one state but I find it ironic (that’s the nicest word I can come up with) that one of the biggest opponents of CRT is Senator Cotton from Arkansas. Arkansas is the state where, in 1957, following the landmark ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the Governor infamously called out the National Guard to maintain segregation of white students from black students in public schools. That policy – the segregation of white and black communities – had been in place in the state of Arkansas and much of the nation for over 60 years or since Reconstruction. It was state law. It was institutionalized racism. Systemic racism. Whatever the label, racism was the rule of law. Add to that the fact that the state of Arkansas was admitted to the Union in 1836 precisely because it was a “slave” state. Its admission as the 25^th state was meant to preserve the balance of slave vs. free states in the Union. Look at it this way. Arkansas has been a state for approximately 185 years, and for approximately two-thirds of its history it was either a slave state or a segregationist state.

Are we to simply ignore the two-thirds of Arkansas’ history? Pretend that race wasn’t an issue? Pretend that race still isn’t an issue? In Arkansas and every other state in the Union?

CRT is a theory. It is not a religion, it is not a government, it is not a way of life. It is just a theory “which dates back to the 1970s, [and] holds that racism is systemic and embedded in policies rather than just perpetuated by bigoted people, creating barriers for people of color in myriad spheres of life.”

Makes sense to me. Critical race theory is not a radical concept. It is historically accurate. And based on my read of the Bible, it is quite in keeping with what Jesus and his disciples taught.

May 13, 2021 No comments

Choices

Photo by Oziel Gómez on Unsplash

We have them. At least some of the time.

But are we the result of our choices?

I ask because I’m finishing up a course for high school teachers on what is called “The Economic Way of Thinking.” It didn’t take long for me to learn that it was mainly a course on how to teach or infuse history with the benefits of free-market, capitalism. Business=good. Government=bad.

A lot of their logic rests on the premise of choice. Indeed, the very first principle taught as part of the course was: People choose, and individual choices are the source of social outcomes.

Now I’m a big believer in personal responsibility. But when I read this I thought to myself, “there’s some amiss here.” It made everything sound so simple. Too simple. You choose and from those choices you make, stuff happens. Some good stuff. Some bad stuff. But whatever stuff it is, it is all the result of your choices.

As I read this decidedly conservative curriculum the more I wondered: “how much choice do people really have?”

Probably less than one might think.

There are a lot of things about which we have no choice. I didn’t get to choose my gender, ethnicity, or my race (I’m male and very white). I didn’t get to choose whether my parents had good or bad parenting skills (I got very lucky on this one!). I didn’t get to choose my lower-middle-class neighborhood outside of New Orleans (not too dangerous but sometimes sketchy). And I certainly didn’t get to choose my DNA or “natural talents” (missed out on most of those).

Now one might say that these don’t matter much. That regardless of whatever combination of the above factors – gender, race, parenting, neighborhood, genes, talent – regardless of any of that, each person gets to “shape” their own destiny.

True in theory. But “conditions” shape “choices.” The latter makes the former either much easier or much more challenging. And for every story about a down-and-out, challenged individual who through pluck and effort made something out of themselves, I can probably identify dozens who made the same effort, worked just as hard, but found themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong boss and under the wrong circumstances.

History is about choices. But history is also about circumstances and the chances and choices they afford. It is good, I believe, to recognize that because of their circumstances, some have much better choices – and therefore much better chances – than others.

I’m reminded of the exchange between reporter Sander Vanocur of NBC News and Dr. Martin Luther King in May 1967. Here’s the full interview posted by Josh Dance:

NBC correspondent Sander Vanocur:

What is it about the negro I mean every other group that came as an immigrant somehow? Not easily, but somehow got around it. Is it just the fact that Negroes are Black?

Martin Luther King:

“White America must see, that no other ethnic group has been a slave on American soil. That is one thing that other immigrant groups haven’t had to face.

The other thing is that the color, became a stigma. American society made the Negroes color a stigma. America freed the slaves in 1863, through the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, but gave the slaves no land, and nothing in reality. And as a matter of fact, to get started on.

At the same time, America was giving away, millions of acres of land in the west and the Midwest. Which meant that there was a willingness to give the white peasants from Europe an economic base, and yet it refused to give its black peasants from Africa, who came here involuntarily in chains and had worked free for two hundred and forty-four years, any kind of economic base.

And so emancipation for the Negro was really freedom to hunger. It was freedom to the winds and rains of Heaven. It was freedom without food to eat or land to cultivate and therefore was freedom and famine at the same time.

And when white Americans tell the Negro to “’lift himself by his own bootstraps’, they don’t, oh, they don’t look over the legacy of slavery and segregation. I believe we ought to do all we can and seek to lift ourselves by our own bootstraps, but it’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.

And many Negroes by the thousands and millions have been left bootless as a result of all of these years of Oppression and as a result of a society that deliberately made his color a stigma and something worthless and degrading.”

So in my lesson plans, I’ll include the “economic way of thinking” and give a tip of the hat to Adam Smith and free-market enterprise.

But when it comes to choices and circumstances … I’ll be sure to include Dr. King’s perspective as well.

January 28, 2021 No comments

The Beauty of Doubt

Almost four years ago to the day, I wrote a piece titled “Truth takes a beating …” In it, I lamented the rise of “fake news” and the new category of “alternative facts.”

Not much has changed. If anything, things have gotten worse. Truth finds itself more under assault than ever before. That said, I still have faith that while truth “might lose a battle or two, it always wins the war.”

Over the years there has been another casualty. And that is the vilification of doubt: the belief that doubt is weakness, that doubt is unprincipled, that doubt is evil.

I believe in the beauty of doubt. I’ll go one better. I believe in a God that embraces and works through and with our doubt.

Consider this. In the book of Matthew, Jesus said that “among those born of women there is no one greater than John the Baptist.” Wow. That is a pretty high complement from the Son of God. Yet only a few pages later in Matthew’s same account, this same “no one greater than John” guy asks whether Jesus is “the one?” That is, he doubts.

He asks through his buddies “are you the One or should we be waiting for another?” This is John the Baptist – the same John who baptized Jesus in the River Jordan, the same John who heard God’s voice, the same John who saw the “Spirit descending like a dove.” Still, despite ALL that, John had doubts.

I wonder. Could John’s doubts have been one reason Jesus considered him so great?

I believe there is beauty in doubt. Doubt elicits the winsome qualities of humility, modesty, and open-mindedness. By contrast, the absence of doubt brings out ugly elements of cocksure self-righteousness.

I believe there is community in doubt. Doubt’s questioning, it’s hesitancy, encourages re-examination, inclusion, openness. Doubt’s absence invites isolation, segregation, and discrimination.

Finally, I believe there is wisdom in doubt. Doubt keeps our minds open, inquisitive, wondering. Without it, there is no exploration, no inquisitiveness, no investigation.

To be clear, I’m not suggesting that we not stand firm in our convictions – that we not stand up and speak out in defense of the beliefs, principles, and morals we hold dear. No. Not at all. Stand tall. Stand strong.

Rather, I’d say we follow St. Peter’s advice to “always be ready to give a logical defense” of our faith but to do so “courteously and respectfully.” Indeed, other Greek translations of that last phrase admonish us to do so “with meekness and fear.”

Not quite, doubt, but close.

August 3, 2020 1 Comment

A Necessary Evil?

Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, 1819

Conservative Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas is proposing national legislation that would prohibit Federal funds to any teacher, school or school district that uses content from the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times 1619 Project.

The 1619 Project isn’t without its critics. The folks at the conservative Manhattan Project aren’t fans. But by my count, no one gets it 100 percent right. Not the 1619 Project, but in this case, certainly not Senator Cotton.

In defending his “defunding” of anyone associated with the 1619 Project, Mr. Cotton said this:

“We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”

According to these same reports, Cotton claimed that instead of portraying America as “an irredeemably corrupt, rotten and racist country,” the nation should be viewed “as an imperfect and flawed land, but the greatest and noblest country in the history of mankind.”

There’s a whole lot wrong about Senator Cotton’s comments. Perhaps he was having a moment. I’ve said a lot of stupid things in my life and most of them – fortunately – were not to a reporter. But there are many claims here worth a historian’s review.

One thing to start. Lincoln was a great president – some would argue our greatest – but he was not a Founding Father.

To be sure, a fair and complete read of Lincoln’s history and record put him clearly in the anti-slavery camp. But when Lincoln unilaterally canceled emancipation proclamations by his generals, and then the following year signed the 1862 Confiscation Act that allowed the confiscation of rebel slaves because they were … well … “property,” abolitionist Horace Greely challenged the president to make clear his position on the abolition of slavery. Lincoln famously replied:

“…If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that….”

Lincoln’s first duty was to the union, not the abolition of slavery.

But the phrase by Sen. Cotton that has (or had) everyone talking about, was his claim that the Founding Fathers felt that slavery was a “necessary evil upon which the union was built.”

From a historians’ perspective, there are quite a few problems with this one too. First, the Founding Fathers were not a monolith. They were different people with very different perspectives on a host of issues, slavery among them. Some might suggest that the few areas of agreement among them were Enlightenment ideals, deism, and independence from the King and parliament.

There was considerable diversity of opinion over the institution of slavery – from staunch abolitionists (Adams, Hamilton) to guilt-ridden patriots (Jefferson, Washington) to straight-up racists (Virginia’s Edmund Randolph and Georgia’s James Jackson).

As historian Stephen Ambrose has noted, of the nine presidents who owned slaves, only one, George Washington, freed his. And of course there’s Jefferson, who penned the immortal “these truths are self-evident, that all men are created equal.” But neither Jefferson nor the rest of our Founding Fathers put that into practice. Writes Amrose:

“Jefferson, like all slaveholders and many other white members of American society, regarded Negroes as inferior, childlike, untrustworthy and, of course, as property. Jefferson, the genius of politics, could see no way for African-Americans to live in society as free people. He embraced the worst forms of racism to justify slavery.”

It would be hard to make the claim that there was a wide-spread consensus amongst the Founding Fathers that slavery was either “necessary” or “evil.” It would be easier to make the case that many (if not most) of the Founding Fathers saw slavery not as “necessary” but “normal.” Some in the paternalistic sense – that whites had the obligation to lift blacks out of their backward condition. Some, like Jefferson, in the very racist sense – that whites were inherently and genetically superior to blacks.

Perhaps the best “spin” that one could put on the Founding Fathers and slavery was their overall tolerance of it. Or perhaps one could use the word that historian Joseph Lewis used to describe the slavery debate amongst the revolutionary generation in is his Pulitzer-prize winning book, “Founding Brothers.” He titled that chapter of his book, “The Silence.”

Many of the Founding Fathers, knew the practice of slavery was evil but found it politically expedient to ignore and chose to pass the responsibility on to the next generation of Americans. And, as noted, aside from Washington this guilt did not drive them to free the hundreds and thousands of slaves they owned. Nor did it stop them from taking advantage of their position as slaveholders.

[Note that it did not stop Jefferson from having a long-term sexual relationship with his slave Sally Hemmings which most historians believe began when Ms. Hemmings was only 14 years old. I’m sure most would put that in the ‘evil’ category but doubt anyone would argue it ‘necessary.’]

Was slavery “necessary”? Not economically. At least not in broadestr sense. The move by farmers and plantation owners from indentured servitude to slave labor helped large agribusinesses but it was a very bad deal for the working poor and lower-middle class.

Moreover, the acceleration of the slave trade came well after the U.S. independence and establishment of the U.S. Constitution. In that sense, the result of the Founding Fathers’ work was not to put slavery on the path to extinction, but rather on a path to spectacular growth. In 1790, three years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, there were approximately 650,000 slaves in the United States. Just thirty years or approximately one generation later, that number doubled to 1.5 million. In another thirty years and on the eve of the Civil War in 1850, the number doubled again to 3 million. Enslaved people were not necessary for American independence. But many wealth landowners in the south felt they were essential for their own economic development and the sale of cotton and other agricultural goods.

I guess one can argue that the acceptance of the heinous practice of slavery perhaps was necessary to get agreement amongst the thirteen colonies to support the nation’s rebellion against the British. Most specifically, it was a compromise to seal support from South Carolina, Georgia, and especially the nation’s largest state – Virginia. In that, it was less of a “necessity” and more a moral and ethical compromise – an acceptance of evil to ‘get the job done.’

The big problem with Senator Cotton’s position is one could read from his (wrong) interpretation of history that slavery was a reasonable “price to be paid” for the establishment of our union. It wasn’t and needn’t have been. Put more directly, it shouldn’t have been. And to believe so would be to pervert American ideas of democracy to an anti-democratic “ends justify the means” ideology – something more appropriate for Chairman Mao than General Washington.

The ultimate irony is that many African Americans – those who suffered from slavery and segregation – likely agree with one thing Senator Cotton said about the U.S. That the U.S. is “imperfect and flawed land, but the greatest and noblest country in the history of mankind.” Indeed, Nikole Hanna-Jones opens her 1619 essay noting that her father, a military veteran, proudly flew the U.S. flag outside their small home in rural Iowa despite all the hardships he had faced throughout his life as a black man.

You don’t have to agree with everything said or written in The New York Times 1619 Project. But slavery was a defining element of our first one hundred years of history. It was evil. It wasn’t necessary. And even after slavery’s official demise, its legacy of racism and white supremacy left a heavy imprint on our next one hundred years. And it remains with us today.

Facing and wrestling with the hard truth of our history is not anti-American. It is another form of patriotism.