Image is Tree Of Life, by Gustav Klimt

I am hearing different terms that describe much of what is happening in this time of unprecedented tolerance of harmful behavior from people who claim the right to lead or be in authority. 

One term is “Normalization.”

There has been normalization of rhetoric that condemns and dehumanizes entire groups of people, that demonizes anyone who does not align with one’s ideology, that inflames and encourages violence, that claims the right to abuse systems that were designed to benefit all and instead use them to destroy, threaten and eliminate opposition or variation.

There was a large event in Madison Square Garden last night, October 27, that was intentionally designed to echo an event from 1939, when there was a blatant attempt to legitimize the Nazi movement in the U.S. The event last night used rhetoric from that movement, and built on the “Normalization” of the dangerous rhetoric of extremist movement. 

For far too long, many have dismissed language, behavior, and actions that create and build on fear, trying to justify a call for people to turn against their own neighbors, to willingly call for creation of concentration camps, to celebrate the danger to the lives and health of women all for the sake of wanting more births (regardless of needs), or demand the ability to deny the existence and care of anyone who doesn’t conform to one’s comfortably narrow view of gender. 

It has become normal for people who claim to be Christian to demand denying the stranger, starving the hungry, and turning away the homeless. It has become normal for people who claim to be patriotic to take up arms to violently attempt to overthrow the constitution. It has become normal for people who claim the covenant to mourn with those who mourn, comfort those who stand in need of comfort, and bear one another’s burdens, to somehow idolize a convicted felon, who led a violent attempted coup which endangered his own, who sexually assaulted women and bragged about it, who condemns and demeans those who sacrifice everything for this country while aiding and abetting those who would overthrow it, who pushes policies that will increase poverty while enriching the wealthy, who openly promises to be a dictator regardless of the vote, who represents all the dangerous behaviors about which our sacred text warns us.

I find myself turning to different rhetoric.

“Not in my house.”

When I realize that things are happening in my spaces, in my communities, in my country that completely threaten and deny the ability to exist, to belong, and to experience God in relationship and community with all, it is time to say “Not in my house” just as clearly as I would if someone were entering me home and imposing intolerable, un-Godlike behavior there (We are approaching the possibility that this could happen here, just as it did with the Third Reich).

Not in my house.

Some have been saying or living this at the first sign that the world we are committed to creating is threatened. Some speak up, and take action, even at great risk, to prevent the normalization of dangerous movements. 

Some are just beginning to realize that they can no longer be casual about what they are seeing or hearing. They can no longer assume that things will somehow work out, and the system will prevent things from being unchecked. 

Some were not willing to see how close we have come to losing all representation or autonomy. 

Some are just realizing they can’t wait for more specific direction from leaders about how important it is to be informed and involved citizens.

Some are having a hard time leaving the allegorical garden, where they know exactly what to do, and where they don’t have to be responsible or figure things out in complex ways, or exercise wisdom, and they know they can blame someone else when things don’t work out. It is frustrating, but I can’t force people to step away from that kind of perceived comfort and safety, and feel drawn toward wisdom and greater life, as Mother Eve was.

She is the great archetype for all of us for realizing when things cannot continue this way, even if they seem comfortable and predictable. Something pulled her forward towards wisdom, towards creating a world that was expansive and which inspired new life. She is the figure we are asked to follow, who could no longer normalize a limited existence of no responsibility, no difference, no variation. Even though there would be unknowns and opposition to navigate. She is my example of saying, “No more. Not in my house”.

I don’t wait for permission to follow the example of our great hero, Eve. It is mine to realize the call to see that “my house” is much larger than my relatively safe dwelling. It is much bigger than my predictable garden. My house is my existence, and my existence is in relationship with all existence. What happens to any, happens to all. Christ teaches me, when He revealed the At-One-Ment, that the only way to connect with God is to connect with all, to experience complete one-ness with all. It is beyond language, yet I am called to seek and practice it. It is not easy, or comfortable, yet it is overwhelmingly transformative. 

It becomes less and less tolerable to normalize the attempts of those who refuse to allow connection and one-ness in their lives and the world which asks them to have room for all to exist and belong. At some point, it will become dangerous for everyone to exist in a world where that is normalized.

Not in my house.

The only world which calls me to live completely is the one God, my Heavenly Parents offered, and invited me into greater life and deeper breath. It involves growing towards the awareness that we all belong, that we are all known and loved, that God’s love for us is great enough to have room for all. There is no room in the house of God for hate, or fear of difference. There is no room for deportation, or idolizing abuse, or normalizing hate. 

I could keep trying to limit my house to areas of supposed safety, and limited involvement. But that would require denying Christ’s call to be At-One. My activism is inspired by Christ’s invitation to one-ness.(Please see my related blogpost, “Jesus Wants Me For An Activist“) Even when it confronts me, challenges me, it has the possibility of transforming me, and transforming the world. 

It is time to say, “Not in my house”, and to create a world where one-ness, not hate, is normalized.