Editor’s Note: Guest contributor Mark Docken today explores the attacks on democracy from the lens of community, faith and spiritual practices, and freedom. He explores the deeper roots of our divisiveness and need to resist.” No Kings” fights for both political and spiritual freedom. 

After the “No Kings” rally in DC, my wife and I stopped for a cup of coffee before we moved on to the Light the Night rally for Blood Cancers United. As we were outside reading, sipping our coffee, a young man came up to me and asked what I was reading. It so happened that I was reading a book on spiritual transformation. He was an inquisitive and cordial man of 23 and he mentioned that he had been reading Søren Kierkegaard, who has much to say about the human spirit. But he also mentioned that he was an atheist, but presumed I was a Christian. We soon moved on to the No Kings rally and the threat to democracy it was trying to counter. He then stated that he was not so much in favor of democracy. He didn’t think the masses could be trusted to govern themselves well. 

I was taken aback at this. I had never talked with someone who blatantly didn’t favor democracy and expressed that opinion as if it was not controversial. After a short debate on that topic, I asked what he planned to do after college. He said he wanted to make a lot of money.

Upon reflecting on this conversation, I began to wonder how many in our country and world are moving in those same directions. I would have to admit that in this young man’s lifetime he probably has not been impressed with how democracy works. And I have not been impressed with how many people do not educate themselves on the issues.  It seems that many people are more concerned with the protection of their tribe and its narrow cultural values, than they are about democracy and freedom. Others seem to just want to make money and be comfortable.

This, in turn, caused me to remember the Grand Inquisitor in Tolstoy’s “The Brothers Karamazov.” The Grand Inquisitor has Jesus on trial and is claiming that people do not want the freedom he offers so the Church takes it away and replaces it with promises of certainty and security. He says, “in the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, make us your slaves, but feed us…Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born.”

Is this where we are at politically in our country? Could it be, that more and more people are willing to give up political freedom and democracy, if in exchange, their tribe is secure, their prejudices are confirmed, and their happiness can be promised at the expense of those “less deserving.”  

If so, how do we reverse this trend?

Could it be that what will save political democracy and freedom is not political institutions, not our favorite politician, not mass rallies, but a renewal of spiritual freedom?   Could it be that political democracy and freedom is rooted in a spiritual freedom, a nurturing of the soul, the lifting up of the image of God in us all?  Could it be that the importance of democracy and political freedom has been lost because the only religious, audible voice in the public square is that which is the same as the Grand Inquisitor? A voice that is not about nurturing the freedom of the soul, and the freedom of love, but instead is the voice of a Christian nationalism that is a form of bondage to the law. It’s a voice that focuses more on the values of the marketplace than on the fruits of the Spirit.  It focuses more on enforcement of a certain narrow interpretation of morals, instead of the freedom to follow the leading of the Spirit toward greater self-expression, greater inclusive community, toward the more expansive morality of feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, clothing the naked, caring for the sick. 

Could it be that the voice spoken on behalf of freedom, community, human dignity, and compassion became divorced from its rootedness in spiritual freedom, God’s beloved community, and God’s suffering love for God’s creation? Could it be that the progressive movement in its zeal to separate church and state, separated spiritual freedom from civic freedom, and thus losing its depth, its passion, its moorings, and yes, even its appeal.

At this last “No Kings” rally in Washington, D.C., I was heartened (and a bit surprised) that the speakers began with several religious leaders walking on stage, led by Delonte Gholston, the lead pastor at Peace Fellowship Church, who cited the story from the book of Danial, about not bowing down to false kings. 

May we be filled with more of this spiritual, life-giving breath.  May the Spirit blow into our society a love for freedom and a compassion for others. May we bring that Spirit into the public arena with passion and humility.