'We Have Seen the Enemy...And They is Us.'

There we were, enjoying smorgasbord delicacies at the 88th annual meeting of the Inter Seminary Faculties Union at Swedish North Park Theological Seminary. This serves as the only festive occasion of the year at which we can exchange pleasantries with some of our colleagues of the faculties and staffs of some 16 theological institutions in the Chicago area. The distinguished speaker for the occasion was suave, bow-tied Albert Jenner, Esquire, crack Chicago trial counsel, who recently had gained notoriety as one of the main actors in the world-shaking drama in high places. Beginning as the Republican counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, he had bared his integrity in endorsing the devastating summary of special counsel, John Doar, making it necessary for the demoralized minority to replace Jenner.

Through it all Jenner emerged as one with a new concern for morality. He was eager to share with those whom he regards to represent the bulwark and hopes of preservation of the moral values of our society. Our ovations were not only indicative of the usual deference theologians extend to other professions, but also of the honor we wished to bestow on a fellow citizen who had helped restore our faith in the system. We felt good as he traced historically the American dream for the preservations of liberties. We became insiders to the damning evidence about wickedness in high places.

Nevertheless, I began to experience discomfort as irrepressible questions popped into my mind. Jerry Voorhis (one of Richard Nixon’s first congressional opponents) had been a hero of mine in Student Christian Movement days. He had shared his Christian idealism with us in conferences. Confident that he was not a communist, I was aware at the time that he was sent home from Congress through the red-baiting deceptive campaign engineered by Nixon. Since the tactics of subsequent libelous campaigns for senator and governor have for so long been a part of the public record, I wondered how someone as honest and intelligent as Jenner could have supported Nixon so enthusiastically as late as 1972. As Jenner substantiated the fact that Nixon had consistently lied on each and every occasion he spoke to the American public on Watergate, I must confess I became somewhat patronizing. I had recognized this about the statements concerning Vietnam long before. When the offices of peace organizations were broken into and the files were destroyed, I could not remember voices being raised by lawyers like the Jenners or politicians like the Goldwaters.

Nevertheless, these issues would have been digested along with several varieties of fish were it not for what turned out to be the shocker of the evening: the extent to which Jenner named Nixon as the evil one. Nixon was a crook, liar, immoral, cynical, irresponsible, power-hungry, amoral, and completely self-centered. Our system is basically good. The FBI and CIA are sound organizations. Our tax structure is fair. Our nation was greatly imperiled, however, because these institutions were for a time controlled by an evil man. Many, no doubt, were comforted in going out into the night air with the assurance that since Nixon had been expurgated, we are saved. Our task must be one of reviving the kind of preaching that will produce fewer Nixons and more Jenners.

However, my mind quickly flashed to the late '60s when I was often on the streets in Washington and in Chicago with that motley assemblage often referred to as the “movement.” Chants came back to me such as “L.B.J. how many kids have you killed today?” I remembered how many there were on the streets who believed that if we could only get rid of L.B.J., things would be all right. Later, for many, it was Tricky Dick. It was true that consciousness was raised. Myriads of discussions echoed: “But if you were president, you would be doing the same thing. It’s the system that’s bad.” The story of changing lifestyles and strategies for many reflected the pilgrimage from the angry charge, “He’s the one!” to the oft-quoted confession of Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.” It was truly a shocker to hear from this conservative Republican a replay of what I had heard so often from the naive contingents of the movement. Perhaps, however, this might be but the beginning of a radicalization process for our distinguished guest.

I am willing to allow Nixon to have been the devil if we view him as having been our corporate personality reflective of the more glaring sins we commit together. In this context I can affirm a personal devil in the sense that such evil impinges on each one of us in extremely personal ways. But I feel it to be dangerous to so singularize the personal as to offer a scapegoat devil, whom if exorcised from our common life, will result in the restoration of our political health. Jenner’s sharing embodied too much the mood and theology of the recent controversial celluloid, "The Exorcist." If we can objectify and separate evil, we can perhaps discover ways to control and manipulate it.

On the other hand, if we focus too exclusively on the collective view of evil, all sense of personal responsibility would be eliminated. There are persons in office who are worse than the collective consciousness of those they represent. Individuals do need to be held accountable. Therefore, I am glad for the impeachment process and the recent preoccupation with personal morality for those mantled with public responsibility. From this standpoint exorcists like Jenner still deserve our praise.

But we must not let such divert us from the consideration of more basic issues. We must still be about the often lonely task of proclaiming the unpopular message which calls the nation to repentance. The media avoids attacking the pride of the people by honestly speaking of having lost the war, a fact very evident if one compares the territory controlled by the other side compared with the situation at the time of the beginning of our massive presence. There seems to be a conspiracy to keep from our consciousness the fact that the Vietnam war only continues due to our continual priming the pump to keep alive an inefficient military operation and a corrupt regime. We produce tomes about inflation without mentioning probably the prime causal factor, namely, our pouring billions down the drain in Southeast Asia.

Even the Christian Century editorially chastised McGovern for offending Middle America by naming the Vietnam War as immoral instead of a bad mistake. As a people we are probably not ready to repent of the glaring revelations of our imperialism in Chile because we like the much lower prices paid for bananas as compared with fruit marketed by our own kin. At the gut level we vote for the Nixons, past, present, and future because of our unrepentant racism. We applaud détente with Russia (which in reality turns out to be a planned escalation of the arms race by the big powers) because we are fearful that there would be even fewer jobs with the end of the arms race. And we opposed the nomination of those like the Rockefellers more out of jealousy concerning the ability of the super-rich to pass out favors than out of concern for the struggles for justice of the people in Latin America.

With the overpowering sense of guilt in many church, movement, and counter-culture circles, there is a great need for the continuing proclamation of grace. With the feeling of despair which is so prevalent, there is a need for signs and happenings around which we can begin to participate in a bit of God’s peace, love, and justice. Varieties of the theology of hope are still essential. We need to maneuver around and through our collective self-interests. Nevertheless, there is still a need for an accurate, even if unpopular, analysis of what is basically wrong, one which acknowledges a devil much more corporate than the one or few bad guy analyses of either the left or the right.

When this article appeared, Dale W. Brown was professor of Christian Theology at Bethany Theological Seminary, a former moderator of the Church of the Brethren, and a Post-American contributing editor.