Rudy Barnes, Jr., August 2, 2025
Hope that a Constitutional democracy can one day rise “phoenix like” as an altruistic democracy from the wreckage of the immoral Trump regime is possible, but not a certainty. As a pastor, I frequently used The Hymn of Promise to promote the hope, though faith, that the death of loved ones is not the end but a new spiritual beginning. The S.C. motto, While I breathe I hope, is a secular version of that hope.
In ancient folklore the majestic Phoenix symbolizes the hope that something good can rise out of its ashes: “Ancient legend paints a picture of a magical bird, radiant and shimmering, which lives for several hundred years before it dies by bursting into flames. It is then reborn from the ashes, to start a new, long life. So powerful is the symbolism that it is a motif and image that is still used commonly today in popular culture and folklore.”
Like European colonial regimes of the 18th and 19th centuries. Religion is not necessary, but altruistic morality is essential to the political legitimacy needed for a viable democracy; and former colonial regimes in Europe have demonstrated that even morally corrupt democracies can be redeemed from slavery and immorality.
Over its corrupt 2,000 year history, the church has failed to be a good steward of altruistic morality in democracy. In America white Christians elected Trump twice as their President. Thomas Jefferson was a Deist and a Founding Father of America who considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.” Jesus was a universalist. He was not even a Christian, but a maverick Jew.
The universal teachings of Jesus are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves. It’s taken from the Hebrew Bible, was taught by Jesus, and has been accepted by many Muslims as a common word of faith. Sadly most Jews, Christians and Muslims have ignored the moral imperative to provide for the common good.
Can people in the world’s democracies subordinate their greed, materialism and hedonism to provide for the common good? History teaches that human depravity has trumped altruistic morality in all of the world’s democracies; but in America the sacrifice of health care and social security to provide tax relief for the wealthy by Trump and his Republican Party could change political priorities.
It’s highly unlikely that the Trump regime will support altruistic moral policies that can save America from itself. Changes in America’s moral priorities to provide for the common good will require a dramatic change in America’s current politics, and that won’t happen unless and until voters elect new political leaders who reverse Trump’s current immoral politics in the national elections of 2026 and 2028. Those elections are the only polls that will count.
Notes:
The Hymn of Promise by Natalie Sleeth is at page 707 of the United Methodist Hymnal:
In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree; In cocoons, a hidden promise; butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody; there’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me. From the past will come the future, what it holds a mystery, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.
In our end is our beginning , in our time infinity; In our doubt there is believing, in our life eternity. In our death, a resurrection, at the last a victory, Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see
On the folklore legend of the Phoenix rising from its ashes, see Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(mythology).
On the dismal state of American politics with a looming crisis on social security and health care, see Warren Buffett’s longtime Social Security warning is coming to fruition, with retirees facing drastic cuts based on Trump’s “big and beautiful bill” giving tax breaks to the wealthy, see https://fortune.com/2025/07/28/when-will-social-security-run-out-insolvent-warren-buffett-crfb.
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