To conclude this series exploring quotes that make up the foundational ethos of the mission, I want to highlight two, bringing the last two journal entries in this series into one.
Speaking of her time leading the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman said this:
“I never ran my train off the tracks and I never lost a passenger.”
What’s inspiring to me about this statement is that Harriet’s leadership included politics, civil rights, forward progress, the human experience as it should be, severe personal trauma, contemplative faith, leading teams—and physical endurance.
I started Liberatus in 2015 partly because it’s ambiguous what exactly we were fighting for in Congress. While we said we were fighting for freedom, in the words of former Congressman Raul Labrador, Capitol Hill “is a place that just sucks your soul.” But why?
“He’s a principled conservative.”
After working within the conservative movement, it’s not clear to me what this statement means.
But I think it means something like this: There’s a conservative view of things that is the truth, therefore, he stands on that truth no matter the costs, achieves top marks on legislative scorecards, and those who don’t hold to principles might be nice to people but they’ll never be champions.
Today, often the farthest we go with this advice is to say that we should “turn down the heat” when things get too ugly. But to govern the country well, we need constructive parameters for what it means to restrain partisanship, in the same way that Olympic athletes have constructive parameters for how to perform at their best, follow the rules of their sport, and uphold sportsmanship.
If I’m honest with myself, I fear “losing the argument” or watching the other side “topple my principles.” And I don’t think I’m the only one. We all know inside that there’s a truer, more beautiful reality for America. Yet the fear of unrequited cooperation paralyzes and imprisons us, reducing public servants to inmates doing time.
If you haven’t already read Abby Wambach’s In Her Own Words: Moving On As A Champion, you should click the link now and read it first.
Her note about leaving the beautiful game is filled with ideas of relevance for the culture of American politics today and the future of LIBERATUS.
Those of us with callings on Capitol Hill aren’t just left to accept things the way they are. Why not? Because of Christmas: it’s the celebration of one who came to break into destructive darkness and dysfunctional cycles to bring restoration and healing. So how does that inform my work in a dysfunctional space?
For decades, Christians have fallen into a dangerous trap by reducing the Church to a political interest group. The consequences speak for themselves: in order to play the political game, we have resorted to defining our partisan causes as righteous and the cause of anyone who disagrees as evil – even if those on the other side are Christians.
When I placed my toes in the intersection of millennia of the greatest triumphs and downfalls of human history, from exploration to the slave trade, it finally made sense to me. To love the ocean is to be a part of something greater than yourself. You don’t just look at the ocean, you immerse your whole self in it.
I can’t help but wonder what would happen if we allowed more whimsy into the current atmosphere of life on the Hill. Whimsy in politics—seems dangerous, doesn’t it? But, there is a lot to be learned from Bob in Love Does that we can apply to current times and the political machine we eat, sleep, live, and breathe.
