A Tale of Two Gardens

Two different gardens. On the grounds of our life we are all maintaining a garden. The question is what type of garden. We nurture and tend to our garden. And it grows and produces fruits and vegetables that we use to feed ourselves. The fruits and vegetables of this garden shape us and who we are. We are what we eat after all. What’s your garden like, dear Christian?

There are two prominent types of gardens that we can grow and nurture. Important events take place in both gardens. Both types of gardens have featured important people who were there for a time and what are grown are important belief systems. But these gardens symbolize far different things.

One garden has played host to a multitude of events – sporting events and rallies. Fox News had an article on the history of this garden, not shying away from some of the more chilling history of the garden. This garden has played host to Alabama Governor George Wallace, a devout segregationist. He held a rally in 1968 a week before the general election. 

Here’s a portion of his speech from that rally on Oct. 24, 1968:

“… Our system is under attack: the property system, the free enterprise system, and local government. Anarchy prevails today in the streets of the large cities of our country, making it unsafe for you to even go to a political rally here in Madison Square Garden, and that is a sad commentary. Both national parties in the last number of years have kowtowed to every anarchist that has roamed the streets. I want to say before I start on this any longer, that I’m not talking about race. The overwhelming majority of all races in this country are against this breakdown of law and order as much as those who are assembled here tonight. It’s a few anarchists, a few activists, a few militants, a few revolutionaries, and a few Communists. But your day, of course is going to be over soon. The American people are not going to stand by and see the security of our nation imperiled, and they’re not going to stand by and see this nation destroyed, I can assure you that.” (Source). 

This is a speech focused on “othering” certain groups of people, scapegoating, blaming others for the conditions that Wallace’s supporters find themselves in. It’s always someone else’s fault and there is always some else to blame and hate and dehumanize.  The groups who are being blamed change, but it’s the same old message.

In some respects this speech sounds a lot like modern political speeches – a focus on law and order, safety, blaming the left for this or that, cultural change, and more. Yet, the undercurrent of it all was the fact that the man was a racist who ran for president spouting a tired, old message of fear and hatred. There is nothing new under the sun.

A few years earlier, in 1963, he was pretty clear about this. Here’s the speech that made him infamous: 

“Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. It is very appropriate then that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this very Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done, time and time again through history. Let us rise to the call of freedom- loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.” (Source)

Going back a bit further, there was a Nazi rally on February 20, 1939 at the garden attended by 20,000 Americans. PBS shared footage of this rally, and you should watch this short 7 minute video. In this video you see lots of angry men shaking fist up in the air, “Pro-American” signage, military-style marching and uniforms, swastikas and American flags, and large images of George Washington. You see Nazi salutes and even footage of a protestor being beaten up inside the event while the crowd cheers on. There’s plenty of talk about patriotism and even the then current version of the pledge of allegiance. There’s plenty of “othering” of Jews and demands to return America to those who founded it, all while blaming the Communists. 

The speaker on the stage makes it plain – saying that they are fighting for a “socially just, white, Gentile-led United States.” Anti-Semitism and racism all rolled into one.  The speaker is different, but it’s the same old, tired message of fear and hatred. There’s nothing new under the sun.

Like Wallace’s rally, there is scapegoating and blaming others for the situation these rally goers find themselves in. It’s always someone else’s fault and there is always someone to blame and hate and dehumanize. And in many ways, the themes sound similar to far too many modern political rallies today. 

It’s a disturbing video, especially when you remember that WWII began in 1939. How could so many people get on board with a clearly authoritarian ideology? Probably because people felt lost and wanted certainty, someone to blame, to feel part of something big and important, and more. It’s the same reasons people still line up for authoritarian ideologies today and why human history is full of authoritarian regime after authoritarian regime. They offer answers and order. And the followers all thought they would benefit. They know who to blame and it’s not their followers. They promise to fight and destroy the problem people. Never mind that every authoritarian system that has ever existed always ends the same way: in destruction, making everyone one, including the supporters, expendable. Authoritarianism is a dehumanizing belief system that is like a cancer that ends up destroying everything. There is nothing special about it.  

In this same garden, Donald Trump held a rally over the weekend. A comedian I had never heard of called Puerto Ricans trash and “Former President Donald Trump closed his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday with an ominous 80-minute speech denouncing his political rivals, assailing immigrants and promising to invoke an 18th century law to pave the way for mass deportations.” (Source). 

The NY Times started their coverage of the rally this way: “By the time former President Donald J. Trump took the stage at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, a parade of speakers had already spent hours disparaging Latinos, Black people, Palestinians and Jews; directing misogynistic comments at Vice President Kamala Harris; and echoing language used by the Ku Klux Klan.” (Source)

There’s always someone to blame and scapegoat. There’s always someone to fight. There’s always plenty of people to dehumanize. This rally was no different than the other rallies at Madison Square Garden. The same themes have been proclaimed in those halls before. There’s nothing new about any of it. Different speakers, but the same old, tired message of fear and hatred. There is nothing special about this movement or this candidate. There is nothing exceptional about any of it. There is nothing new that has been said. There is nothing new under the sun.

This isn’t a garden worth tending. The only growth it offers are poisonous weeds that will end up harming you and others.

But there’s another garden. We hear about it in John 20, when Jesus rises from the dead. Jesus encounters Mary Magdalene who has come to the garden tomb, expecting to find Jesus still dead. 

“But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.” (John 20:11-18)

No dehumanizing, no blaming, no scapegoating. No blaming the religious authorities or Rome for Jesus’ torture or death. Jesus suffered torture at the hands of the Romans. He was betrayed by the religious authorities who scapegoated him. But at no time during his Passion leading to his death or after his resurrection did he return the favor and come after those who saw him as an enemy. At no time did he seek retribution. At no time did he dehumanize. At no time did he endorse violence. At no time did he use dog whistles like “law and order” to rally his supporters. At no time did he tell people to be afraid.

Rather he calls Mary by name. He speaks a message bringing his disciples together – remember they all abandoned him during his Passion (with Judas betraying him even). 

A little further in John 20, Jesus will appear to the disciples in the upper room twice and say, “Peace be with you.” He’s offering peace, not revenge, not retribution, not scapegoating, not dehumanization, not blaming. He’s offering peace, not control, not law and order, not fiery speeches that invoke violence on others. He’s offering peace. 

There are two gardens. Both gardens contain death. One puts it on full display and has the same old tired message. It draws large crowds, who ironically become depersonalized. The other garden only draws a handful, but the one who remains is addressed by name – their humanity fully seen – and the others will be offered peace. This is an old message too, but one that is often not even tried in society, being seen as crazy and unrealistic. The old tired message of blame and dehumanization doesn’t ever work, but it’s seen as the norm in human history. What exactly are we so afraid of that we stubbornly refuse to even attempt the way of peace? Are we so cowardly and insecure that we think we always have to find someone else to blame? Are we so ignorant of the fact that the blame and dehumanization will eventually fall on us if it is left unchecked long enough? Are we so arrogant to believe that we are exempt from the consequences of such actions and rhetoric? Do we think that the fruit of fear and the vegetable of hatred grown in our garden will have no impact on us?

Dear Christian, each day we wake up and head out to our garden, looking to see what to consume. What are we growing in our garden? The fruits of fear and hatred or the fruits of the Spirit. Which message are you going to consume and embody? The same old tired message that will end up consuming you, leaving you for dead, and discarding you when you become inconvenient or a threat, or the old message that offers you peace and humanization? 

It’s a tale of two different gardens. Two different gardens. Two different type so fruit. Which one are you tending?