WHATEVER STATE I’M IN [Philippians 4:11] {M, 2-16-26}

CHRIST IN WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of An Old Hoosier-- WHATEVER STATE I’M IN  [Philippians 4:11] {M, 2-16-26}

 

I’m going to talk about Indiana, but I’m talking about your state, too. Yes, I know you’ll say that you live in a state of confusion, or a state of dismay. Go ahead. I’ll laugh; it’s the kind of thing I would do if I were just a reader instead of the author, too.

But I am talking about the geographical state you live in. the one you want to live in. In the era you choose.

I do not know where all my readers live. I do know that this column has readers in AZ, CT, TX, IA, IL, VA, RI, WI, MN, WA, and NC. Probably MI and OH. Maybe CA and GA and OR and some others as well. There are some in IN, but surprisingly few. Maybe because the current Indiana is not the one in which I live.

I do not live in the Indiana that is driving gynecologists out of state because it wants to put them in jail for trying to do their job with the patient’s best interest rather than the legislature’s main interest. Or put women in jail for asking those doctors to serve their needs instead of the legislature’s.

I don’t live in the Indiana where the legislature wants to put university professors in jail for not teaching what the legislature wants,

Or put demonstrators in jail for supporting people from whom the trustees don’t get any big donations.  

I don’t live in the Indiana that wants to do away with public schools and use the public-school money for funding private schools that will teach only what the legislators want

I don’t live in the Indiana that wants to put librarians in jail for having the wrong books on the shelves.

I don’t live in the Indiana that would rather builds jails instead of schools.

I do not live in the fearful Indiana of segregation and KKK, either, that horrible hostile era of the state the prides itself on Hoosier Hospitality.

I don’t live in the Indiana in which a former Republican governor and university president, of all people, has to decry the current state of the state, going backward because of one-party rule. [Mitch Daniels]

So, whatever state we live in, I think we should get to choose the era.

 

I live in the days of real Hoosier Hospitality, the days of a newspaper in every town, the days of one-class basketball, the days of free public school for all, the days of Herman B Wells and academic independence, the days when any kid could aspire to great things.

That’s not denial. That is hope. Jesus did not say that we should try to make this world better, but that we should live in a different world, one that already exists, but is “unrevealed until its season,” in the words of Natalie Sleeth’s Hymn of Promise. The Kingdom of Heaven, the kingdom in which God’s will is done, is here, now. We have a choice, whether to live in the real and eternal world of God’s reign, or the false and fleeting world of kakistocracy.

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15.

John Robert McFarland