Sunlight is everything

We need more of it

Evil has no power of its own. The only power evil has, or seems to have, is the power we give it. So the first step in dealing with evil is to expose it as a counterfeit of real power and intelligence. Exposure allows evil to self-destruct. You can’t destroy evil with evil. You can only destroy it with light.

The evil emanating right now from governments in the United States, Russia, Israel and other countries, the diseased thinking and sinful behavior, the unholy mixing of religion, politics and will-power, seems authentic and powerful. But when its lack of integrity and goodness becomes apparent, evil will lose its claim to authority and dissolve. The emperor will no longer be able to pretend that he isn’t naked.

Journalism has a big role to play in enabling evil’s self-destruction. I published a history of The Christian Science Monitor about a decade ago, and I often use the vision of the founder, Mary Baker Eddy, as my model for the journalism we need today. She understood how to handle evil, whether in the news or in individual lives, and created the Monitor to put that knowledge into practice in the public square. What she wrote in her textbook on the practice of “scientific mental healing” applies equally to the practice of journalism:

Expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in them…. To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality.¹

Proving evil’s unreality may sound fantastical, but it’s the only sure way to neutralize it. If a news organization shirks its responsibility to “expose and denounce the claims of evil and disease in all their forms,” it abandons its basic responsibility to stand for truth. We can’t afford journalism that treats evil with kid gloves. As Eddy warned, “Whosoever covers iniquity becomes accessory to it.”²

Two elements are critical for a news organization to handle evil successfully. One is strong investigative reporting, because you can’t deal with evil successfully without first uncovering it completely. The other element is incisive commentary that helps the public understand what has been uncovered and what needs to replace it. With this approach to journalism, as Christ Jesus put it about his own teachings, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”³

Such journalism will work against corruption and narrow self-interest and support the moral, courageous and compassionate leadership that will help bring sunlight to public life. In an age of encroaching darkness, good leaders often arise in unexpected places:

· Moral leaders like Bishop Mariann Budde of Washington National Cathedral. With a new Substack called Reflections on Courage, Faith, and the Work of Love, she is taking her compassion and spiritual strength to the world. Speaking of that day in January when she addressed the new American president in her cathedral and precipitated a nasty response (I wrote about the incident here), she said in part:

Though I attempted to speak with humility and respect when addressing the president, my words had the effect of amplifying the divisions that the prayer service for unity sought to address. It is a valid criticism. Yet if I had only said what our leaders wanted to hear, would that not have been a shirking of my responsibility?

Speaking out on the issues at the center of national debate is moral leadership [emphasis is hers].

· Courageous leaders like Maurene Comey, who was fired last Wednesday from her job in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office without being given a reason, evidently because of who she is – the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, with whom the president has had a running battle, and prosecutor of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, with whom the president had a longtime relationship. Comey urged colleagues in a farewell email not to succumb to the fear she knew her termination would cause:

For the majority of my nearly ten years in [the Southern District of New York], fear was never really conceivable. We don't fear bad press; we have the luxury of exceptional security keeping us physically safe; and, so long as we did our work with integrity, we would get to keep serving the public in this office. Our focus was really on acting 'without favor.' That is, making sure people with access, money, and power were not treated differently than anyone else; and making sure this office remained separate from politics and focused only on the facts and the law.

Comey urged her colleagues to continue the fight against abuses of power, seeking justice for victims and dedicating themselves to “truth above all else.” As she wrote,

Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.

· Compassionate leaders like Joanne Carducci, known to millions as JoJoFromJerz, a frequently profane but always insightful and heartfelt writer and activist, who published a moving celebration of children’s programming on the US Public Broadcasting System, which helped her cope with a deeply troubled childhood but which has now been defunded by the US government because of alleged political bias.

Donald Trump and the people around him—his advisors, his allies, his sycophants in Congress and on television—don’t want us to remember what connects us. They don’t want us to see ourselves in others, or for others to see themselves in us. They don’t want us to feel anything but rage and suspicion. They want us disoriented. Hardened. Alone.

Because a population that is angry and afraid is easy to manipulate. A population that is kind? Compassionate? Grounded in shared humanity?

That’s dangerous—to them.

And that’s why this, for me, is the fight of a lifetime.

Not because I care about programming schedules or congressional budget line items. But because I care about who we are becoming. Because I care about how we treat each other when no one’s looking. Because I care about whether my children—and yours—will grow up in a country that teaches them how to hold onto their hearts, or one that tells them to tear their hearts out.

This is not about politics. This is about identity.

We are not perfect. We never have been. But I believe we are still capable of being good.

I believe most of us haven’t forgotten how it felt to be welcomed. To be soothed. To be told that kindness matters. I believe most of us are still carrying the voices that shaped us—quietly, stubbornly, even in the noise.

I believe most of us still remember.

And I believe we are not ready to forget.

Leaders, of course, need followers, ordinary people who are themselves inspired and are willing to stand up for truth and kindness in their private lives and in the public square – the 3.5% of a population that researchers have found are necessary to push society to real reform.

No democracy movement has ever failed when it was able to mobilize at least 3.5 percent of the population to protest over a sustained period, according to a study by Erica Chenoweth of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Maria Stephan of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

In their book, “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict“, Chenoweth and Stephan analyzed 323 political and social movements that challenged repressive regimes from 1900 to 2006. Such mass demonstrations are so visible, they found, that no one can ignore them. Their diversity and networks—with connections to schools, unions, churches, media, sports teams, fraternities, and even the military—gives them a superhuman voice and spirit. At that scale, most soldiers have no desire to suppress the protesters. Why? Because the crowd includes their family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors.

The 3.5% will emerge when we have the critical mass of inspired journalism and strong leadership that we need. Then we will see the evil that has infused politics and public life in so many countries begin to falter and fall.

We all have our roles to play. It’s time to let our light shine.

Be not afraid.

1. Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 447

2. Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 63

3. John 8:32