CEIE Director’s Reflection
The Unraveling Social Contract
by CEIE Executive Director & Seattle University Spehar-Halligan Professor, Dr. Michael Reid Trice
At the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE), we work alongside local, national and global partners to research and create opportunities for learning and conversation.
Today we witness the rise of popular authoritarianism growing as the social contract with liberal democracy weakens around the world. Characteristics of this rise include leadership that calls into question the legitimacy of democratic elections; efforts to centralize power in defiance of democratic institutions that legislate the public good; rhetoric that targets media and political opponents as “enemies within”; and restrictions on the control of media and information, often followed by suppression of dissent.
At CEIE we assessed the last presidential election, with a focus upon financial pains from within the working class in this country, alongside the role religion plays in specific communities. A review of the US Presidential election shows how the voting blocs that softened for the current president were also the same that endured racial slurs against Latinos in Madison Square Garden, or who endured derogatory slurs against women’s bodies, or who were present when an accomplished senator, Elizabeth Warren was called “Pocahontas” at a memorial to celebrate the famed WWII Navajo Code Talkers.
Populism emerges and can grow when society experiences widespread pain. Not to be lost in the tangled history of racism in the United States, is how 82% of white evangelical protestants, 61% of white Catholics, and 58% of white non-evangelical Protestants supported a second term for the current US president.
The relationship between a populist surge and authoritarian leadership is historically always fragile, especially as the characteristics of popular authoritarianism emerge. When the election is over and new powers prevail, often the least protected in society are the most hurt.
Photo: FMT
Here’s one example of oncoming pain: Under the current administration, an effort is underway today to dramatically curtail and cancel the funding streams of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID collaborates with numerous national and international organizations. Key among these organizations are faith-based entities. In fact, long before USAID was formed during the Kennedy Administration, a relationship existed between private (often religious) agencies and the government, a relationship committed to robust direct service to society, dating back to the 19th century.
With the loss of financial backing, many of these private organizations are also imperiled. American society can expect to see a dramatic loss in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, health services and disease prevention, food security and agricultural development, education and literacy programs, human trafficking prevention and rehabilitation, refugee assistance and resettlement, and water, sanitation and hygiene programs. These are only international examples.
Nationally, risks include support for homeless shelters and housing assistance, substance abuse and rehabilitation services, food pantries and meal programs, healthcare, prison ministries and reentry programs, disaster response with FEMA partnerships, and programs that assist veterans.
This weekend, the new director of the Department of Governmental Efficiency, created by executive order, tweeted that “The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments,” in reference to Lutheran Family Services, one among many such religious, philanthropic organizations. Such untruth is a betrayal of the value of mercy with so much unmet need at stake. Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, noted that “An abrupt collapse of the [USAID] agency would put the rights of millions of people around the world at greater risk as a result.” That’s truth.
We know the important work of listening to pain within this country, and the value of responding to pain with plans that transform lives. We must live the interreligious and public value of mercy without uprooting the structures that make transformation possible.
Header Photo: Picryl