Equal Hope
“Faith, hope and love . . . but the greatest of these is love.” That scripture is a longstanding staple of weddings – it was at ours – and the emphasis is always on love. We love to talk about love, but I think hope deserves more attention than it gets.
Hope has been on my mind ever since I finished reading Harper Lee’s new novel, “Go Set a Watchman.” It’s Lee's first and only book since “To Kill A Mockingbird.” The backstory is that Lee wrote “Watchman” first in the late 1950s, her editor suggested a different angle, so it was set aside and she wrote “Mockingbird,” which was published in 1960 to international acclaim.
I’ve read both books and I like “Watchman,” though not as much as “Mockingbird.” Some critics have called it, and I paraphrase, “a first draft that should never have been published,” but I have no issue with the writing. The story, which takes place 20 years after “Mockingbird,” is short on action, but I like good characters and well-described locations and “Watchman” is thick with that. And there are even some great flashbacks to Scout, Jem and Dill, the children we loved in “Mockingbird.” My biggest problem with “Watchman” is that Lee and her editors did not stay true to the storyline, and as a result, the characters are incomplete. They are missing the profound impact of hope – the lack of hope, that is.
Quick review: In “To Kill A Mockingbird,” attorney Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Tom is clearly innocent but is found guilty. Atticus promises to appeal, but Tom has no hope that an appeal will succeed. He flees captivity and is killed. Anyone who has read the book or seen the movie recalls how devastating that is to everyone, including Atticus. We leave that story believing that Atticus, already a good man, is forever changed by what has happened. We believe that he will never allow something so tragic to happen again in his town and on his watch.
In “Watchman,” that trial is mentioned only in passing, and the big surprise is that it had a different outcome: Robinson was acquitted and presumably lived out his life in peace. Meanwhile, Atticus has become a racist, although in an oddly benevolent way. He believes “the Negroes” can’t be handed all of their freedoms at once; they still need time to become fully mature members of society. But this version of Atticus never experienced the tragic death of Tom Robinson. He never witnessed firsthand the injustice of Tom’s total lack of hope. If he had, he likely would have moved forward in life with an understanding that “equal rights” is not just about equal opportunity and equal access; it’s about equal dignity, respect, honor, and most notably, hope.
I believe much of the racial and class unrest in our society today is the result of that disconnect. People are allowed equal opportunity, but they are still held apart as separate and different. If not in practice, then in thinking and attitude. We want people to have what we have, but we want them to have it over there – out of the way, out of sight even. Equal but separate. The problem is that separate is not equal. Separate implies a withholding of respect and honor, and that breeds a loss of dignity and hope in the ones held separate.
In Christian life we talk a lot about hope – the hope we find in Christ for eternal life beyond this life, and the hope for lasting peace in that future place. But Christ himself gave people cause for hope in the present day through food and shelter, and the dignity that comes with true equality and respect. As his followers, we should give hope freely with whatever else we share with our neighbors. Without hope, those others gifts are lacking.
Hope has been on my mind ever since I finished reading Harper Lee’s new novel, “Go Set a Watchman.” It’s Lee's first and only book since “To Kill A Mockingbird.” The backstory is that Lee wrote “Watchman” first in the late 1950s, her editor suggested a different angle, so it was set aside and she wrote “Mockingbird,” which was published in 1960 to international acclaim.
I’ve read both books and I like “Watchman,” though not as much as “Mockingbird.” Some critics have called it, and I paraphrase, “a first draft that should never have been published,” but I have no issue with the writing. The story, which takes place 20 years after “Mockingbird,” is short on action, but I like good characters and well-described locations and “Watchman” is thick with that. And there are even some great flashbacks to Scout, Jem and Dill, the children we loved in “Mockingbird.” My biggest problem with “Watchman” is that Lee and her editors did not stay true to the storyline, and as a result, the characters are incomplete. They are missing the profound impact of hope – the lack of hope, that is.
Quick review: In “To Kill A Mockingbird,” attorney Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Tom is clearly innocent but is found guilty. Atticus promises to appeal, but Tom has no hope that an appeal will succeed. He flees captivity and is killed. Anyone who has read the book or seen the movie recalls how devastating that is to everyone, including Atticus. We leave that story believing that Atticus, already a good man, is forever changed by what has happened. We believe that he will never allow something so tragic to happen again in his town and on his watch.
In “Watchman,” that trial is mentioned only in passing, and the big surprise is that it had a different outcome: Robinson was acquitted and presumably lived out his life in peace. Meanwhile, Atticus has become a racist, although in an oddly benevolent way. He believes “the Negroes” can’t be handed all of their freedoms at once; they still need time to become fully mature members of society. But this version of Atticus never experienced the tragic death of Tom Robinson. He never witnessed firsthand the injustice of Tom’s total lack of hope. If he had, he likely would have moved forward in life with an understanding that “equal rights” is not just about equal opportunity and equal access; it’s about equal dignity, respect, honor, and most notably, hope.
I believe much of the racial and class unrest in our society today is the result of that disconnect. People are allowed equal opportunity, but they are still held apart as separate and different. If not in practice, then in thinking and attitude. We want people to have what we have, but we want them to have it over there – out of the way, out of sight even. Equal but separate. The problem is that separate is not equal. Separate implies a withholding of respect and honor, and that breeds a loss of dignity and hope in the ones held separate.
In Christian life we talk a lot about hope – the hope we find in Christ for eternal life beyond this life, and the hope for lasting peace in that future place. But Christ himself gave people cause for hope in the present day through food and shelter, and the dignity that comes with true equality and respect. As his followers, we should give hope freely with whatever else we share with our neighbors. Without hope, those others gifts are lacking.
No comments have been added yet.
