Integral Mission Newsletter

I wish that C. Rene Padilla were wrong in his article “Why Do People Hate Americans?” But my experience traveling widely over the last decade requires that I say, with sadness, that he is right.

When I hear my fellow Americans discuss this question, they have very different answers from Rene’s. “They are just jealous of our success,” is the most frequent response I hear. “We have worked hard and become powerful and prosperous, and so they resent us.” Perhaps there is some truth to this diagnosis in some cases, although the psychology assumed by this defense doesn’t make sense to me. For example, I believe that Costa Rica has great natural beauty, that France and Greece have extraordinary cultural treasures, that Canadians and Brits have a tremendous sense of humor, that South Africa has charted an amazing course of truth and reconciliation over the last decade. Their extraordinary features don’t make me hate them or resent them, but rather appreciate and admire them.

“They’re just jealous of my strength,” sounds like exactly the kind of thing the bully in Rene’s school might have said to comfort himself when the nice kids in the class didn’t invite him to their birthday parties.

One of the most important books I read in 2005 was Richard T. Hughes’ Myths America Lives By (Univ. of Illinois, 2003). This professor of religion from Pepperdine University details six myths that have arisen over our history, myths that may have a grain of truth to inspire, but also have great power to self-deceive. They are:

1. The Myth of the Chosen Nation

2. The Myth of Nature’s Nation

3. The Myth of the Christian Nation

4. The Myth of the Millennial Nation

5. The Mythic Dimensions of American Capitalism

6. They Myth of the Innocent Nation

Supported by a range of quotes from the founding fathers to our current president, the book argues that America has “absolutized its myths” and as a result has entered, or is at great risk of entering, a deep state of denial or willed ignorance about “the suffering that American policies might inflict on poor and dispossessed people in other parts of the world.” He calls for “a true revolution of American values” which will “encourage Americans to see the world through someone else’s eyes, perhaps even through the eyes of their enemies.”

As a leading Latin American theologian and leader in the mision integral movement across Latin America, C. Rene Padilla is telling us what the North American Distinguished Professor of Religion Richard Hughes has also concluded. Until we move beyond an immature and unchristian defensiveness (strengthened, no doubt, by the “warrior trance” that has overtaken our country since September 11, 2001), and until we seek with great humility to see ourselves as others see us, we will not experience a true revolution of American values. We will instead become more and more entrenched in the myths that we have become dependent on – that some might say we have become addicted to.

I hope that increasing numbers of Americans will heed the Biblical call to self-examination, that we will recognize the dangers that the Bible tells us successful people and nations are particularly susceptible to. I hope that we will remember what the Book of Proverbs and James both say characterizes wisdom – notably, a humble willingness to listen to correction and rebuke. I hope that we will aspire to something far better than being feared as a bully. Rather, I hope that we will aspire to be a good neighbor in the global classroom with a reputation for wisdom, humility, honesty, cooperation, justice, and the kind of strength that is displayed not in violence but in kindness and compassion.