Joseph Sabino Mistick: Seeking serenity in hard times

You might think that Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer” has no place in the crude arena that national politics has become, but Niebuhr would not have hesitated to invoke his prayer now.

The public theologian believed that there is a core relationship between religion and politics. He immersed himself in all the major public causes of his day from civil rights to the Cold War, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.

A common version of his prayer goes like this: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” That version of the prayer has helped countless individuals battle their demons and find personal peace.

But it was the original version of Niebuhr’s prayer that inspired many people who were working for social justice. It led with a more strenuous call to action, and went like this: “Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.”

It is a prayer that can help blunt the anxiety caused by today’s politics. If you wake up half-afraid to turn on the news, this prayer is for you. With more than 200,000 American coronavirus deaths and a tough winter ahead, we can’t do much more than wear masks and keep our distance. But we must do what we can.

With hundreds of thousands of Americans marching in protest for racial justice, we can join the marchers or speak out against the fringe lunatics from the right and left who would tarnish the cause with violence. There will be no quick solutions, but we must join this struggle.

And if partisan politics is making you crazy, this is where the prayer will really help. Incivility is now the rule, as national politicians place power and advantage ahead of everything else, but we can’t accept that as our future.

A perfect example is the hypocrisy of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court, with only a few weeks left before the presidential election. If you are a Democrat, that might be gnawing away at you.

It is a nomination by a president who lost the popular vote, and his nominee will be confirmed by senators who together do not represent the majority of Americans. Those are the rules, and there is not much Democrats can do about the nomination.

But they can make it clear that the future of the Affordable Care Act and coverage for preexisting conditions are on the ballot now. And if they use that to drive turnout, take the White House and Senate and keep the majority in the House of Representatives, constructive change would be possible.

When Niebuhr composed the “Serenity Prayer,” war was threatening or had broken out around the world, people everywhere were crawling out of the Great Depression and social injustice was the rule.

The “Serenity Prayer” gave Americans the courage to be active rather than passive. And it can still do that.