(RNS) It was a year of tragedy, terror, political dysfunction and an economic recovery mainly benefiting the precious few. Even so, I can name these nine personal discoveries in 2014:
1. Running a church stewardship campaign is discouraging. Some people are tight; some have an unrealistic view of faith as a free ride, all take and no give, and church as a consumer product. And, thanks to evisceration of the middle class, a lot don’t have any money.
2. Urgent-care facilities make sense. This new way of delivering noncritical medical care not only eases the burden on hospital emergency rooms but makes medical care what it should be: a consumer product available to all at reasonable prices.
3. Racial animus seemed as fervent as ever, especially among police forces. Other than President Obama, the targets this year weren’t leaders, but everyday black men doing everyday things. City governments face major challenges in retraining and restraining their law enforcement officials.
4. Riches lead to a disregard for the common good. On top of their opulent homes, extravagant vacations and trendy lifestyle accoutrements, the rich now want to take control of private education and politics. Some people like to admire the wealthy and emulate their styles. I find their arrogance, thoughtless lily-gilding and entitlement ugly.
5. For a free press to be useful, writers and journalists need freedom to write whatever they want. Like all media folks, I am under constant pressure to pull my punches, to write what people find soothing. I wondered how people became so frightened of diverse opinions.
6. The right wing never relents. Their toxic Kool-Aid of hatred, bigotry, fear and moral certainty strips away common sense, humility and proportion. Any attempt by progressives to compromise merely invites more recalcitrance. This year, I saw liberals, especially Christian progressives, realizing they must push back against anti-democratic and repressive forces. Liberalism isn’t about big government. It is about freedom and human dignity.
7. Faith, for me, gravitated even further from established churches. It became a largely self-directed journey of discovery: connecting stray dots, probing small dabs of experience, hearing fresh ideas from both traditional and nontraditional sources.
8. Mobility, not power, is the heart of technology. By that I don’t mean mobile devices, as in tablet or cellphone. I mean the ability to work anywhere and to have my apps and files always available, as well as goods and services accessible online. For bricks-and-mortar folks, there are tougher days ahead.
Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the president of Morning Walk Media and publisher of Fresh Day online magazine. His website is www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tomehrich.
9. Adding a third generation to a family increases exponentially its joy and complexity. With two babies now in our family mix, Christmas Day was raucous commotion, requiring seven grownups to corral two 1-year-olds. As awful as 2014 was in many ways, it was also a time of new life and new hope.
I end the year feeling hopeful about 2015. Many people gave in to their worst instincts in 2014, and it merely left us all gasping and gagging. Now that we have seen our worst, I think we will reach for the better.
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the president of Morning Walk Media and publisher of Fresh Day online magazine. His website is www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tomehrich.)
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