A glance down from an incoming airplane is all it takes to see that Washington, D.C., is messed up.<\/p>\n\n
Long ago, architect Pierre L\u2019Enfant had of vision of grand plazas combined with a simple, logical grid of streets. But now visitors see politics all over the place. The Supreme Court sits in judgment across the street from the U.S. Capitol, which wrestles with the White House for symbolic supremacy on the map. Highways run into rivers and the National Mall, while cathedrals gaze down from distant hills at memorials to the secular saints.<\/p>\n\n
Where is the heart of Washington? And if a city doesn\u2019t have a heart, where is its soul?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe are in a society called \u2018pluralist,\u2019 \u201csaid historian Martin Marty, during a recent speech entitled \u201cBuilding the Holy City on the Hill\u201d for the College of Preachers at National Cathedral. \u201cOur cities don\u2019t have that single axis. They don\u2019t have walls. They may have beltways, but they keep no one out. Commerce, industry, religion, academic life, media life, malls, all \u2026 throw this off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
So Washington is not a New England village, in which all roads and energies converge on one marketplace, one government hall and one church, he said. People inside the Beltway worship all kinds of things in all kinds of places. Thus, it\u2019s hard to pinpoint the \u201csoul\u201d of America\u2019s complex and fragmented capital.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt is a secular city,\u201d said Marty. \u201cBelievers may interpret it as God\u2019s gift, but it\u2019s not organized on those lines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Nevertheless, he insisted that Washington does have a \u201csoul,\u201d which he defined as: \u201cThe integrated vital power of any organic body that is full of awareness, openness to possibilities, expressive of freedom and having purpose.\u201d The good news for the city is that powerful displays of \u201csoul\u201d often follow moments of pain, conflict, sickness and anger. So he urged his listeners to keep their eyes open, right now.<\/p>\n\n
During his 35-year career at the University of Chicago, Marty has been much more than a scholar whose 50 books and 40 years of Christian Century essays helped define an era of church history. His work has repeatedly bridged the wall between academia and the news. Any mention of his name is usually accompanied by the Time magazine quotation proclaiming him America\u2019s \u201cmost influential living interpreter of religion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
And Marty remains the master of finding grace in chaos \u2014 such as the storms currently gathering over Washington. For starters, he said, it\u2019s safe to say that no one on Capitol Hill is talking about building utopia anytime soon, in this day of almost supernaturally thin voting margins, non-existent mandates and bitter 50-50 splits over virtually every moral, cultural and political issue in sight.<\/p>\n\n
This is good, he said, since most attempts to build utopias lead to bloodshed and war. Often, people who are divided, and know it, manage to get more work done than the people plagued by delusions of unity and perfection. The most crucial, creative decisions are almost always made right after the best-laid plans fall apart, after the utopian quests go astray. That is when progress often takes place in a fallen world full of flawed people.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI am assuming,\u201d said Marty, \u201cthat the search for the holy city of Washington is going to go wrong, because you have to work with the crooked timber of humanity \u2014 conflicting interests, conflicting wills, conflicting visions of the good. \u2026 We never say that we learn by trial and rightness, nor by trial and triumph. No, we learn by trial and error.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s true that anyone searching for \u201csoul\u201d in Washington can look in churches. There are, he noted, 92 brands listed in the Yellow Pages \u2014 between \u201cchiropractors\u201d and \u201ccigars.\u201d But they also should search in schools, where a janitor may help a student through a troubled day. They should visit an unheralded recovery program for prostitutes. \u201cSoul\u201d may even show up in efforts to replace out-of-date voting machines. Angels live on many of the city\u2019s forgotten streets.<\/p>\n\n
Washington isn\u2019t perfect. That\u2019s the good news. And don\u2019t worry, said Marty, about times of conflict. Never forget that \u201d you can\u2019t get justice without argument.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A glance down from an incoming airplane is all it takes to see that Washington, D.C., is messed up. Long ago, architect Pierre L\u2019Enfant had of vision of grand plazas combined with a simple, logical grid of streets. But now visitors see politics all over the place. The Supreme Court sits in judgment across the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n