Henry Green Consulting

11/27/2025

THE RIGHT, THE GOOD, AND THE HAPPY SERIES

The Right, the Good, and the Happy Series for the Center for Congregational Ethics intends to demonstrate the interface between the Church and culture. This installment is an article which continues the conversation around the biblical imperative, “Do not lose heart.” The conversation began last month with an interview with Brian Edwards. This article below, “Do Not Lose Heart – Our Current Context -- comes from Henry Green. It is part one of Henry’s perspectives. His part two will be posted on December 10.

“Do Not Lose Heart – Our Current Context”

In an October 29 interview for the Right, Good, and Happy series with Brian Edwards, a mental health therapist from here in Maryland, was an insightful conversation about hope. In response to the question about the loss of heart in relation to the loss of hope for his clients, Brian said, “as clients lose heart, a loss of hope is on the horizon.”

The Oxford Dictionary defines hope as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” Another way of expressing this is it is a belief that things will work out for the best.

Hope is a good word when applied to meaningful expressions of the heart in relationships of value. Hope is the vision behind the desire of every couple who becomes engaged and expresses their eternal love for one another. They believe in one another and in the vision they share for a future of goodness and love. Out of this hopeful vision they will build their lives upon this vision and solidify a future hope for more to come.

That’s what we hope.

In our current context we find ourselves in a situation similar to the scene from the movie No Country for Old Men where the Deputy Sheriff and Sheriff are surveying the carnage from a drug deal gone bad.

The Deputy Sheriff said, “It’s a mess ain’t it Sheriff.”
The Sheriff replies, “If it ain’t, it’ll do till the mess gets here.”

Tommy Lee Jones delivered that line with absolute perfection. It was dripping with the emotion of a man who had seen it all and was now looking at just one more display of carnage with the knowledge that this wasn’t the end or the beginning. He would likely see it again.

The United States is in a mess right now and it is part of a larger global mess. We have witnessed the breakdown of social norms. Now, we have begun asking ourselves if there have ever been real social norms; or, were they simply constructs added by groups intent on curtailing freedom of expression?

The various silos of cultural/religious, economic, and political groups hold to their compartmentalization of their ideas about their vision of our current reality. When we hear these individual pundits we’re taking in only one part of the larger puzzle that makes up our global mess.

What’s actually old is seemingly new for younger generations. But, we have seen this before.

How do we help people see these different pieces as a whole?

Better civics education is the answer to seeing the different pieces as a whole.

Recently, Michael Adams (R), Secretary of State in Kentucky, had to issue a public statement informing the good people of Kentucky that they could not vote in the mayoral race in New York City. His office was inundated with calls that polling locations were not open for them to cast their ballot against the socialist who was running for Mayor of New York City. Adams said that some people needed better civics education.

He’s right, and he would do well to ask some questions about how to best accomplish that objective. Instead of schemes like tuition tax credits for private religious schools, many that advance Christian Nationalism, with a distorted understanding of how civics works, he might encourage his state to fully fund public education. Additionally, they could require students, as a prerequisite for graduation from High School, to be able to pass the same test as someone who immigrated from another country to become a citizen of the United States of America. Instead of remaining silent when certain media outlets advance misinformation, he might call out misinformation from these irresponsible media outlets that amplify conspiracy theories and nonsense.

Here in Maryland, well over 20 years ago, Casper Taylor (D) was the Speaker of the House of Delegates. He was a Delegate from the Cumberland area in Western Maryland. One of the Republican candidates running against Delegate Taylor told the voters that whoever won the seat Taylor occupied would automatically become Speaker of the House. Gullible people believed this lie. Taylor did lose to the Republican, due to a redistricting move. But, Delegate Michael E. Busch, a Democrat from Annapolis was elected by the overwhelmingly democrat-controlled House as the next Speaker.

The people of Cumberland were shocked and learned a lesson about how real politics works. Delegate Taylor was able to accomplish many great things for rural Western Maryland as Speaker. The Delegate elected in his place, who followed him, was relegated to a back bench position with little relevance. Speaker Busch went on to be the longest serving and deeply respected Speaker Of the House of Delegates in the history of Maryland.

Understanding how government and politics works begins in a classroom with teachers dedicated to civics education and fidelity to the history of the Constitution and its content. There’s no substitute for this approach and it requires political will to make sure it is funded and implemented in every school district in every part of every state.

It is impossible to have meaningful dialogue about anything if you can’t agree on the basic facts. Authoritarians thrive on misinformation and rely on a lack of real information about how basic government and politics work. Education is central to a solution for cultivating hopeful and wholistic conversations around basic facts.

What role do we play in helping to advance more wholistic conversations where people can begin to emerge from their silos of left, right, centrist, or wherever anyone might be along the spectrum of ideological beliefs?

Prior to January 6, 2021, I was unaware of just how much I had in common with then Congresswoman Liz Cheney, Republican from Wyoming. When it was time for the rubber to hit the road about defending the Constitution against the dangers the insurrection of January 6, 2021, her father, the late former Vice President Dick Cheney (R), stood with his daughter Congresswoman Liz Cheney and alongside Democrats in the House of Representatives to condemn what happened and to rebuke the then President Donald Trump for his role in the insurrection.

Whatever you might think or feel about the past, it is important to note when people take a stand for good. To me, I must see this as hopeful.

This dynamic of taking a stand is important. The stand taken also requires understanding the context and what I/we can control and not control in the context. That matter is the realm of exploration in Part 2 “Do Not Lose Heart – Addressing What I/We Can Control” which will be posted on December 10.

Henry Green is a History Teacher at Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS), and Owner and President of Henry Green Consulting in Annapolis, Maryland.

06/29/2023

We Need Maglev NOW!

Here is yet another sad story about our antiquated infrastructure and our inability to seemingly do anything about this tragic situation. Amtrak is the antiquated infrastructure and spending billions of dollars to “upgrade” this system is NOT the solution.

The train, if our Department of Transportation ( ) and the Federal Railroad Administration ( ) would simply act to allow it to move forward, would run on a dedicated track, be underground for 70% of the ride, travel at 311mph instead of the 100mph Amtrak train, reduce carbon emissions, connect major airports, bring 160 thousand jobs to out area, receive $8 billion from Japan for the project, and provide the highest standard of safety in the world for its riders!

Federal and state agencies and officials need to get onboard and allow project to move forward!

Authorities say an Amtrak train carrying 198 passengers derailed after striking a truck in Southern California.

12/04/2022

“A Reflection on My Journey”

After a 35 year career as a Senior Pastor to five congregations, I came to terms with and embraced publicly what I had struggled with for years in that role. This journey involved understanding how all religions emerged from Bronze Age mythologies. It included accepting how these myths were redefined by various culturally oriented Iron Age institutions. Finally, it was obvious to me how these myths were passed along in various altered paths according to the adaptations necessary to the cultural soup the myths needed to survive in its contemporary context.

Today, religions with Iron Age institutional roots are attempting to make Bronze Age mythologies relevant to a Digital/Information Age world. While I have respect for people who still hold to these systems of beliefs, I could no longer be an apologist for these beliefs. There is a part of me that still wants to believe some things from the soup I was born into. At the same time, I try to embrace this as part of what made me who I am and understand it as something common to the journey of every other human on our planet.

That said, here’s where my journey has led me today.

1. Orienting my life around enlightenment/naturalistic/stoic philosophy, respecting the scientific method, and applying humanitarian ethics in our daily engagement with others is a healthy way to authentically live in reality.

2. While faith, doctrine, and mysticism might be important to many in searching for answers to their life struggles; reason, compassion, and common sense offer reality based solutions to human problems in real time as opposed to some future fantasy. Integrity, benevolence, fairness, and responsibility are the essential values one needs to be a good person.

3. Making our world a better place today to live, work, play, and plan for a brighter future requires reason, a free marketplace of ideas to pass or fail the test of reason, good will for all, and tolerance.

Throughout my career as a pastor, I was a member of Rotary International. The 4-Way Test of Rotary asks:
Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
Is it beneficial to all concerned?

This humanitarian approach is reflected in other groups and statements like the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. Additionally, some of what I’ve mentioned above is a reworking of the Secular Humanist Society’s statement.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."

So, make the words of Marcus Aurelius a reality for you today. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

Finally, don’t forget the words of Jesus and also found in the writings of every major religion, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

We can be and do better. This is my hope and my journey today. I hope the same for you.

Be well and have a wonderful Sunday!

11/16/2022

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=493881869437834&id=100064480760562

THE RIGHT, THE GOOD, AND THE HAPPY SERIES--

The Right, the Good, and the Happy series is a weekly publishing of book reviews, interviews, and articles addressing the interface of the Church and culture. This week's installment is an interview with Henry Green discussing “Why Declaring The United States A Christian Nation is a Bad Idea.”

CFCE: A recent survey demonstrated that 60% of those in the Republican party responding to a survey considered it a good idea to declare the United States a Christian nation. This idea, declaring the United States a Christian Nation, has been one a long time in developing. What is some of the history reflecting this idea finding traction in contemporary society?

HG: You’re right to say this idea of Christian nationalism has been developing for a long time. It has its roots which date back to December 16, 1620, with the Puritans landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Escaping religious persecution in England, they came to this new land to impose their own brand of religious persecution on those who believed and thought differently. Native America’s were their first victims. Anyone who is familiar with their history is aware of the Salem Witch Trials from 1692 to 1693.

The founder of the Rhode Island Colony and the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Roger Williams, was kicked out of Massachusetts by the Puritans. Anne Hutchinson, a woman who led her own brand of Bible study was also forced to leave and went to New York.

The “Great Awakening” was a backlash against enlightenment philosophy, and there were many offshoots of wild religious expressions rooted in emotionalism and gullible people who were illiterate with limited educational opportunities. In fact, out of the fear of losing control of their cultural expression’s religious identity, the many expressions of evangelicalism throughout our history have often looked upon education, especially advanced education, with skepticism.

This, I believe, is what has fueled the desire to paint the historically inaccurate narrative that the United States is a “Christian Nation.”

Recently, the Pew Research Center reported on October 27, 2022, that “45% of Americans say the U.S. should be a “Christian nation,” but they hold differing opinions about what that phrase means, and two-thirds of U.S. adults say churches should keep out of politics.”

Unfortunately, the Republican Party hitched their wagon to this narrative, and evangelicals have joined them at the hip to advance each other’s agendas. For the Republicans it’s the mantra of reducing the role of government by lowering taxes for the wealthy. For the evangelicals it’s fighting culture wars by fomenting fear of whatever “witch” they find to demonize in the moment.

CFCE: What are the barriers to not only declaring but institutionalizing the idea of the United States a Christian Nation? Can such a process be carried out?

HG: It is my belief that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the main barrier.

Middle school students understand the concept of separation of church and state enshrined in the First Amendment and are aware of the writings ofJohn Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. Adams said in his letter regarding the Treaty of Tripoli that “America in no way is a Christian nation.” In 1803, Madison said, “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these chores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.” Finally, in a letter to Connecticut Baptists in 1802, Jefferson used the actual words “separation of church and state” to explain the “no establishment” and “free exercise” clause of the First Amendment.

A strong public educational system, rooted in enlightenment philosophy, social sciences, science, and cultural arts, is the greatest barrier to those who would advance the false claims of America as a “Christian Nation.”

While these barriers exist today, they are being eroded by those who want to diminish public education and appoint justices to reinterpret the law and rewrite the clear history of our founders to justify their partisan agenda to enshrine their understanding of religion on others.

Sadly, hate groups like the Family Research Council and others are pushing this very agenda.

CFCE: Further, what would be the definition of Christian used to identify such a condition? Is there not already a wide diversity of definitions of Christianity?

HG: Clearly, Christians can’t even agree on the definition of Christianity! Just look at the many different expressions which exist in the world today, and especially in the United States. From the Amish to the Baptists to the Catholics the Church of Christ to the Disciples of Christ to the Episcopalians to the Fellowships of Evangelicals to the Lutherans to the Methodists to the Pentecostals to the Presbyterians and so on, which of these groups or their splinter groups get to determine the definition?

No, what these right-wing groups want to establish is a generalized cultural expression of Christianity, which is already a de facto civil religion, and attempt to codify it into law.

CFCE: What would be the disadvantages of initiating and institutionalizing such a declaration?

HG: The greatest disadvantage would be one of creating further divisions in our already divided nation. In the quote I mentioned from Madison, we would create an even more hostile climate between religious communities over matters of religion with the possibility of following the example of Europe from centuries past.

This would be bad for government and for religious communities. It puts government in the role of adjudicating religious disputes over policies which favor one group over another, and it places religious groups under the thumb of government by ceding to government the ability to make laws to regulate how they function.

This is the reason why the founders gave us the first clause in the First Amendment!

CFCE: This movement is typified by an ongoing event, the Reawaken America tour. With this tour the idea of making Christianity the national religion moves from an abstraction into real life people gathering followers of the idea. What are your suggestions to “waking up” people to the dangers of the Reawaken America movement?

HG: Epicurus, amid major disruption in the social order of his day said, “You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.”

So do not despair, this is an opportunity to do good when everyone around you are doing bad.

The Christian nationalism we’re confronting today is an ugly danger threatening “We the people.” We must not allow ourselves to be implicated by the ugliness of the times in which we live.

Jon Meacham has written a new book, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. In it he tells the story about President Lincoln at the end of the election of 1864. He believed he might lose to General George McClellan, the Democratic Nominee for President. On August 23, 1864, Lincoln wrote, “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secure his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.”

President Lincoln was ready to accept the will of the American people either way. He didn’t plot to form an insurrection to remain in office, even in the midst of the Civil War.

Christian nationalists and their Make America Great Again (MAGA: a term used by the K*K in the 1930s) agenda pose the greatest threat to our democratic republic by embracing the Big Lie that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. They continue to support the lies of a man who wouldn’t concede, refused to cooperate in the transition of administrations, and plotted an insurrection against the country carried out on January 6, 2021.

Throughout the midterm this year they continued to promote the Big Lie with 300 Republican candidates on ballots across the country who still believe the 2020 election was stolen. Thankfully, the American electorate rejected Trump and Trumpism again in this cycle.

So, my suggestions to awaken citizens to the threats of Christian Nationalism are simple, but never easy. First, read and understand our history, and support educational institutions in their task of teaching critical thinking skills.

Second, get involved in defending the good norms of being responsible citizens to protect our form of democracy. Third, speak out against those who advance the Big Lies. Finally, vote for candidates who support democracy and democratic (small d) norms which hold our nation together against the authoritarianism of those who would enshrine a theocracy in our land.

CFCE: As always, the Center appreciates your gander, insight, and suggestions for addressing these concerns.

HG: It’s my privilege. I’m grateful for the work being done through the CFCE!

Henry Green is a history teacher with the Anne Arundel County School System, Annapolis, Maryland, and the owner of Henry Green Consulting.

08/31/2022

THE RIGHT, THE GOOD, THE HAPPY SERIES—

The Right, The Good, and the Happy Series is a weekly posting from the Center for Congregational Ethics dealing with matters with which the Church and culture find interface. This week’s installment is an oped from Henry Green, “Christian Nationalism and Empire Theology.”

Christian Nationalism and Empire Theology

The Roman stoic philosopher Seneca was a keen observer of how religion worked and how the Roman Empire used it for their ends. He said, “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”

Almost 400 years after Jesus, the Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity and made it the new Religion of the Roman Empire. He completely understood the usefulness of a popular religion and, by making it the state religion, he was able to garner more popular support.

Approximately 1200 years later, Martin Luther had a religious agenda of his own with a political outcome as a consequence. By posting his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, he clearly established his positions against papal authority and the selling of indulgences to line the pockets of the church. This act led to wars and divisions which exist to this day, as well as the splintering of subgroups over the past 500 years.

In the Americas, this ongoing division continued to be played out in turf wars over which religious influence would be dominant. In the United States, our Founders recognized the dangers of religious and political factionalism. They wrote about it in the Federalist Papers and, when they finally crafted the Constitution and added the Bill of Rights, they separated religion from government.

Influenced by enlightenment philosophers like John Locke, the Founders gave us the First Amendment to the Constitution. In this they clearly spell out the no establishment of religion by government and affirmed the free exercise of religion for all citizens. In other words, government was out of the business of making choices about which religion wins out in making policies and laws for the people they govern. If individuals chose to follow a religious discipline, they are free to do so. They may try to persuade others to their beliefs, they just can’t impose their religious beliefs on others through the law.

The masses in our population have not always been consistent with the outcomes the Founders might have intended. For example, in the early part of the last century the Ku Klux Klan used the slogans “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” Groups like the K*K and fundamentalist evangelical Christians merged their isolationist/racist political agendas and a narrow brand of “Christianity” to promote their version of Christian Nationalism in their day. They promoted segregation with Jim Crow laws restricting voting rights for Blacks. They attacked Jewish communities. They marched through the streets in communities everywhere and even rallied to support the National Socialism of N**i Germany prior to World War II. For these folks, Adolf Hi**er was a hero!

After the war, the slogan “In God We Trust” was put on our currency and the Pledge of Allegiance was modified to include “under God.” All of this was in the wake of the fear campaign against communism in the then Soviet Union. The John Birch Society played a huge role in propagandizing the messages of fear.

While the middle-class was expanding and our nation was getting stronger, we were also embracing a new brand of de facto civil religion.

The political backlash to the Great Society achievements of President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960’s – The Civil Rights Act, The Voting Rights Act, housing laws, Medicare and Medicaid – all mixed in the context of Vietnam, the protests against the war, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy, triggered conservative Democrats in the South to flip to the Republican Party of Richard Nixon in a well defined “Southern Strategy” to win the White House, control Congress, and control the Courts for decades to come.

By the late 1970’s, Jerry Falwell had been recruited to use his pulpit to galvanize the Christian Nationalism movement with his brand of Empire Theology. They rejected the notion of separation of church and state and married their newly rebranded old vision claiming God to be on their side and attacking those who did not agree with them as unpatriotic baby-killers. For they had NOW embraced the Roman Catholic theology that human life begins at conception.

Their appeal to absolutism wrapped in an empire theology of triumphalism was a strong message to a population which had been told that in the “good old days” God and prayer was all you needed.

President Jimmy Carter benefited from the backlash of President Nixon’s pardon by President Ford, and for being a Sunday School Teacher, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and being from Georgia, but he didn’t fit the cult of personality mold and he was not a Republican with authoritarian ambitions.

Ronald Reagan came along as the next President and checked off on enough boxes to flip the evangelical votes to Republicans in the South for decades to follow.

Today, we are living in the wake Trump. His four years as President embodied all of the worst elements of the cult of personality and empire theology triumphalism. He used the exact slogans of the K*K in the early 20th century, “America First” and “Make America Great Again” (MAGA). When he lost his bid for reelection to President Joe Biden, he embraced the Big Lie of campaign election fraud and it is clear from the Congressional Hearings on January 6, 2021, that he is directly linked to the insurrectionist actions of that day. In recent days, the FBI raided his home at Mara-a-Laog Club in Palm Beach, Florida, to find top secret classified papers which should have been turned over to the National Archives two years ago.

Still, the Christian Nationalists who support him believe he has done no wrong. They’re willing to embrace the Big Lie to justify the cult of personality civil religion of empire theology.

There’s nothing new about Christian Nationalism. It has taken many shapes and sizes throughout the history of Christianity and in the history of our nation. It has been at the center of every major conflict we’ve endured as a nation and continues to be a centerpiece of the Tale of Two Cities we are living in today.

Henry Green is a history teacher with the Anne Arundel County School System, Annapolis, Maryland, and the owner of Henry Green Consulting.