Advent is my favorite season of the liturgical year: amid shadows and waiting, we are promised that joy is coming to the world. But this year, I've had difficulty getting into the Advent spirit. It's hard to believe those optimistic promises, knowing that next year is likely to bring hardship to many.
With a second Trump administration impending, immigrants fear discrimination and deportation; the chronically ill worry that they will lose their health care; LGBTQ+ people fear an increasing culture of hate and harassment; Black Americans are concerned about a reversal of progress on civil rights; women wonder if they should risk pregnancy, given attacks on reproductive health care. In this political landscape, hope and joy don't feel rational. They feel delusional.
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