“Hear this, you who trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.” — Amos 8:4, NRSVUE
In October 2019, while Donald Trump was president, his administration said the next year’s G7 summit would take place at Trump National Doral, his golf resort near Miami.1
People reacted quickly. Democrats spoke out against the plan. Ethics experts did too. Even some Republicans felt uneasy. The issue was clear: foreign governments would be meeting at a business owned by the president. Public duty and private profit were openly at odds. Within days, Trump dropped the idea.
Seven years later, it is happening anyway. This December, the United States will host the G20 summit at Trump National Doral. Leaders, diplomats, security teams, journalists, and delegations from around the world will gather at a property owned by the president’s family. There has been some criticism, but nothing like the outcry in 2019. The summit is going forward.2
The ethical question is much the same. We are the ones who have changed.
People have a remarkable ability to adapt. This is one reason we survive as a species. What once felt unbearable slowly becomes something we manage. After hurricanes, people rebuild. When illness strikes, bodies adjust. Families find ways to cook dinner again after a loss. Even in war, people create routines because breakfast still needs to be made and children still need to get to school. This ability can be a mercy, but it can also be dangerous. We can get used to almost anything.
Aristotle saw this over two thousand years ago. He said that character forms through habit. We become brave by practicing bravery again and again. We become generous by doing generous things.3 Over time, what once took effort becomes part of us.
Many spiritual traditions are built on this idea. Muslims pray five times a day. Jews observe the Sabbath every week. Buddhists meditate regularly. Christians practice confession, forgiveness, communion, and prayer. These repeated actions matter because people are creatures of habit. What we do often starts to feel natural.
But habit itself is neutral. We can practice compassion until it feels natural, or we can practice indifference. We can get used to corruption, cruelty, dishonesty, poverty, violence, contempt, and abuse of power. What once shocked us can, if repeated enough, fade into the background.
This is what concerns me about America right now. The Trump family’s business interests have grown a lot during this presidency. Reuters reports they are involved in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, drones, venture capital, and prediction markets, and estimates the president’s personal wealth has grown by about $2.2 billion.4 Congressional Democrats say they will investigate possible conflicts of interest if they get subpoena power after the midterms. The White House says these concerns are political, and Trump family businesses deny any wrongdoing.
Every transaction should be judged on its own facts. But there is a bigger question for all of us: What happens when actions that once clearly crossed an ethical line no longer get much reaction?
I don’t think people have just stopped caring. We are tired. There have been so many controversies, broken norms, lawsuits, investigations, executive actions, wars, scandals, threats, and emergencies that our moral attention is worn out. What once filled the news for weeks now barely lasts a day.
This is how things become normal. The line does not always move because someone convinced us the old one was wrong. Sometimes it moves because we cross it so often that we stop noticing. This should worry us about more than just Donald Trump. What else have we become used to?
Someone sleeping under an overpass we pass each morning can start to blend into the background. Another mass shooting alert pops up on our phones, and we swipe it away because we’ve seen it too often. Another species nears extinction. Another civilian death becomes just a number. Another cruel comment about immigrants, transgender people, Muslims, Jews, Black people, political opponents, or anyone outside someone’s group enters public conversation and barely gets noticed.
This does not mean we should always be outraged. That would wear us down too. Our minds and bodies cannot stay on high alert forever, and a way of life that keeps us angry all the time is not helpful. But there is a difference between learning to live with pain and learning to ignore it.
The Hebrew prophets knew this danger. Amos lived in a society where exploitation was so common that people could worship faithfully while cheating the poor at the market. His job was to make the familiar seem strange again. He wanted people to notice what they had stopped seeing.5
This is part of spiritual practice today. We need to regain our sense of moral astonishment. Not outrage at everything. Not constant panic. Not another excuse to spend the evening doomscrolling. Astonishment means seeing something familiar and asking again if it should ever have felt normal.
This practice has to start with us. It’s easy to spot what our political opponents have accepted as normal. It’s harder to see the contempt we’ve accepted in ourselves, the suffering we’ve stopped noticing, and the compromises that once bothered us but now feel easy.
Seven years ago, the idea of holding an international summit at a president’s private resort caused enough concern that the president changed his mind. This year, world leaders are getting ready to check in. Maybe the real question is not just how the ethical line shifted. Maybe we should ask what changed inside us as it moved.
What used to disturb you that no longer does?
And should it still?
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
What once disturbed you morally that you now find yourself barely noticing?
Where is the difference in your own life between healthy adaptation and becoming numb to something that should still concern you?
What practice helps you remain morally awake without living in a constant state of anger, anxiety, or outrage?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer To Keep Our Hearts Awake
Holy Mystery, Protect us from the slow sleep of becoming accustomed to what should still trouble us. When cruelty becomes ordinary, keep us tender. When dishonesty becomes familiar, keep us truthful. When suffering becomes scenery, restore our sight. Save us from the exhaustion that turns attention into indifference. Give us hearts strong enough to remain open without breaking, and courage enough to notice what we would rather not see. May we never confuse what has become normal with what is good. Keep us awake. Amen.
Spiritual Practice: Make the Familiar Strange Again
Take a walk today along a route you know well. It could be through your neighborhood, around your workplace, through the center of town, or simply through the places you regularly move while running errands. Go slowly enough to notice what you usually pass without seeing.
Maybe someone is asking for money at an intersection. A stream filled with litter. A vacant building. A magnificent old tree. A political sign. A person eating lunch alone. A neighborhood where wealth changes dramatically within a few blocks.
Don’t immediately decide what any of it means or what you should do about it. Simply notice where familiarity has made something invisible.
Then choose one thing you noticed and become curious about it. Learn the person’s name. Find out what happened to the building. Learn where the stream goes. Look up the history of the neighborhood. Discover what kind of tree has been shading your street for twenty years.
The prophets were skilled at making people look again at things they had stopped seeing. This practice is an attempt to recover some of that attention.
At the end of the day, ask yourself one question: What have I learned to walk past?
You do not need to become outraged about everything you notice.
You simply need to see it again.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
October 6, 2026 - 12:30 - 1:30pm ET - FREE ONLINE BOOK CLUB - For the next 5 weeks, I am hosting a book club where we will read Fr. Gregory Boyle’s “Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times.” Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, has spent decades building community among people whom society has often discarded. In Cherished Belonging, he draws on those relationships and stories to explore what might happen if we stopped sorting people into categories of worthy and unworthy, us and them. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to read the book. We always have incredibly rich conversations. All are welcome. RSVP Here.
October 6, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again to launch a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for a 24-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. REGISTER for the first session HERE!
October 15, 2026, 7-8:45pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman for an online session on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” monthly series. Eidetic Imagery is a powerful tool for pastors, denominational leaders, coaches, and spiritual directors working with others, and for individuals seeking deeper integration and healing in their own lives. Jackie is a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, and has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
November 10, 7-8:30pm ET - I’ll be joined by theologian, writer, and professor Dr. Debra Rienstra for a special ONLINE conversation on Refugia Faith. In ecology, refugia are small places where life survives amid disruption, pockets of resilience from which life can eventually regenerate and spread. Debra invites us to consider what this might mean spiritually in an age of climate instability, political turmoil, institutional decline, and profound uncertainty. What if our congregations, communities, relationships, and even our own lives could become refugia, places where courage, compassion, beauty, wisdom, and possibility are protected and cultivated for whatever comes next? I hope you’ll join us for this timely and deeply hopeful conversation. REGISTER HERE!
December 15, 7-8:30pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be joined by Dr. Charissa Mikoski, Assistant Professor of Research and Hartford Institute for Religion Research for a presentation on “The State of American Congregations: What the Latest Data Tell Us.” This webinar explores findings from the 2025 Faith Communities Today survey, including changes in worship attendance, congregational vitality, finances, volunteering, programming, and leadership. It will also examine what more than 24,000 individual attenders tell us about participation and their experiences of congregational life. Together, these findings offer a picture that is neither simply one of decline nor one of revival, but of significant change and uneven recovery. REGISTER HERE.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
The Convergence Music Project has scheduled the fall conference on October 7-10, 2026 in Louisville, Kentucky. We will sing new community songs created specifically for this time in our history and explore together how the songs we sing in worship (and beyond) can empower and encourage us as we live out the biblical call to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.” Learn more here.
Every Monday, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/us/politics/trump-moving-ethical-lines.html
https://apnews.com/article/8130ecaafdde2f9bb09a880695a14d33
https://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.2.ii.html
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/democrats-probe-lucrative-trump-family-business-deals-if-they-win-midterms-2026-09-28/
https://www.sefaria.org/Amos.8.4-6
I love the emphasis on moral astonishment rather than outrage. It enable us to get alongside others to notice and explore what worries and concerns us rather than adopting a position of blame.