Polarization, Opposites

Polarization

Opposites

The law, Love neighbor as self; do to others, as you would have them do, is the exact opposite of political polarization.  If we are politically polarized, we cannot be obeying God.  If we are obeying God, we cannot be political polarized.  It’s wrong.  Let’s try to fix it.

Obviously, in any dispute, both sides usually have a legitimate grievance.  Neither side is completely right; neither side is completely wrong: the truth is usually somewhere in the middle.  Where do we begin?  By trying to listen to each other.

We cannot solve problems unless we treat each other with gentleness and respect… pretty hard to do if one or both of us is in a lot of pain: for example, suffering from grief over dead children.  So, we have to work through the grief first.  That could take five years or longer.

We cannot solve problems if one or both sides is buried in bitterness: for example, the stinging pain of a century or more of slavery, and unjust segregation.  Now, we learn the hard way that modern business employment is just another form of slavery.  Who is not bitter over that?  We have to remove the sting of bitterness first.  Barring miracles, that could take another century.

Are we willing to forgive and forget those who have been complicit in the death of our children?  Pretty hard to do, isn’t it?  Still, it must be done for grief clouds our vision.  Out of 350 million fellow Americans, where maybe 350 individuals are at fault: our grief causes us to lash out at everybody else, even those who are suffering grief with us.  We have 350 million friends.  We see, irrationally, 350 million enemies.  Even some of those involved in the deaths of our children are truly sorry: but, our grief keeps us from seeing that.

Are we willing to forgive and forget those who have been duplicit in our slaver?  That may be even harder to do.  There is no evidence whatsoever that those involved in lending, usury, and all the rest, are the least bit sorry for their evil deeds: they seem to think that they have a God given right to enslave others.  Very well, God has an app for that, Love even your enemies.  So, as we attempt to tear down the castles, fortresses, and halls of lending, and usury, we work to forgive the individuals involved… seeing most of them as just as entrapped in an evil system as we are.

We have 350 million friends in America, most of whom share the same hopes and dreams that we do.  We have nearly 7.5 billion fellow human beings worldwide, pretty much in the same boat as we are: although, if we’re honest about it, we realize that Americans are a lot better off than most of the world.  The point is that, we will make much better progress if we figure out how to work together.  If we figure out how to build, and stop destroying our own neighborhoods.  America is our house: most of us still have to live here….