There is no left or right anymore. America has devolved into a nation of individuals. It feels like our national motto has become “E pluribus ego,” – ‘Out of many, me.’ It is counted as righteousness to loath anyone who thinks differently. Merely disagreeing is understood as ‘weak’ and ‘cowardly.’ I need to demonstrate the sincerity of my convictions by calling for the destruction of everyone who opposes me.
We used to sort ourselves into tentative tribes based on political leanings but that required a level of tolerance we can no longer muster. Now everyone is their own separate political party with a platform that’s simply, “The rest of y’all suck.”
Try to have a conversation on any topic with a human these days. Weather, footwear, pineapple on pizza, doesn’t matter. Within thirty seconds they will assert that your toxic views are the reason democracy is collapsing and pandas won’t mate in captivity. They will diagnose you as loveless, heartless, remorseless, and lacking any and all redemptive qualities. You are an eternal fountain of fiendishness, motivated by hatred and malice.
It is now acceptable to believe that anyone who disagrees with me is either stupid or Hitler. We used to at least pretend that others might be sincerely misguided. I could try to persuade you to my point of view by explaining it and you wouldn’t shout, “STOP FORCING YOUR BELIEFS ON ME!” It’s what we used to call, ‘tolerance.’ Those days are over.
The solution to our divisions is not for you to simply agree with me about everything (and it’s not demanding I submit to you either, so don’t suggest that). The only way we can heal our fractured community is…(you anti-religion people will want to sit down for this)…by following Jesus. Every one of us is wrong about many, many things. Instead of fighting about whose flaws are superior, we both need to drop our wrongness at the feet of Christ. That will unite us instantly. Neither one of us gets to take credit for our thoughtfulness or compassion or intelligence or tolerance or generosity or voting record or net worth or anything else that we think is impressive about ourselves.
Our membership in God’s family is not the result of our own righteousness. There’s no justification for ego. The very fact that we’re included should send us to our knees in gratitude. We don’t impress God with our spiritual résumé. We were adopted because He is good, not because we are.
(1 Corinthians 1:27) But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
