To all our readers: I am sorry our last post was so long. It’s hard, but from now on this old retired lawyer will write “briefs.”
After lots of thought and prayer, I have concluded that our United States may not survive unless responsible leaders at all levels of government, non governmental organizations and private citizens tamp down the highly divisive rhetoric and pandering to perceived bases, and make a real effort to seek and find middle ground. Our current President was elected because many of our citizens had lost faith in political institutions, and wanted the system “shaken up” by a brash but inexperienced leader who was willing to throw “political correctness” under the bus. Well, we now know how divisive that move was.
To my libertarian friends, I say that freedom without responsibility is a formula for anarchy and loss of freedom. To all my Christian brothers and sisters, I say take a fresh look at the Sermon on the Mount, as well as our Lord’s high priestly prayer for unity in John 17.
For example, take the issue of abortion. Most of us strongly believe abortion is morally wrong and know it to be the cause for long term trauma to the mother. It should never be a system of birth control, as it was in the former Soviet Union when I lived there. The Supreme Court tried to strike a balance in Roe v Wade, and that is the law of the land. But making the fight to reverse this decision of our nation’s highest court the central focus of living authentic Christian faith is dangerous.
Denying access to medically safe abortions under ALL circumstances is not our law. Making the quest to change our law more important than living in God’s power under the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is antithetical to Scripture and discounts our Lord’s plea that His followers be united. If you strongly oppose any abortions, reach out to young expectant mothers who do not want to bear a child and offer, in love, to walk alongside them through the process, help with expenses, and help arrange for the child’s adoption.
I know Jesus cares just as much about children that are born into this world as He does about about those still in the womb. For example, can we truly justify forced separation of very young children from their parents in the name of strict law enforcement? Is it appropriate to accuse those who care about those traumatized children of advocating “open borders”? That kind of playground rhetoric must not be allowed to dominate our politics and culture.
One more point: It’s time to place national security restrictions on social media. This week, the head of Facebook said he would not restrict access to his platform of a group that openly seeks to take advantage of ongoing racial divisions by inciting violence against law enforcement officers as a way to start a second civil war. Really, if our Constitution‘s First Amendment does not protect one who yells fire in a crowded theater, it certainly does not protect groups that seek to destroy our country. Again, too much freedom and no responsibility will, on a significant scale, spell the end of our great experiment in democracy. Unity cannot be achieved by elections. Nor can unity ever be perfect. But I believe the great majority of our citizens would prefer movements toward middle ground to losing their freedoms. Just read Plato’s The Republic.
Let’s stop fixating on MSNBC or Fox News, and start, at the local level first, to forge compromises and protect the union that generations of military personnel have fought and died to preserve. Let’s reach out to friends and neighbors, listen to their ideas and fears, and try to find middle ground. I probably don’t have that many years left on this side of eternity, but I plead with all my fellow citizens: do what you can to seek and find middle ground. No one will be completely satisfied, but that’s the test of a viable compromise, and the essential formula for greater national unity.
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