Christians healing America
In many ways, America is broken. In many ways, well-meaning and passionate Christians are unwittingly contributing to this debilitating brokenness. None of these are necessarily bad people, but in our collective passion to do what is presumed to be right, Christians in particular, and Americans overall, have created a cataclysmic breach in the fabric of our beloved country. It is a breach that Christians are also called to overcome.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of this breach in prophetic terms over a half-century ago when he said, “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
So much of modern religion and politics is fracturing along liens of fear and failed communication. Republicans do not understand the perspective of Democrats and Democrats fail to comprehend how Republicans think. Evangelical Christians do not like the theology of Progressive Christians and Progressive Christians cannot stand the theology of Evangelicals. From this perceptual chasm arises a massive upsurge of distrust, hatred, and fear. Yet, as Dr. King so eloquently warned, this bitterness and discontent arises not so much from our passion to do what is right, but from our unwillingness to communicate. Consequently, the breach grows and grows. The question, how much more can this nation bear before it reaches a fracture point.
President Abraham Lincoln was also very prophetic during another time of paralyzing division within America when he quoted the words of Jesus Christ in an effort to put the bitter hatred and vehement opposition into perspective. In what was essentially an acceptance speech in his bid for the US Senate and defending his controversial stand in opposition to slavery, Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He was quoting from Matthew 12:25 where Jesus, critical of the divisive thoughts and actions of the political and religious leadership of his age, chastised them by saying that no nation, city, or house divided would be able to stand.
Isaiah also speaks across the ages into our modern divide with prophetic words reminding Christians of our true call in God. In Isaiah 58 the prophet condemns those who use their presumed religious righteousness as a means to quarrel, fight, and strike others down with wickedness. In contrast, Isaiah calls for the faithful of God to end injustice, relieve unwieldly burdens, end oppression, promote equality, ensure the hungry are fed, and the homeless housed.
True greatness, Isaiah proclaims in 58:12, comes when those who profess to call on God, become repairers of the breach. It is an echo of 2 Chronicles 7:14 which reminds the faithful that if God’s people who are called by God’s name humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from the wicked ways of the world, wholeness is ours—the breach can be repaired, the nation healed, and God’s sovereignty will truly be known.
It must begin with honest, sincere, prayerful, and faithful communication. Rather than investing countless dollars, endless investigations, and relentless accusations into how corrupt, sinful, and evil the other side is, it is time that Americans sit down and truly understand one another. Rather than embrace theological practices that seek to control the religion of others and impose theocratic power over the nation in the presumed name of righteousness, it is time that Americans got back to caring for one another and ensuring that equality, voting rights, safety, health, and justice are paramount. That is God’s way.
This article originally appeared on Carlsbad Current-Argus: Christians healing America
