I am a subscriber to Imprimis, a conservative newsletter published by Hillsdale College, a privately funded college with traditional Christian values and insights. In the latest issue of Imprimis, Christopher Caldwell, Senior Fellow, The Claremont Institute Author, The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties, talks about the deepening partisan divide in this country (See https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/). In that article, Caldwell says that "American society today is divided by party and by ideology in a way it has perhaps not been since the Civil War." He then goes on to point to "strands" that have produced such a divide, including the Vietnam War, role of women, and the "emergency" Civil Rights Law of 1964 that has gone way off the original mark and is now used for every divide between Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal, Christian and non-Christian that we see today. For me to even quote or refer to Imprimis puts me in the "bigot" category, seemingly unable to carry on a civil discussion with people of opposing viewpoints.
I must, however, take exception to this caricature (or even reality to some). In my ongoing role as a retired pastor and a current church health consultant (for NCDAmerica), I am fully aware of several realities in this partisan divide that Caldwell and other conservatives portray. It is always easier to critique and analyze the problems rather than to do the hard work of curing or alleviating the problems. It is not that I disagree with the analysis, but I am reminded of taking a graduate course in a highly recognized seminary where I raised the theological question -- "If our understanding of the Bible is so 'air tight' why don't those on the other side ever deal with these arguments?" The answer from our professor was simple--"They never read our journals, never digest our books and never engage with us in any way." That is part of our problem today, isn't it? We don't really read or talk with one another, especially on opposing sides of the aisle. Caldwell and others like him are hardly ever read, and when they are read, they are dismissed as bigots, hate mongers, and so forth. So, my first point is, Why can't we honestly read one another? Why can't we really "hear" one another, not merely listen?
I am a Baby Boomer, a child of the late 1940s, a teenager of the 1960s, having seen America transform from the values of the 1950s to the radical ideas and concepts and precepts of the 1960s and later years. I have ministered through the raucous 1970s, the "me" generation of the 1980s, the economic tensions of the 1990s and the "new age" of the 2000s. I have spoken to and with people from every generation in those years. While perspectives and assumptions have radically changed, people hardly ever change. Fears of the 1960s are fears of the 2000s. Technological advancements have separated, not united us, and the beast we have launched with the internet of the 1970s has become all consuming and threatens to devour its children. It is not that we should go backwards, but are we really prepared to go forwards? The greatest needs of economic and job security, fairness, safety for us and our children, peace at home and abroad are still there, still behind all the rhetoric. It is not a matter of "civil rights," but rather a matter of human rights, of Constitutional rights, of being able to live and speak and exist freely as a society, not merely as isolated individuals.
So, here's a radical thought--get to know and listen to your neighbors, especially the ones who disagree with you, but have the same needs as you do. Engage in civil discussion, even when it seems hopelessly insane to do so. Reject the anger, vitriol, hatred, narrowness that often defines people. Agree to disagree. Prove that you are no bigot, no hate monger, but rather a follower of Jesus Christ who believes in his principles. Take the admonition of Paul to Timothy seriously -- "Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil’s trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands." ( 2 Timothy 2:23-26. The Message)
