Just in from the out of doors. Been weeding and cutting back some of the plantings past their prime. (Scarily enough, there are still a few tomatoes out there!) It's a beautiful fall afternoon. Cool, clear, the colors bright after the rain, the air smelling fresh.
Moving around, getting my hands dirty after too many hours in front of a computer, was a salutary exercise in more ways than one. Weeding and chopping is almost instinctive. It leaves your mind free. It lets you think. The yard is quiet now. It's possible to replay tapes of the day in a way that makes sense.
The late-day light is soothing. That helps too: It takes your mind away from the frantic t.v. reports, the talking heads on a rant, the end-of-the-world hysteria that is today's news. Playing in the dirt, getting back to the real rhythms of life--the slow slide toward winter--gives perspective. No matter how bad things seem, on a fundamental level, life goes on the way it always has.
Today at work, there was political talk. How could there not be? A friend and I came to the same conclusion: One of the things that seems so scary right now is the sense that we as a people are so divided. We have let ourselves be pushed into a corner where we see everything in black and white.
"Those people" with opinions other than ours aren't just reasonable people with whom we disagree. They're "evil-doers," "terrorists," "greedy capitalists"; they're people who "hate America," don't share "our values," have a different religion from us (or worse, none at all). They certainly can't be trusted to do the right thing. We can't talk to them, reason with them or admit that they might have any valid point to any of the arguments they raise. They're also probably ugly, kick small animals, leave trash in their front yards and would eat babies if only it weren't illegal. If any of "them" are elected, the country will crumble before our eyes, and the world as we know it will end. Like Jonah from the Old Testament lesson of a couple of weeks ago (Jonah 3:10-4:11), we might as well just build a tent outside the city walls and die because we're so angry, and we know that no good will come with "those people" in charge.
Problem is, in a couple of weeks, for half of us (my friend says a third; I think it's closer to half, but then I'm in a pessimistic mood) "those people" are the ones who are going to be in charge. (Who "those people" are is left as an exercise for the reader. I have my hopes and fears about who is going to be who, but I wouldn't bet what's left of my 401K on the answer.)
When "those people" are in office, what do we do? The vitriol and hatred spread around (and no political party's hands are clean on this) is sticking. This divisiveness has been building for years, and folks with agenda have been deliberately fostering it. Now the chickens are coming home to roost at a time when we need to really pull together to get ourselves out of the hole we've dug. And how do we do that if we don't trust the guy with the shovel next to us?
One of the things I've learned in covering the manufacturing business for a number of years is that a common tactic on the part of companies that are maybe a bit behind the technological curve is to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) around as thickly as they can about advances in the technology. If they spread it on thickly enough, it will slow adoption and give them time to catch up a bit.
The same tactics work on the bigger stage of politics. Spread enough FUD around and people are too busy worrying about it to watch what you're doing behind their backs.
One of the questions I've learned to ask about FUD is who's benefiting from it, because you can bet what's left of your 401K that somebody is. That's why they're spreading it in the first place. Now conspiracy theories are a classic part of FUD, and I'm not going to play by suggesting who those folks might be. I don't know. All I do know is that, between the Politics of Division that we've been practicing in this country for much of my adult life and the current financial mess, there's plenty of FUD around. Some of it is even legitimate. But there are also a bunch of folks who are going to play it up for all it's worth for their benefit, not yours.
So here's my question: What is our role as Christians at this very difficult time? Abraham Lincoln, at a time when the country was in an even more dangerous and divided state than it is now, appealed to our "better angels." (I thought it was in his 2nd Inaugural Address, but it's not. However, there's a good message in that address anyway. It's not long. Read it. It still speaks to us--especially the middle part about both sides appealing to the same God.)
Wrong citation or no, I'm thinking the idea of better angels is leading in the right direction. We Christians are called clearly to be peacemakers. How we do that in this time and place is hard to know. I think we begin by refusing to dehumanize people with whom we disagree--even those who are our sworn enemies. (I'm still trying to pray sincerely for Osama bin Laden and a few other folk I don't much like much nearer to home. It makes for an interesting spiritual discipline.) We refuse to enter into the nasty muck of rumor-spreading and outright lies about those we see as political opponents. We don't take cheap shots or listen to others when they do. Maybe we even do the unLutheran thing of making a scene and calling them out on it. We draw a line between fun political satire and outright meanness, and err on the side of not having as much fun as we might like. We actually listen to people with other viewpoints, rather than just looking for ways to shoot them down. We stop with the "us" and "them" categories. Maybe we commit to memory Philippians 4:8 and look for all the noble, pure, lovely, upright and admirable things we can find about "those people."
We've been talking a lot about finding a way to live out the mission of Bethel of bringing the life-giving message of Jesus to the people in our neighborhood. Maybe here's a way. How do we become peacemakers in a divided and frightened community?
This is just late Wednesday rambling. I'm open to suggestions. Seriously.
What do you think, and what are you having for dinner tonight?
Good blog. It made me think. Tomatoes for dinner.
Posted by: Cuz Jan | October 09, 2008 at 11:19 AM