“History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity.
“We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.”
Those words were spoken by President Biden at his Jan. 20, 2021 inaugural speech.
It seems like a different era and a different president now.
Of course, those words were uttered long before our “unifying” President began calling Trump – and those who voted for him – semi-fascists and the greatest threat to democracy. He has declared these things in multiple speeches recently – from his red Philadelphia speech on Sept. 1 to his recent speech at Union Station.
My point is not that Biden is a lying politician, but that he said some good things in the opening excerpt. In fact, he said some things that would help the polarizing atmosphere and our nation – if he and other leaders would actually “treat each other with dignity and respect.”
The same is obviously true for Trump, with his well-known mean tweets and constant disrespect for political opponents.
As the political divide becomes more and more a worldview divide – making every election feel monumental – are we past the point of civility and unity?
It now seems that any change in the political climate isn’t going to happen from the top down. Whether Republican or Democrat, top political candidates increasingly treat each other as adversaries, not as neighbors – encouraging the same from their constituents.
We need local leaders, beginning with fathers and mothers – as well as pastors and local politicians – to model how to respond to political opponents in a way that doesn’t just generate seething anger. We need to model how to treat those we disagree with – on important issues – as fellow human beings created in the image of God.
We can start with avoiding what some call “dualism” – the presumption that the evil that is in the world is all on the side of my enemies, while my friends and I are all good. The problem with dualism is that while there is real evil and good in this world – and there is more evil on one political side than the other – neither side is all good.
We need to recognize that our own sin is so pervasive that it affects every individual and thus every organization and political party. It doesn’t usually help things to point out that the sin of others is worse than our own.
Years ago when asked what was wrong with the world, author G.K. Chesterton answered concisely and biblically: “I am.”
This admission is the beginning of developing the humility that leads to one becoming a good leader that can truly “stop the shouting, and lower the temperature.”
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.