“On Avoiding Civil War”
I generally try to avoid the controversial topic of politics on this website. Religion is a divisive enough topic. Why write about another?
However, in this case, I am going to make an exception. I fear that our nation is teetering on the brink of civil war. Some friends thought I was being too dramatic when I’ve said that in the past. I hoped and prayed that those friends were right and that I was wrong. After the events of this past Wednesday, I’m not so sure. If we are to avoid a second civil war, there are steps we need to take right now.
First, we need take responsibility for what we say and how we say it. Rhetoric is the means we use to try to persuade people of something. Inflammatory rhetoric doesn’t persuade. It just inflames.
Second, we need to take responsibility for what we hear and how we hear. Listening to the same political pundits (or only our like-minded friends on Facebook) all the time may not further our knowledge. Such a practice only confirms us in our opinions. And sometimes our opinions become convictions that destroy us and others.
Third, we need to think very deeply about what is going on in our country right now. Slogans won’t cut it, but slogans will cut our nation into pieces. Slogans such as “Stop the Steal” are not a viable substitute for doing our homework.
For example, if there was widespread voter fraud, if the Democrats really stole the election, if there were a lot of bogus ballots, then why did the Democrats not elect more senators and more representatives than they did? Pretty poor planning on their part, if you ask me. Even in states with supposedly widespread fraud, many Republicans who were on the same ballots won. Why? Maybe because the ballots were not doctored or made up.
As another part of our homework, we need to ask ourselves this question: Why did Trump lose so many court challenges—somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty of them. Many of these challenges were made before conservative judges, and even trump-appointed conservative judges. These cases were dismissed due to a lack of evidence. Simply alleging voter fraud isn’t enough. Where is the proof?
Fourth, and above all, we all need to think about our tendency to create us-and-them categories. Republicans are not demons; neither are Democrats. But if we create enemies among ourselves, we are all in league with the demons. And we will lose more than our nation. We will lose our very souls.
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