What’s the best way to offend and rile up a person? Simple, ignore them. Act as if they don’t belong or don’t even have a right to exist. Objectify and dehumanize them. Another way is to attack their character, question their integrity, ridicule their beliefs, and laugh at their ideas and make them feel like idiots. In short, treat them like dirt, like something that can be used, abused, tossed-out, and thrown away. What’s the point? Well, every cause or special interest group has its “insiders” and “outsiders.” Those on the INside belong; they are valued as persons, as individuals with considered opinions and their feelings are respected. But those on the OUTside, not only do not count but are sometimes seen as non-human; that is, deemed unworthy of common respect and dignity. In a worst case scenario, outsiders are viewed as trash, less deserving of consideration than even many animals. I wonder, are we in danger of moving in this direction with regard to the way we hold our political, religious, economic, and social convictions against each other?
America was built upon the idea that we are all free to have our thoughts and express them without fear of being threatened, attacked, degraded, or excommunicated from the commonwealth for holding them. We should ask ourselves, “What is the just and respectful way to build and experience positive community within a context of great diversity?” If anything, we want a just society, a society in which everyone gets a fair shake and is justly treated by the “system.” This is the perspective from which this blog will be written. As to the name, I must give credit where credit is due: Eastern University’s motto (St. Davids, PA) inspired the title. Their motto is “Grow in Faith, Learn to Reason, and Help bring Justice.” I’m taking a slightly different direction with these three great dynamics in human interaction to say let us practice our Faith with Reason and engage each other with our differences in humility and with respect, that is, justly. A great prophet of God once put it this way: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
How can we reason together, respecting our Faith(s), or lack thereof, and actually be real and considerate neighbors knowing that we have differing and even sometimes contradictory beliefs, assumptions, and worldviews that shape our thinking on just about every subject, community incident, news event, or decision that our representatives and community leaders make? This blog will ask questions and seek to understand. Is it possible to have a higher level of discourse and embrace a kind of American Unity that rises above and beyond its many differing ideas and opinions? Must every diverse opinion always trigger explosive, hateful reactions? How do we own our deepest values and Faith commitments so as to not side-step or deny them, yet live with each other’s varying and wide ranging beliefs, opinions, and perspectives?
We are all Americans. So what does it mean when a civil or political group says, “We must take back America”? Who took it? And who are America’s “rightful owners”? We are a mixed and diverse people of various faith expressions and definitions of belief, including non-belief. So, what does it mean to be “ONE nation under God”? We all assume that there is right and wrong, the good verses the bad. So what does it mean for one group of citizens to denounce and/or censure another group of citizens because their right is the other’s wrong, or the other’s good is their bad?
How then shall we apply our Faith convictions with measured Reason and respectful Justice? Faith informs our values and gives meaning to our turbulent and often confusing world. But faith without reason can lead to wishful fantasy at best or dangerous and delusional concepts of Reality at worse—possibly resulting in hurt and shattered lives—remember the Jim Jones incident so many years ago? Reason provides the rationale, the logic we use for coming to our conclusions even as we draw from Faith suppositions. But Reason without Faith can lead to intellectual hubris, viewing Believers as poor ignorant fools who are easily duped and led astray by brokers of religious hysteria. Both sides, People of Faith and the Reason Only people, can become dangerously arrogant seeking unilateral dominance and control and engage in destructive power plays, each group hostile and intolerant toward the other.
Living justly and with humility asks whether we are being consistent. Do our actions and attitudes expressed in the public political social and religious arena belie our Faith and Value statements, making us hypocritical? That is, are we desiring productive and fruitful outcomes when we share our disagreement with others or merely seeking to be divisive and destructive because we don’t see things going our way? I would hope that the combination of Faith, Reason, and Justice would lead us toward greater clarity and fruitfulness in our human interactions, not less.
Am I crazy for believing that hateful attitudes (and behavior) toward each other is unnecessary, despite our great divisions in beliefs, convictions, and values? Perhaps I am. But then again, I AM a Believer, and for some, to be a Believer IS crazy. What do you think? Is ONE unified America possible, or are we doomed to be a house divided against its self?
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