Where we go from here

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. My faith in this country is at an all time low right now. And the worst part is that I know it’s going to get worse. We seem hellbent on ripping each other apart. And there doesn’t seem to be any moment, event, or words that will break us and cause us to stop.

I don’t enjoy saying that. I hope I am wrong.

I remember reading one book that talked about people’s identity and how important it is to us. There’s an experiment in which aliens come to Earth and give humanity 24 hours to offer a join, unified message. If there isn’t a joint unified message, the destruction takes place and we can’t stop it. Every group that has participated in this experiment failed. Every one. Why? Because people couldn’t let go of their egos. They couldn’t look out for the good of the whole. They couldn’t come to an agreement. They wanted what they wanted and would not give, even in the event of impending doom. They preferred no one got anything, rather than someone else gets something they didn’t. That’s disturbing on so many levels.

And it’s not like leaving here and going somewhere else is a great option. This isn’t just an American problem. This is a human problem. It just comes and goes at different times and in different places. And it shifts here and there. Humanity has a serious problem and all we seem to want to do is blame someone else, call ourselves the victims, and fight.

When winning is all that matters, it’s not that one side wins and the other side loses. No. Everyone loses. Everyone. Even the supposed victors lose, whether they recognize it or not. They are left with having to exert energy and time and resources to spinning thing to make themselves look like the good guys, with the trauma of the violence they inflict while it calling it justified, with memories that will haunt them, with anger issues that never go away, etc.

Us and them is going to kill us. Our partisanship is killing us. This locking our identities into political parties is killing us. These parties don’t give a damn about any of us. Political parties demand loyalty, parroting the party line no matter how much it changes and contradicts itself. Political parties want our money. Political parties want our votes in order to put a few people in power, all while those people listen closely to the super wealthy want. Political parties are a part of the problem. But not the full problem. It’s just not that simple.

Rhetoric is a part of the problem, but again, it’s not the full problem. If we changed the way to talked about each other, that wouldn’t change the reality that we have a violence problem.

Mental health is a part of the problem, but again, it’s not the full problem. Even if we fully funded, openly talked about, and actually dealt with mental health, we’d still have a violence problem.

Guns and weapons are a part of the problem, but again, not the full problem. Even if we somehow removed every weapon on the planet, we’d still have a violence problem.

There are many more aspects that could be thrown in to list. And I think part of why my faith in this country and humanity is so low is that we absolutely refuse to even consider any of these at all. We insist on doing nothing different. We insist on not even talking about any of it. We turn every thing into some kind of partisan point. It is disgusting and disturbing to no end.

I don’t expect that the world is going to operate the way I want it to. That’s ridiculous on the surface. Heck, I don’t even believe I have the answers to so much of what goes on. I keep questioning if I have any answers at all.

But can we at least move past laying blame and being most worried about who wins and actually just deal with the problems we face? Maybe even just a little. Criminalizing people isn’t the answer. Making a problem move so that it’s someone else’s problem isn’t the answer either.

Is there a we at all? Or is this country just us and them? Maybe it’s always been that way. To some degree it has, it’s just been a matter of who fits into the categories.

Maybe the biggest frustration I have is the incongruence of this country. We called ourselves the United States. But we are hardly united and mostly haven’t been united. We claim to be a land of immigrants, but our history shows that every wave of immigration has been full of anti-immigrant zeal. We claim to be very Christian, but our policies and laws throughout our history have been the antithesis of Christlikeness.

Ever notice that Jesus didn’t side with the Pharisees versus the Sadducees? Or the empire versus the nationalists? Or any of the ideological and theological us and thems of ancient Israel?

If he sided with anyone, it was with the least powerful in society, the oppressed, the marginalized, the victimized, the outcast. Giving recent events, I’m gaining a new appreciation for this. The sides are interested in one thing – winning. And regardless of which side wins, the marginalized, oppressed, outcast, and poor never benefit. The names change. The slogans adjust. But the people at the bottom stay at the bottom. The people at the top, stay at the top, often gaining more wealth, influence and power. Jesus wasn’t interested in flipping sides. He flipped tables.

When Jesus flipped the table in the Temple, it’s wasn’t just a symbolic act of anger. He interrupted a corrupt system that was taking from the lowest and giving to the highest. When he drove out the animals, he was interrupting a corrupt Temple system that was in cahoots with the Roman Empire – itself an oppressive system. The Empire choose who the High Priest was. The reason was simple – the Temple was just another arm of the Empire to keep the population under control, paying taxes, and following orders. In an earlier empire, it was make more bricks.

Jesus sabotaged the Temple for the day. When talked about “The poor you will always have with you” he wasn’t pointing out the hopelessness of trying to alleviate poverty, or that the poor are lazy so that’s why they are poor. No. He was saying that humanity puts up with and often actively supports oppressive systems that will keep a significant number of people poor. It’s designed that way.

He saw that the us and them of his time was a losing proposition and he attempted to interrupt it.

I also think that given all of this, Jesus had no faith in humanity. He loved people. He walked among humans. He cured people. He set people free. But he did not have faith in humanity. He didn’t have faith that humanity could do what it needed to do to move in a different direction. Only God can do that.

Or maybe to be clear, God can do it, but God isn’t about forcing people into it. That’s the paradox of God. God is all powerful, but doesn’t manipulate humanity with force into doing what God wants. God is invitational. That has to be highly frustrating.

Jesus spent his earthly ministry inviting people into a different way. Some went along, and others rejected him. He wasn’t interested in making friends with the powerful of a side in order to get some of that power.  He ate with them to show them their own humanity, frailty, and limitations so they could see it in others too and see how they have a responsibility to do something for their fellow humans.  He invited them to care about others. He didn’t have faith in humanity.  He had faith in God.  I used to think not having faith in humanity was some kind of negative.  Now I think it’s Christlike.  

So where does that leave me? I have seen too many messages clamoring for violence and war, for us and them, for judgement and condemnation. I have seen too much hatred and thirst for blood. I have seen too much addiction to winning at all costs. I have heard the underlying beliefs of the ends justify the means, that might makes right, and only the strong survive. None of this moves us in the right direction where we start to heal, where we start do self-examination for the problems we face, where we come together to have a better society. None of this gives me any hope for humanity or this country.

And maybe that’s what we all need. There’s a song by Rise Against called “Satellite.” The lyrics form verse two carry deep meaning, I think:

You can’t fill your cup until you empty all it has
You can’t understand what lays ahead if you don’t understand the past
You’ll never learn to fly until you’re standing at the cliff
You can’t truly love until you’ve given up on it

Maybe we can’t truly have faith in the country or humanity until we give up on it, or the idealistic view of it.

What that means for me is that I’m going to choose things that aren’t popular. I’m going to choose grace and mercy instead of anger and judgement. I’m going to choose peace instead of violence and war. I’m going to choose to see the humanity of the other rather than dehumanize. I’m going to listen when I can rather than talk at in a condescending way. I’m going to see my own limitations as much as possible rather than impose on others. I’m going to invite instead of demand. I’m going to see how our salvation is tied up in one another rather than believing that winning is what is most important. I’m going to choose love instead of indifference. I’m going to trust instead of latch onto certainty.

I will fall and fail at these things over and over again. But I know I will not be alone. Because even though my faith in this country and humanity is at an all time low, there are people who have also chosen this path. We are not alone. There is hope. We are called to live these things. To follow Christ. To have faith, but where it belongs.