We live in an ever-changing world. Culture changes. Economics change. Families change. Politics change. The list goes on.
Earlier this week, I was having a conversation about how much America, in particular, has changed in the last 20 years with a guy who is a few years younger than me. He isn’t old enough to recall 911. He has heard about it. He has some strong opinions that I believe are based more on what he has gleaned from online conspiracy peddlers than from facts on the ground or any real memory of it. I was thinking about how the youngest among us get their information now. Information is everywhere. On our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and in our cars. We never have to be away from it if we do not want to.
I remember when the news was at 6 pm on 2 or maybe 3 channels on our TVs, and they had an hour to give us the most pertinent information. There wasn’t time for anything but the “real” news. Now they glut the airwaves with tidbits of truth often mixed with a significant amount of opinion, conjecture, & sadly sometimes outright deception. Celebrities and their opinions have, in many ways, replaced journalistic purists who were there to disseminate information without the taint of bias.
For many of us, it is hard to distill what is true from what is less than in this deluge of dialogue. Talking heads. Always talking. Telling what to think, who to like, who to hate, what is good, and what is evil.
I have walked the earth long enough to remember a time when most people didn’t know or care to know who their neighbor voted for. People didn’t care who their favorite actor or artist voted for. Most actors or artists wouldn’t speak publicly because even with their stardom, success, and ego, they had enough humility to believe that they were not so important that they needed to tell other people how to think or that others should be expected to care.
The ballot box was the determining factor for who sat in elected office, not who I was friends with. Unfortunately, we have turned a corner in this country, and it has landed us on a road that is riddled with potholes and pitfalls that used to be reserved for the most extreme among us. It used to be that only the radicalized on the left or right were so fanatical that they would be moved to hate those who had a different worldview, political persuasion, or opinion than they did. Now, that behavior has become the mainstream of American politics. Words like enemy, threat to democracy, fascist, and worse are used instead of political opponent, other party, or the other, more considerate and less volatile words we once used to describe those with whom we have differences.
The emotion of hate is nothing new. Men have hated since almost the first generation drew breath on this earth. What has changed, in many ways, is who we hate and why we hate them.
I once had the thought that perhaps this current political and social climate in America is not all that new. In the 60’s, there was social discord and certainly hateful behavior that was the causation of the civil rights movement that Dr. King and others so bravely championed. I was not on Earth in those days. I know people who were, however, and I have asked them if our culture is worse in the ways I have described here. Without exception, they all said that as bad as it was (and it was tragically, unbearably awful) in places and at times in the 60’s for people of color and those who stood with them, that in some ways, the hatefulness and vitriolic language that centers around the political division in America is worse today than it was then. I am not saying it is worse in every way or that there might not be people out there who I haven’t spoken with who have a different perspective. The ones I have spent time with have said that the cultural norms that allow so many of us to feel justified in hating those who are different than us, especially in politics, are unparalleled in recent American history, perhaps in all of her history.
I first noticed this shift when President Obama, then candidate Obama, was running for the White House. The division and mean-spiritedness of those days seem to pale in comparison to today, but when compared to what had been before them, it seems to me that the division and hate-filled language ramped up significantly around that time. Instead of course correcting, it has only gotten worse.
A conversation on this would only be disingenuous if I did not also acknowledge that a great many of the politicians in power now in both major political parties in America have only added fuel to this raging fire that is consuming the past civility of our culture. When they do it, it is a dog whistle that signals to the American populace that it is now acceptable and even patriotic to follow their (bad) example in the name-calling, division, and hateful memes, messages, and mean mugging.
Isn’t it exhausting, though? Hate exhausts us. My prayer is that at some point this country reaches critical mass with the hate, and we decide that Dr. King was right when he said that he chose to love because “hate is too great a burden to bear.” For the moment, a great many seem to have forgotten or perhaps never heard those words, so eloquently and wisely spoken by the Reverend. If we ever needed to hear them again, that day is now.
Finally, in the midst of all that has changed, I want to encourage you with what has not.
The power of Christlike love to overcome all of the bad and destructive forces of hate has not changed.
The ability for all of us to admit where we have gone astray and let God guide us back to the path of Christlike love has not changed.
The willingness and ability of the God who is love to transform us from the inside out when we say YES to His invitation has not changed.
Jesus’ command for those who claim to follow Him to love their enemies and everyone else (even those they disagree with) as He loves them has not changed.
Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called children of God - has not changed.
Beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God, and everyone who loves like Jesus is born again of God and knows God in an intimate relational way. Whoever does not love others like Jesus does, does not know Him in a relational way, for love comes from Jesus. -has not changed.
Jesus said, “They will know you are my disciples by the way you love one another.” - has not changed.
The Apostle Paul’s direction to pray for those in leadership and not slander them has not changed.
Christ’s Love is louder than hate when we let it be heard in our lives. I am praying that my life is a megaphone through which Jesus can speak His love for others into the cultural quagmire of hatefulness and ugly that we so often find ourselves in. I believe that as followers of Jesus pray similar prayers and are awakened to a renewed commitment to Christlike love, the tide can turn us around. A change of mind. Repentance. A real revolution anchored in and powered by the love of Jesus. Call me crazy, but I still believe.