Raca
“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Matt 5:21-24
I had the great pleasure of talking about this with a friend and his wife at a chance meeting at a local coffee house.
Even though we are both at opposite ends of the political spectrum, we both lamented at how the American people appear to value combat over compromise.
We as a country appear to be much more interested in who is right rather than what is right.
Now some people might say that this has always been so. So I started to do a little research on the subject.
It’s true that this country has had periods of time when it was badly divided, but we’ve also had leaders who had the courage to bring us back together.
Those of you who watch the Daily Show already know part of this story, but I’ll share it for the rest. One of the most contentious periods in our history was the civil war. This was a time when brothers were joining opposing armies with the understanding that they might actually be shooting at one another. That’s how passionate people were about the issues of slavery and state’s rights. Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 on an anti-slavery platform and had to deal with almost half the country in open revolt against his policies.
Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about this period of time in her biography Team of Rivals. One of the things Lincoln did after he was elected, was to select three of his bitter political rivals, Seward, Chase, and Bates for cabinet posts. He felt it essential to have the views of all of the people represented as decisions were made which affected the future of the union.
We need leaders with that sort of vision and courage today.
We have to figure out how to get beyond the concerns of political correctness, spin, and political advantage. We must openly disagree if we are to discover what binds us together and what we can accomplish. We must talk to each other in order to disagree. We must speak honestly as well as decently, which means that we may sometimes need to say unpleasant things about each other.
At the end of the day, we have to reconcile with all our brothers rather than treat them like fools or criminals. Our choices, like Lincoln’s, have to be for the good of the union rather than the good of any particular political party. We need leaders who will remind us that our strength is in our diversity and that our policy should be the result of healthy debate and thoughtful compromise.
We’ll have leaders like Lincoln by voting for them when we find them, even if they don’t support all that we believe in. Our votes help set the tone of government. This change starts with you and me.
June 13th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I could not miss the irony of combat over compromise, the Civil War, and the tribe of Simeon. Simeon was dispersed among people of different countries so as not to have, for the most part, their own country because they were too warlike and would be waging war all the time. Granted they battlled for God, but He found them without compromise and chose to scatter them. Well you gotta know that as a nation we are not without the members of the tribe of Simeon and that would be our south, therefore, the Civil War occurred
I lived in Augusta for a year as a yankee. They do not hesitate to remind us we have the education, but they have the grace. They also had Klan numbers 5 digits long on their hardhats where my husband was working at the time. They are definitely without compromise, so the grace part is a little self delusional I think. Nonetheless, they are very Simeon like. As long as they are in the mix, expect division now and then.
June 14th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Ria,
Thanks for your comment.
I agree with you that some of the cultural differences which led to the Civil War are still with us almost 150 years later. Given that, I think it even more important, if we are interested in a peaceful world, that we get started on the hard work of really understanding the cultural differences which seem to separate Muslims and Christians.
Jeff
June 15th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
I had the opportunity to blog back and forth with a muslim that was in an argument with another blogger during the last election. I think it was on abcnewsblog. It was a good conversation where I began the same as you telling him that we should look at what is alike between us not what is different. And continued with the fact that their old testament God is our old testament God, so Alla is God. We both know the story about our division. Both sides are passionate about what they believe and will not change. This is an admirable trait relative to faith that we both should recognize in each other. The conversation ended with blessings from Allah, so I guess he followed and agreed.
RACA means lack of respect. We can segregate or tolerate neither means what respect means. Respect means we honestly find something admirable about each other and stick to celebrating that rather than pointing out differences like differences are something new.
June 16th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Ria,
Thanks for the great story.
Now we need to find leaders who share that vision and have the courage to live it.
Jeff