A long time ago I heard this bit of wisdom from my Southern Illinois kinfolk. “It takes 50 strong hands to build a barn and one jackass to kick it down.” Or consider this description of a person as, “Someone who could start a fight in an empty room.”
With that merry background, consider that we are lumbering into election year politics. We watch with fascination as political pundits spew and Facebook fanatics fling incendiary posting for all to see about this or that usual suspect. Such exchanges have all the attraction of watching two drunks with samurai swords fighting it out in a phone booth.
The Bible tells us to ‘seek peace, and pursue it’ (Psalm 34:14). Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’ Our culture and our community have an abundance of soapbox saints who know exactly what is wrong and who is wrong on this or that issue. Who is right and what constructive steps are needed always seem to be questions left for another day. Why build the barn when you can kick it down?
How do we become peacemakers in a ‘gotcha’ society? How do we encourage gracious conversation when layers of political correctness from left and right declare honest differences of opinion to be heresy or bigotry?
Like leaven for bread, we can embrace a better way. Beware language that by its nature polarizes people and issues into the forces of ‘them’ and ‘us.’ Think of terms such as pro-life and pro-choice, or progressive and orthodox. Even folks with good intentions can overlook the divisive power of such words. If you are not pro-life, does that make you anti-life? If you are not pro-choice, are you anti-choice, a foot soldier in the ‘war on women?’
Choose words with care to describe self and others, especially others with positions you question or reject. Openly laugh at political ads and talking heads that seem to arrive for the interview armed mostly with cans of verbal gasoline to slosh around the conversation. Refuse to watch programs of left or right that revel in pouring political black ants into red ant holes, and vice versa. We are better than this.
Pope Francis is visiting the U.S. His official title is pontifex maximus. ‘Pontifex’ literally means, ‘one who builds a bridge.’ What bridge can you build in Peoria? What group of ‘them’ needs a bridge of conversation with ‘us’? This won’t make you Pope but every bridge built in Peoria reflects our inner greatness as a community that truly does ‘seek peace and pursue it.’
Rev. Robert Phillips is directing pastor at First United Methodist Church.