A Nation Divided

“And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”

Abraham Lincoln may have said this but it was Jesus who first coined it.

When you live in a binary world only your choices or options are seriously diminished.

When your outlook on life is always either/or you really don’t have much wiggle room for a both/and way of looking at your world.

When your world is colored in black and white only you seriously restrict your options in the way you shape your worldview.

America is in trouble. 

America is a house (nation) deeply divided. 

America is a nation split almost in half both ideologically and politically.

Theologically America is all over the place.

We are so polarized we are allowing ourselves to be edged closer and closer to the point of not being able to recover.

In fact, if there were any substance to the mantra ”Make America Great Again” it would be located in the hope that our greatness lies in the paradoxical unity of our diversity. 

Now this doesn’t mean we all must think alike but it does imply that we all work together for the Common or Greater Good of our nation in spite of our differences.

It also implies that we identify the real culprit of our national divide. This may be a tall order to be sure but so critically important.

I tend to look at my world through the lens of my Christian faith. 

Not everyone sees their world through this lens. I get that and I am not implying that my worldview, which is constructed largely upon the teachings of Jesus and Paul and other Christian thinkers, is the only way to look at one’s world. It is not! I’m okay with this, I really am.

But it works for me and I do believe it is a good way to see the world-at-large. You may not agree and that’s okay too. But let’s attempt to answer what I believe is an important question for all Americans to answer at this time:

"Why are we so divided in America today?" 

There is a cosmic battle taking place that lies beyond our natural/physical capabilities of either seeing it or fully comprehending it. Satan, whether you envision  him as an evil force or as a fallen angel or as a rebellious personality created by God or as a dark energy,  is a major player in this conflict.

For me this Evil (Satan) is engaged in a cosmic conflict or battle with God. Jesus makes it clear that Satan is the principle antagonists and agitator behind this conflict. He is the great disturber of all that is good and unified in this world. So who am I to correct Jesus on the way he viewed the world? Read the Gospels for yourself rather than take my word for it.

Satan’s goal in this cosmic conflict is to divide so as to conquer. 

This has been his strategy for ages upon ages. 

Think Cain and Able, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, David and Saul, Paul and Barnabas, and the list goes on. 

Now Satan isn’t some little mythical red devil with a pitchfork sitting on our shoulder but rather a very dark and dangerous and powerful enemy of God whose goal is to create division rather than unity, whose goal is to frustrate us all from experiencing the harmony, peace, joy, and unity of God's presence.

Now this doesn’t mean that I think there is a demon behind every single bush or that every bad human act is the result of satanic influence. But I do believe we are caught up in the middle of a cosmic battle between God and Satan that impacts our world.

It’s not so much an ancient or primitive superstition as much as a worldview that acknowledges that we humans are not as smart and powerful as we think we are. We are not in charge and we never have been. We too often willfully allow ourselves to be used as instruments of division that can be deceptively dangerous and destructive.

America is a nation divided. America will not survive unless we all realize that someone or something more powerful than ourselves is using a strategy that will ultimately lead to our nation’s demise. 

So let me put it in as plain a language as I possibly can: 

We are not each other’s enemy! We are all Americans. Our enemy is far more powerful and deceptive than those who disagree with our politics or even our theology. Our enemy is not the number of immigrants coming into our country, our enemy is not political correctness. Our enemy is not each other.

The Apostle Paul was quite clear on this: 

“For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

How might we fight this divisive force that seems to have crippled our capacity for unity in America? 

By working for unity even at the expense of compromising our own point of view. By refusing to enter into the divisive and worthless game of name calling, scapegoating, or blaming others for our nation’s troubles, by listening rather than screaming at one another and by bending rather than stiffing in our point of view. We might also attempt to embrace the tension that exists between the far right and far left extremes that are so divisive.

This is not the ultimate remedy for sure, but it is one hell of a good start.