OPINION:
The United States has a choice to make, and it’s not just who to elect as commander-in-chief.
The country is reeling from the events of the last few weeks. One presidential candidate survived an assassination attempt and another dropped out of the race at a critical moment following immense personal scrutiny from all sides. As all these events unfolded, I was dismayed to learn from reactions on social media that a shocking number of people are rejoicing in the potential downfall of fellow human beings.
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Despite people decrying political violence across the aisle on moral and spiritual grounds, an outrageous number mourn, not that lives were lost or that a gunman attempted to assassinate a presidential candidate, but that the gunman missed his shot.
How have our souls become so sick that a tsunami of social media posts expressed regret that the death toll in a shooting was one person too low?
We don’t see this kind of sentiment from just one side. Each of us is guilty to some extent of this line of thinking. How many of us watched the recent presidential debate in the hopes of seeing President Joe Biden embarrass himself due to cognitive decline? How many of us told jokes and reveled in seeing him act in a way that, if it were our grandfather, would’ve caused us to want to help, not mock? Now he has dropped out of the race, and the jokes have not stopped but reached new layers and heights.
Death, the near-death or decline of one we might see as our enemy is nothing to rejoice over, especially those of us who are people of faith. As Christians, it should sadden us greatly when life is diminished in any form. Jesus never found joy in the death and suffering of those who opposed him.
Too often we forget that Jesus came to give us a path of redemption, not of condemnation. He did not only come to save those with whom we find common ground. He came to save all who were lost, including you and me and the person with whom you disagree on every issue. In ancient times, Christians were persecuted and thrown to lions for the amusement of unruly spectators. Today, many of us run the risk of becoming those spectators ourselves.
Especially during election seasons, we make the grave error of villainizing those with whom we disagree, forgetting that our value comes from a deeper, higher source than the ideals we hold. We so often forget, to the detriment of our relationships and society, that everyone is made in the image of God, regardless of their beliefs and political stance.
To combat this soul sickness, we must return to the Great Physician’s teaching in his parable of The Good Samaritan in which a man who was seen as an enemy goes out of his way to help the very people who dislike him. People are not our enemies. They are our neighbors. As humans, we have the responsibility to see the value in each individual and divorce it from the perceived value of their beliefs. While not all beliefs are of equal value, every person is of infinite value.
As a society, we need to reclaim the virtue of seeing all men and women as created equal, regardless of color, creed and candidate. The United States has never been perfect in this pursuit, but an argument can be made that there have always been people promoting this cause— a cause rooted in love and freedom, not hate and destruction. To get back on track as a nation, we need to realign with this sentiment on a soul level.
This means meeting our neighbor, talking and listening face-to-face, not just screeching through a screen or keyboard. The social media algorithms create division by serving each of us the content most likely to evoke an emotional reaction. If we get to know the person on the other side of the screen, we might find common ground and begin to respect the inherent worth of the individual instead of being blinded by their opposite ideology.
At this pivotal moment in history, we have a decision to make. We can either continue down this road of violent, hateful rhetoric that is literally killing us, or we can turn toward life. As individuals and as a society we can make the active choice to see people as human again. May God in his grace bring us back from the brink of moral and political chaos on which we currently balance.
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Abdu Murray is a speaker, author, and attorney who specializes in addressing issues where religious faith and emerging cultural trends intersect and collide. Since founding Embrace the Truth in 2004, Abdu has spent decades analyzing how the major religious and non-religious thought traditions have attempted to address emerging cultural issues.He has written four books, including “Saving Truth,” “Grand Central Question,” “Apocalypse Later” and “More than a White Man’s Religion.” His words have been featured in Fox News, Christianity Today, The Washington Times, The Christian Post and The Western Journal.
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