God and Civility

First, I must apologize for being ‘gone’ for the last month or so. I hit a low spot and, since blogging isn’t my primary responsibility, I focused the energy I had towards my works of ministry.

Like almost everyone else, I am more than appalled over the complete lack of civility in our public discourse. Many point the finger of blame to our politicians, but the ugliness is not just confined to the halls of Congress. Talk radio, cable news, tea party gatherings – and more, I’m sure – all feel free to get into the act. It’s almost as if being vile and uncivil is the current cost of admission for those who feel the need to get attention.

Columnists, pundits, commentators, and others have expressed their opinions about the roots of this current state of affairs. Nobody really knows because people had no idea this is where we would find ourselves, in a downward spiral of mean-spiritedness. So I’m going to throw out my opinion as to the origins where we find ourselves.

First the what.

In Congress, there have always been rhetorical battles waged, with barbs being traded over ideological differences. But, for the most part, the worst of the spoken words were aimed at the ideas expressed, not at the ones expressing the ideas. That has since shifted with the attacks clearly being personal.

That is bad enough. But what made these attacks unacceptably ugly is when the attacker took aim at the spiritual nature of their adversary. When the one on attack presents themselves as being Christian, a man of the Bible, and a spiritual paragon of virtue and characterizes their adversary as being exactly the opposite, the one being attacked has no place to go. The core of their identity as a human being has been dealt a life-threatening blow. The victim is left powerless, and without a leg to stand on.

In my observations, these types of attacks were launched on a consistent basis when the Religious Right was in its ascendancy and became standard fare during the 1990s. And their lashings were relentless. Such brutality is not much different from the days when citizens were dunked or locked in stockades.

For a while, it worked to their political benefit. Their targets found it impossible to defend against the negative assaults, much less push back.

The spiritual attacks may be gone by now, but the legacy of the Religious Right lives on in the unbridled character assassinations we hear every day. It seems the only editing being done is not to tone down the rhetoric, but to ratchet it up.

To me, the worst part is that this was done to achieve power and control over others. That is to say, the ways of the world were used to achieve the goals of the world. And Christ, the one whose name we take as our own, refused to use the ways of the world or to seek the goals of the world.

I suggest the religious community take a public, bold, forceful, and unflinching stand against all personalities who engage in these tactics. Since, as I see it, this was borne from within the ‘christian’ community [I use a lower-case ‘c’ and quotes on that word, because there is absolutely nothing closely resembling the person of Christ in such conduct], it is up to the Christian community to put an end to it.

Why? We all are God’s image-bearers – even those that we do not like. Unless and until Christians are able to break their ties of loyalty to their political party or social ideology and, instead, commit them to God, the image of God and the Church will continue to carry the tarnish of the intolerance, the condemnations, and the display of non-love toward neighbor.

How each of us chooses to take such a solid stand is up to you. There will be countless opportunities for us to do so. It will not be a popular position to take, you will likely be given derogatory labels, and many will not like you. But – and this is important – you will not be crucified for doing so.

What do you think?