Category: freedom of religion

This election has left us all bruised and bloodied.  Both sides had people who were hurt and scared who said things that I, and maybe they, wish were not said.  Both sides had people who said beautiful things to their side and to the other side.  So where are we left?

Having experienced all my rights taken away and being physically abused (in a late 1970s mental hospital), and helpless to fight against it (mental illness debilitated my mind), I know what it is like to be a minority of one.  It is reported that Clinton has a 1.4% lead in the popular vote.  The “losers” are called the minority.  But this is not the minority of one that I experienced. This “minority” is 98.6% the size of the “majority.”

Some on either side it seems, want to “crush” the other side, make them “recant their position,” and “make them pay” for the hurt they have caused the other.

Some on the left don’t want to acknowledge that a person is a person one second before they are born and want to ignore that person’s rights.

Some on the right want to end abortion, but without putting into place the infrastructure needed to care for the present and future of the woman and her unborn baby.  They don’t realize that some women have abortions because they fear what they have seen and heard the life their baby would be subjected to by adoptive and foster families.  Simply voting no to abortion is like voting no to poverty.  You haven’t solved anything.  You have to put your time, money, and talent where your vote is.

Some on the right don’t want to acknowledge that those Americans who are open about being in the LGBT community have restricted their travel to certain parts of the United States, and restrict their participation in certain events during this election cycle because of the fear and the likelihood of being physically assaulted in their own country by other Americans who hate them.

Some on the left want to “destroy” a dear woman florist who holds to Jesus’ definition of marriage.  There are many florists in the area that offered to do the gay wedding. So that doesn’t seem to me to be the issue.  It seems to me that her State Attorney General doesn’t seem to value this Christian woman’s religious liberty as much as the “rights” that conflict with that liberty.

The Bible says that if we continue to bite each other we will devour each other.

There is no winner if the “winner” alienates the “loser.”  In four years or eight, the winners and losers may reverse.  So, let the “winners” treat the “losers” like the “winners” would want to be treated if they “lost.”  It’s not just good for the “losers”, it’s good for the “winners” too.

Jesus is not for the right or left.  He is for God.  And for all people.  He is actively working for you and your best and me and my best even though we disagree on what that best is.

What would happen if we stopped the name-calling, stopped the vicious attacks on each other and simply decided to sit down and talk to each other, and learn from each other?  I think we would find out that much of what we want is the same.  And by cooperatively, synergistically, and graciously working together we can solve that which remains.