Civil Discourse

 

In every election cycle I can recall, the talking heads of TV news have discussed “negative campaign ads” and “harsh rhetoric.” Even before the Biden-Ryan sparring match and the more antagonistic tone of the second Obama-Romney exchange, Dan Rather had dubbed this election season “the worst.”

It probably isn’t. In the John Adams versus Thomas Jefferson election of 1800, then-President Adams’ camp called Jefferson an atheist, a libertine, and a coward; they stumped with the claim that the election offered a choice between “God and a religious president, or Jefferson and no God!” The rumor was that Jefferson would gather and burn all the Bibles upon his second inauguration.

In response, then-Vice President Jefferson – it is the only time in U.S. history a sitting president and vice president ran against each other – countered in kind. His surrogates blasted Adams for his “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Once friends, the two became such again in post-election days.

More examples can be given, but this illustrates that mud-slinging and vitriol are anything but novel in political campaigns. And the politicians may have learned it from the clergy in the American colonies. Some of the anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic language that rang from pulpits went far beyond “insensitive.” It was crude, inflammatory, and wicked. “Whore of Babylon,” “Christ-killers,” and “Anti-Christ” – these are some of the many epithets used from pulpits to poison minds and prejudice hearts. The Ku Klux Klan had roots in those pulpits.

So what’s the point here? It certainly isn’t to minimize or excuse the blood sport that American political campaigns has turned into. It is simply to put what is happening now into historical perspective. It is also to say that politics isn’t the only sphere of life where the verbal bombast has become reckless and injurious.

It is time for all of us to step back. Take a deep breath. Look at politicians and preachers, family members and friends, co-workers and strangers through more respectful eyes. Stop trying to one-up everybody with a snappy – if also insulting and demeaning – one-liner. Strive for civility over disrespect.

Here is a worthy goal for all of us to embrace: “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them” (Ephesians 4:29 NLT).

Life as a 14-Year-Old

       Fourteen should be a wonderful, carefree year in a child’s life. Actually, being 14 is more nearly part of the bridge between being a child and becoming an adult. At so tender an age, a degree of maturity might well be making a child aware of the world and its ills; at that age, however, there should be no sense of being an adult who is responsible for fixing the world’s misfortunes and evils.

Little boys whose voices occasionally crack now should have nothing greater to agonize over than that. Little girls who are laying aside their dolls should have nothing greater to fret over than those boys whose voices are starting to crack.

Malala Yousafzai is only 14, and she seems to be something of an exception. In her home country of Pakistan first, then eventually at an international level, she has become an activist for education. More specifically, she has pleaded for adults in her part of the world to make education more widely available to girls.

Malala has the misfortune of living in a place where a rigid fundamentalist religion claims that girls should not receive the education boys are entitled to have. After all, as women they will remain answerable to their fathers, brothers, and husbands – with very few personal rights. They will be required to be subservient and docile. Cover their faces. Defer to men. Keep their mouths shut.

Today Malala is fighting for her life in a military hospital in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Doctors give her slightly more than a 50-50 chance of survival. If she recovers, the degree of permanent damage is uncertain.

Last week, armed men stopped the school bus on which she was riding, called for her by name, and shot her in the head and neck. According to a spokesman for the Taliban – the fundamentalist Muslim group that eagerly claimed “credit” for the deed – it was Malala’s fault. And the fault of her father.

She dared go to school, and her father had permitted it. In the face of such “secular-minded” and “pro-West” behavior, said the spokesman, reverent and devout Taliban shooters were “forced to take this extreme step.” If Malala survives, he said, more righteous warriors will be dispatched to finish the job.

That the attempted murder of a child happened in the name of religion only makes this story more disgraceful. The “righteous warrior” who would commit such an atrocity is evil beyond imagination. He is the right arm of Satan himself.

            Islam condemns such behavior. So does Christianity. For that matter, so do atheists. All rational people recognize true evil for what it is – whether perpetrated by Muslims or Christians or Jews, by far right or far left.

            People of goodwill from all backgrounds must stand up for freedom of expression, justice for minorities, rights for women, and protection of children.

            An ancient Hebrew prophet speaks eloquently to all religious people who miss the point of their religion: “I hate all your show and pretense – the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. . . . I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living” (Amos 5:21-24 NLT).

            Enough with making excuses for hatred. It is time for all nations and tribes, religions and parties to affirm human dignity, respect for one another, and love.

Pray for Malala. And pray for us all to surmount our most sordid impulses.

I’ll Throw Myself on His Mercy!

 

In his book, Holiness by Grace, Bryan Chapell relates a version of an old tale about a man who died and came face to face with Gabriel at heaven’s gate.

“Here’s how this works,” the angel-gatekeeper began his explanation of entrance protocol. “You need 100 points to make it into heaven. So tell me all the good things you’ve ever done, and I’ll tell you what they are worth.”

“Okay,” the man said – and began with his biggest and best claim. “I was married to the same women for 50 years and never once cheated on her – not even in my heart!”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” said Gabriel. “Wonderful! That’s worth three points.”

“Only three points?” the man gulped incredulously. “Well, I attended church all my life. I was a deacon and, after a while, an elder in my church. And, by the way, I gave well beyond a tithe of my income – and countless hours of service.”

“Good, good,” said the angel. “All that’s certainly worth a point.”

“One point?” said the man – his eyes beginning to show a bit of panic. “How about this: I opened a shelter for homeless people in my city and fed needy people by the hundreds during the holidays.”

“Oh, fantastic, that’s good for two points,” offered Gabriel, not even looking up from his notepad.

“Two points!” cried the man in utter desperation. “Two points? At the rate I’m going, this is hopeless. The only chance I have of getting into heaven is by the sheer grace of God! I’ll have to throw myself on the mercy of his heavenly court.”

“Come right in!” said the angel who knew the heart of Father, Son, and Spirit.

Chapell’s story and my adaptation of it are purely apocryphal. There is no “point system” by which we will be graded at heaven’s gate. But the punch line of the story is precisely correct. The only hope any human has – even the best among us – is not in herself but in Christ. His love for us. His amazing grace.

The place where God expects for this message to be communicated about his heart and perfect will is the community of faith called the church. More than that, the church is the place where people who have received grace learn to give it now to others. Grace, you see, is not a personal gift to be received and relished in private moments. It is the free gift of God to his children and is to be passed along to all others who need the same redemptive, healing mercy in their lives.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).