Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Rick Warren opened the Saddleback Forum a couple of weeks ago with the following statement:
I have to tell you up front, both these guys are my friends. I don’t happen to agree with everything either of them teach or believe but they both care deeply about America. They’re both patriots and they have very different views on how America can be strengthened in America. We’ve got to learn to disagree without demonizing each other and we need to restore civility. We need to restore civility in our civil discourse and that’s the goal of the Saddleback Civil Forum.
Barak Obama echoed this sentiment last night in his moving acceptance speech:
But what I will not do is suggest that [John McCain ] takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and each other’s patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America — they have served the United States of America.
I enjoy rational political discussion with those who agree with me and those who don’t. But those discussions can soon get uncomfortable when we let our emotions and/or partisanship drive us to attack each other’s character, patriotism, and faith.
I’m convinced that the issues we face today are much more complicated than the black and white picture painted by partisan politicians. There are no easy solutions to the issues we face both at home and abroad. It’s going to take time and a commitment to work together. It’s going to take trying some new things and other things we haven’t been willing to do for awhile (like talking to our enemies).
Still, I’m not convinced that the political process will ever give us the country and the world that we all want. Until you and I stop living for ourselves and start (as Jesus taught) doing unto others as we would have them do unto us, we will never have peace, justice and equality.
Tags: Barak Obama, Politics