"It is not
bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine
how we might possibly have gone wrong."
Today is Independence Day and it is the time when we celebrate the
struggle that has given us our freedom and the democratic government to guard
the threats to and restrain the excesses of that freedom. It is the best time in the world to
take satisfaction what America has done right in its history, which is
plenty. It is the best time in the
world to offer gratitude to those who sacrifice so much to lead us and defend
us. Patriotism—pride in our
national achievements and potential—it is a wonderful thing to embrace on the 4th
of July.
But Chesterton’s quote above should
also give us pause and prevent us from complacency. Despite whatever we have done in the past and whatever we might become in the future, we are
currently in an unhealthy and dysfunctional place as a nation. Too many of us are unable to imagine
how we might possibly be wrong.
Those who disagree with us are like people from another planet. How can they not see what I see or
believe what I believe? It is the
most obvious thing in the world!
It’s not just that we are certain that we are right, it is that we
cannot imagine that our partisan position might possibly “have gone wrong”
somewhere along the way.
Many of you have heard me out as I have decried the acrimonious partisan
polarization that has gone so far as to infect the Body of Christ. It is choking the life out of everyday
civility. It is undermining the
ability of our leaders to tackle pressing problems before us. It threatens to leave a scar on our
proud history as a “can do” “pull
together” people.
Even as I rail against it, I too succumb to partisanship from time to
time. I’ve been discouraged, then
angry, and have dismissed national leaders who I neither know or fully
understand. But over time I have
learned to end all my political assumptions and beliefs with one or two sets of
four word phrases: “I may be
wrong,” or “You may be right.”
It’s not always easy to do.
Sometimes I say when I don’t honestly feel it. But I do believe it makes a difference—in me if nowhere
else. Using Chesterton as my
guide, let me just say it’s my feeble attempt to quash bigotry—if only in
myself.
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