[Galatians 6:7]
Our nation is deeply divided because our culture's most powerful messengers profit from social conflict. That's suicidal.
It's not news that America is now deeply divided, more than at any time in recent memory. The signs are all around us; indeed, conflicting views of everyday events blare at us not only from our communities but from across our new Digital Universe.
It is reasonable to ask whether the sheer volume of today's "information cornucopia" inevitably produces a preoccupation with social conflict. Conflict and violence make more magnetic headlines than peace and harmony.
Our deep divisions are reflected in the differing views of the instigators and culprits behind the disruption of Congress on January 6. No one of any political party has excused the breaching of the Capitol's outer doors and invasion of the Senate chamber and House hallways and offices. Yet, Democrat leaders in Congress are intent on passing a second Resolution of Impeachment citing the President's alleged "incitement" of the Capitol violence. Ambition knows no bounds when fueled by a pandemic of media hubris.
Even more alarming, we also see the leaders of the majority political party in Congress calling for the expulsion of several Republican members who formally endorsed a debate over the constitutional adequacy (and thus legality) of Electoral College votes sent to Congress by specific states. The simple request for public debate by elected representatives of "We the People" is now declared by the Congress of the United States to be an act of treason punishable by expulsion.
If debate is forbidden in our foremost representative body, how can any citizen be confident of our First Amendment freedom of speech in our local town halls, school board meetings and state legislatures? Coming on the heels of ten months of efforts by many state Governors to restrict church attendance in the name of public health, the eagerness of a Congressional majority to punish its own members for simple acts of political dissent is especially troublesome. It appears to signal a newfound love of burning bridges, not building them.
Today's divisions are more than Republican versus Democrat. The divisions clearly are increasingly cultural as much as political. How did that happen? When and how did our governing elites decide to view opponents not as political adversaries but as agents of Evil?
We might begin to find the answer by asking, what is different in today's political environment from twenty or forty years ago? Do some organizations and some institutions profit from deepening the chasms of controversy? If so, they will have no interest in bridging them.
If some of the social and cultural institutions we have traditionally depended on to provide the glue for America's social fabric are now consciously exacerbating social, cultural and civic disagreements, even fomenting conflicts based on provocative theories of race, class and sex, then we have a new problem with no parallel in American history.
Galatians 6:7 warns the proud and the profane:
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked:
for whatever a man soeth, that shall he also reap."
Be not surprised: If our radicalized cultural institutions now include our most prestigious universities, our dominant media powerhouses, and our public school curriculum architects, the growing threat to our civil liberties should keep us awake at night. Clearly, our acute divisions are rooted more in cultural dissolution than common political affiliations.
It is hard to see the light at the end of this dark tunnel if we think we can harvest peace and tranquility while our institutions are busy sowing the seeds of anarchy. The good news is that we can find our way home if we simply rediscover the wisdom of our forefathers' biblical faith.
The light of Divine Providence has always been there for our nation in its darkest moments. It can be again if we choose the path of righteousness.
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