Blue states, red states, even purple states are the color issue of the day. In ethical arguments now, though, it seems we are stuck with either “black” or “white.”
One of my goals during years of teaching history and government was leading young people to recognize the existence and power of gray. I eschewed the use of multiple-choice questions in my classes because I felt these questions punished deep thinkers. I wanted my students to be able to see how multiple answers might be correct. Few if any have died of an open mind, while open-mindedness may very well be a lifesaver.
So what has happened to receptive thought?
One of the most difficult situations I have ever faced occurred during the latest political campaign and election. As a Christian throughout my adult life, I now find myself squarely on the other side of the public perception of what Christians stand for today.
“Unsettling” isn’t a strong enough word to describe my feeling in agreeing with most of the main issues driving the Christian right, yet being sickened by the politicization of these issues. To further exacerbate this malaise, other issues that exist equally as moral guideposts seem to be ignored, as if we were allowed to pick and choose between them. Muslims experience a similar dilemma with the skewing of their religion by radicals, who take a religion of peace and use it to justify horrible acts of violence. Jews in Israel see ongoing infighting over policy toward the Palestinians, the hard-liners versus the moderates.
A better attention to gray could serve us all well.
Gay marriage raises your ire? Where were you when a simple legal protection of all unions between citizens could have made this issue moot?
Troubled by the proliferation of abortions in our society? Why do you block reasonable efforts to cut the need for abortions? As heartsick as I am over a million-plus abortions every year in America, I see times when that might be the most humane course to take, as did both presidential candidates.
The poster child for the “my way or the highway” thought process is the stem cell issue. There are reasonable ways to make this work for the betterment of mankind. Even the Republican governor of California has lent support to this issue.
I can hear teeth gnash as many of my brethren read this. “You can’t equivocate on issues of morality,” they will cry.
My religion also has moral guidelines against murder, theft, false witness and covetousness.
The strongest guideline condemns worshiping another god.
This is especially true when that god is money. Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
To the boys at Halliburton, et al: One hump or two?
Watching Christians, many of them among the legion of working poor living without health insurance, defend those who prop up the robber barons raises my gorge.
Newspapers relate that 1 in 6 returning veterans are experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome. No surprise here – does anyone remember Vietnam? As tragic as the loss of 50,000-plus American lives was, our country’s true tragedy from Vietnam was the hundreds of thousands who returned scarred beyond repair. And speaking of moral decay, one can trace this decay from that period when our government led us into an awful war. As a teacher I watched the troubling loss of respect for “old values” happen as the whole Vietnam decade played out.
And here we are again. Innocents killed on both sides, usurpation of a national resource (theft and coveting), all wrapped up in a war being fought against a threat of weapons of mass destruction and an al-Qaida connection that did not exist (false witness).
The only positive I can see from this mess is that we aren’t repeating the grievous wrong of the Vietnam era by trashing our military personnel for doing the duty their government compelled them to follow.
My greatest fear is what the future holds. Inexorably, the Iraq war will drag on until we pull out, economically and psychologically exhausted, claiming some sort of “moral victory.” As the French found out in Indochina, the Russians found out in Afghanistan, and as we should have learned in Vietnam, you can’t conquer a popular guerrilla force in its own country.
The toll, as before, will be many brave young Americans dead or emotionally scarred, and many thousands of innocents killed.
Who will be blamed? Will all Christians be painted with the same brush because the right-wingers claimed their “moral victory”? Will Christian principles be tossed out, like the proverbial baby with the bath water?
That would be the greatest tragedy of all.
Freelance writer Bruce W. Burns, a retired teacher and coach, lives in Marysville. He can be contacted at crookedelbow1@msn.com.
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