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Us vs. Them: Religion,
Politics and Polarity
by Kellie
Sisson-Snider
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu was
interviewed a year or two ago on National Public Radio.
This quote from the interview has stayed with me.
"Religion
is morally neutral."
Think about it. Both good and evil have been done in
the name of religion. Along these lines,
Politics
(which is, in many ways, a religion)
is also morally neutral.
Political deities come and go, but the matter of morality
remains in the same hands. We may be influenced by political
or religious ideologies, but the ultimate decisions
about what constitutes morality
and how morality is carried
out are within
each of us. We get to decide, Kids,
how we're going to play the game.
I find that my life works a hell
of a lot better if I live it honestly. I alternate
between bemusement and horror as I observe in political
and religious organizations the regular backfire that
comes with each successive lie and coercion into blind
belief.
These institutions, Politics and Religion, have a different
definition of success than mine. Their definitions revolve
around Us vs. Them.
This is as it has always been. The only way for Us to
succeed, they teach us, is to diminish Them.
Our political party
is right and theirs is wrong.
Our religion will get
you to heaven and theirs will send you to hell.
Our platform is right
and theirs is wrong.
Our God is real and
theirs is fake.
My definition of success is different. Steven Covey
said it beautifully with the words,
"To live, to love, to learn,
and to leave a legacy."
These are things we can accomplish. World peace? Right
after we're all crowned Miss America. But living, loving,
learning, and leaving a legacy- these things we can
do. ( I add one more. Laugh loudly- and often. Laughter
brings us together. It's hard to hate someone you've
shared a good hard laugh with.)
As long as we are stuck with the evolutionarily determined
tribal ideology of "Us vs. Them", we will be forced
to watch each other suffer at our own hands,
to blame each other for suffering we cause, and
to perpetuate our own misery. I have no idea whether
we are capable of breaking free from evolutionary tendency
toward war and conflict. I like to think- and hope-
that we are.
But we're far more likely to break free a few at
a time than all at once.
So when you see your chance,
make a run for it!
Jump out there, Child, and
get yourself free!
We are a tribal species. It's always been us against
them. But once in a while, some of us look beneath the
details to the common ground and begin to achieve harmony.
In known human history, peace
has been a rare and tenuous thing. Do your part to make
it last.
Look for ways in which
we're ALIKE
instead of how we're
different.
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