Wednesday 11/21/18 3:02 AM
My assigned reading today includes an excerpt from Thomas
Kelly’s book, A Testament of Devotion,
in which he describes the work of God in our lives to make our soul more tender.
He writes, “There is a tendering of the soul, toward everything in creation,
from the sparrow’s fall to the slave under the lash. The hardlined face of a
money-bitten financier is as deeply touching to the tendered soul as are the
burned-out eyes of miners’ children, remote and unseen victims of his so-called
success. There is a sense in which, in this terrible tenderness, we become one
with God and bear in our quivering souls the sins and burdens, the
benightedness and the tragedy of the creatures of the whole world, and suffer
in their suffering, and die in their death.”
This writing made me stop to consider the current political
climate in our society and my own reactions to those I meet. Our politics have
become more and more divisive, contrasting the more progressive left with the
conservative right. The right side of the political spectrum latches on to
issues like abortion, expressing a tenderness for the unborn while, at the same
time, having little tenderness toward those who live in poverty because of
their decision to keep their baby. Unwed mothers or single parents are
belittled and told to get a job to support their child while social programs
like welfare and SNAP, designed to care for the vulnerable, are eliminated or funded
at a much lower level. There is tenderness expressed toward one group and anger
toward another. Similarly, the left side of the spectrum expresses tenderness
toward the victims of corporate greed and unjust social institutions, but has only
anger for, what Kelly calls, “the hardlined face of a money-bitten financier.”
These political opposites slug it out in the public forum, bloodying the
opposition with derogatory words, castigating them in the court of public
opinion, and shunning anyone who would dare suggest a compromise or finding
middle ground for the good of society.
In his book, Deep is
the Hunger, Howard Thurman relates a childhood story of the words his
grandmother said to him after he had been involved in a knock-down, drag-out
fight with a bully. “No one ever wins a fight.” Thurman writes, “This suggests
that there is always some other way; or does it mean that man can always choose
the weapons he shall use? Not to fight at all is to choose a weapon by which
one fights. Perhaps the authentic moral stature of a man is determined by his
choice of weapons which he uses in his fight against the adversary. Of all
weapons, love is the most deadly and devastating, and few there be who dare
trust their fate in its hands.” If one uses Thurman’s litmus test of the moral stature
of a man, neither the progressive left or the conservative right has the moral
high ground.
I need to live my life wielding the weapon of love, love
for the oppressed and love for the oppressor. If the people of God lived
similarly, perhaps our society as a whole would become more civil toward one
another and we could work together for the good of all.
