Everyone...Please, Stand Up!

We’re put on this Earth to live passionately.

To live for something - to work for something - bigger than ourselves.

How about we all take a stand and live with both passion and conviction…and oh, while we’re at it…can we do it civilly, too?

That’d be great…thanks!

During my Masters, I had one professor who served as an unelected official in the Cabinet of several U.S. Presidents.

He often told stories of the days in which there was a Party Softball League that pitted the Republicans against Democrats. Each member served in Congress with gusto, but stepped out of the Chamber as opponents and onto the softball field as friends. He reminisced of those happier days to provide a contrast to today’s viscus, divisive, identity-politics driven culture.

[Thanks Urban Dictionary for all your fun definitions on “Identity Politics”]

To be sure there are things that we have improved since those days, but there is a point at which progression becomes digression.

We’re at the point at which we’ve stopped seeing people, and we’ve started seeing ideologies.

If you voted Democrat, you are evil. If you voted Republican you’re the the spawn of Satan. If you’re some variation of Independent, you’re ignorant. And the list goes on…

Our worth is now determined by what party bumper sticker we’re sporting rather than by our status as the Image Bearers of God.

Regardless of your views on if God exists, all human beings are deserving of respect. By all means disagree, and passionately so, but at the end of the day, do your honest best to walk away shaking hands.

Of course there are ignorant, evil Satanists out there…and those who are just plain crazy who’ll never be convinced of the truth about anything…but why not start with giving them the benefit of the doubt, huh?

Oh, and always remember that if Scalia and Ginsburg can be best buddies…pretty much any of us can. #RIPScalia