That Which Divides

A local church new to our town represents an eastern religious heritage, most likely Hinduism. I have not visited the new neighbor and have read only a short press release explaining their mission.  But that’s not the point of my comment. My point is this: they have a large, digital sign at street side that identifies them, and offers a comment on program or philosophy that frequently changes.  One message that intrigues me is this one:

            “Religion unites, never divides.”

If that were only true. The statement would be more correct if it read – Religion should unite, never divide.

World history is filled with recurrent themes of nations and religions going to battle over slights – imagined or real – made by perceived enemies.  The Crusades were waged on the basis that non-Christians were at war with Christendom and defense was raised by the Roman Catholic Church as well as various well-funded kingdoms throughout Europe intending on earning ‘heavenly credits’ with the Pope and the official church.

It did not go well. Whether offense or defense, a bitter taste was forever developed between Islam and Christianity. To this day the battle lines are drawn!

Funny thing; no amount of history, research or serious discussion among the ‘combatants’ has salved the hurt among the lesser educated followers of each religion. New combatants are continually found and nurtured to keep the war alive. Better educated people of goodwill have found peace among the religions. For them there is no divisive tension. Yet it is the others that foment distrust and hate.

Hence I have enormous doubt over the aphorism shared by the local church on its sign!  Religion has divided nations and peoples throughout the globe throughout the globe’s entire history. It ought not to be the case but it is.

Western Civilization alone has made a science and art out of division.  Attorneys, mediators, diplomats, and others make entire careers out of that which divides us. Bringing people together is their mission, but they make so much a better living and wealth by keeping the divisions alive.

And then there are the politicians. Even if all is swell they must find division to create a tension that provides them…power. Power to divide people into opposing camps. Power to make people feel good in the presence of negative people. Power to help some people while maintaining the tensions. Doing the latter is the secret methodology they use to maintain…power.

Strange that after all of these eons, especially the last 1000 years of well written and documented history, you’d think the world would be able to fend off the those who manipulate others simply to create power.

Perhaps in some small measure we are finding the capability to do that. After all Americans are making their opinions felt about muckrakers. They see the Republicans as negative and obtuse. They see them as divisive simply because they want to grab power for whatever reason. And it is the grabbing that is visible, it is the ill effects of that grab that is also quite visible, in short the Republicans are appearing quite without clothes in  public view.

You’d think Boehner and McConnell would get this!  They say they want smaller government and they have achieved that goal. Of course the military is smaller, teachers have been fired along with police and fire personnel. Local governments have cut their staff and programs because the recession created to win political wars has backfired and caused declining tax collections at the local level. Unemployment is not driven by private sector firms; it is driven by declining government payrolls at all levels. Thus municipalities, counties, townships and states are hurting. They have laid off key personnel and shrunk their programs.

Schools have cut classes, teachers and increased class size. Fire departments have consolidated fire stations, equipment and shrunk staff. Demand for police services  remains high but paying for it has dwindled. Other municipal services have been trimmed to pay for police departments.

Don Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush, tried valiantly to re-engineer the military to become a more flexible, small unit responder to multiple threats throughout the world. He tried to reduce the reliance on large-scale fighting forces. But his Commander in Chief insisted on fighting an Afghan war AND an Iraq war simultaneously. Big armies, air and naval units were thus needed. So the Pentagon gained increased funding. It has taken years since then to shrink it back to size and return to the strategy that Rumsfeld had championed.

Smaller government was supposed to be about the Federal Government. Little did the congressional powers grasp that all of the other government levels rely on federal programs. Cut the Federal budget and you cut everyone else’s.  We achieved smaller government across the board. We gained a lot of unintended consequences along the way.

The price of power? The price of divisiveness? Or simply the lack of American will to realize that unity is more powerful, and more effective.

When will we return to the goodwill era and concentrate on making good things happen? It takes so much less energy to do this. You’d think we would have caught on by now.

Is there still time to do so?

May 28, 2013