Last night I saw a preview for a new television show
where one character says to another,
"They only love us when they're not busy hating us."
I thought sardonically to myself how
that seems to be the story of my life.
But in thinking more on it this morning,
I have realized that, sadly,
this has become our culture.
How many have families where
they have heard, participated in, or experienced
situations where one family member is
speaking ill of another family member,
saying all kinds of horrible things,
but if someone outside of the family
agrees or speaks ill of that person,
they are attacked and threatened by the
one who initiated it to begin with?
We make a joke of it and say that it's okay
for family of speak ill of family,
but not for anyone else to.
Every day parents abuse children & pit them against one another;
grandparents speak curses over grandchildren;
siblings wish siblings dead;
husbands & wives slay one another;
and we accept it as norm.
In nearly every neighborhood in this country
there are churches who
open their doors to welcome people in,
until, that is,
those people fail to give enough
time, energy and/or money to their cause;
or have and idea or perspective
that doesn't conform to their agenda.
When that happens,
those people are ignored, threatened and cast out.
We call this country the United States of America.
You can look around and see flags, banners & ribbons
that say, "United We Stand",
yet walk down almost any street
and you can hear bickering & fighting.
Turn on any news station
and you can clearly see that we are
anything but united.
We send men and women into
other countries in order to
liberate them from oppression,
when ultimately,
the driving force behind it is a
warped sense of pride which says that everyone else
should be just like us
(whether they want to be or not).
So,
we consent to allow
lives to be lost &
families to be torn apart;
all in the name of liberty.
In thinking about all of these things,
I have come to realize the sad & disturbing reality is
that from the broadest relationships
down to the most intimate relationships
we have, indeed,
become a people who
"only love each other
when we're not busy hating one another".
