I listened to a far-right podcast the day after Charlie Kirk’s assasination to hear the response to the tragic event. What disturbed me about the podcast was the near constant verbal attachment of their political movement to God and Christianity. I didn’t watch the Charlie Kirk memorial but understand it was much the same way. There is the belief, or political positioning, depending on the actor’s authenticity, that they, the Right, are doing God’s work, and their opponents, the Left, are evil.
But how can this be? I am member of the Left. I too believe that I do God’s work, although I do not wear it on my sleeve. I could not get through life any other way. Many of my left-wing companions feel the same. So here we stand: Two groups of people, with mostly very opposite political views, who believe they do God’s work, however that God is perceived, and believe the other group is evil.
The two opponents, each with an equal sense of self-righteousness, might be understood through the use of capitalization. God, uppercase “G”, might be considered the entirety of truth. But none of us can grasp this entirety, so we cling to that which we are able grasp: god, lower case–a sub-god, if you will, less than God, a partial truth, which appears to come into conflict with other partial truths, perhaps on the opposite side of a circle. This makes all of us pretty much equally wise and stupid.
It would be good if both sides could shed the belief that their own group, is wiser, more righteous, or closer to God than the other group. It seems very likely there are equal doses of authenticity and manipulation on both sides of the political divide. Both sides would be well-served to make an effort to recognize authenticity where it exist, and to not assume their political opponents are less righteous than themselves.
When a group believes it is in a special alliance with God, all kinds of un-Godlike behavior seems to follow. If the pattern continues, the current generations will become another historical echo which never dissipates and never finds God.
###
You may also be interested in the “anti-war store” link below, or other Pages within this website found in the menu at the top of this Page: