Goodwill

by Jacob Thomsen

You are walking down the street, downtown in a major city. You see banners and flags of a political ideology that you do not agree with. There is a rally going on and these people are shouting things that you vehemently disagree with. What are you thinking at that moment? Are you thinking about how wrong those people are? Are you thinking about why those people are crazy? Maybe you’re even thinking that those people are evil.

This is something I’ve been contemplating for some time now. It’s remarkably easy to fall into any of those lines of thought regarding political ideologies that we disagree with. I’m often guilty of it myself. Because of our current political climate, we view them as the “other” or someone who is an enemy. At this point, I could say that Christ tells us that we are supposed to love our enemies, but the real question here is, are they really our enemies?

We are Americans. We are unified under one flag, under God, indivisible. That’s what it says in the Pledge of Allegiance. Do we believe that? The thing about those who believe a political ideology that we disagree with, is that they are not intentionally trying to destroy America. I’m not going to argue against the fact that the consequences of their decisions are sometimes very bad, but they are doing what they believe is best for the country, just like the political ideologies that you and I hold.

Unfortunately, modern news and social media are among the primary causes of the division that we deal with today. They sensationalize hot topic issues to get more engagement and bolster more and more extreme viewpoints, thereby also driving their profits way up. It’s why the viewpoints attributed to the majority of the people, are actually from a loud minority.  It’s everything we see in the media.

Today, in our country, if someone who is a popular figure holds a viewpoint that the other side disagrees with, they will try to “cancel” them, and it’s true for both sides. Then it becomes a situation where people don’t want to see that person succeed because of their political ideology.

This is the opposite of goodwill. Goodwill that has driven our country forward for its entire existence. We admire stories like President Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, or Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia being friends. Ideological foes can be great friends and will the good of the other.

That’s what love is, to will the good of the other. The aforementioned relationships were not based upon being enemies, but friends. As Christians, we are called to a higher level of thinking. Let’s no longer fall into the trap that modern media sets for us. Let’s actually love each other and will the good for our friends who are in our nation, under God. Let’s be indivisible.

What it takes to get to that point is to see them as people, not their political ideology. Your political ideology is not your identity. You may be married, have kids, like a certain football team, have certain hobbies and skills, and most importantly, are created with dignity and worth in God’s image. Remember these things apply to those who disagree with us as well.

We need to learn to listen to one another. James 1:19-20 says, “know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” This is a perfect way to begin to show love to each other. It also shows that there’s no point in getting unreasonably angry so quickly over these things, because our unrighteous anger is not productive.

Christ calls us to die to ourselves, to die to the desires of our flesh. Those desires include belittling and attacking the other side for their mistakes. Let’s die to those desires and be reborn to love. If we can begin to love those that we perceive as enemies in our country, and I mean actually love them, “agape” is the word used in the Bible, then we can begin to turn the page on this era of hatred across the aisle in our country.

When we have friends and family that we disagree with, we still want them to succeed; we still will the good for them. It’s important to remember that America is a big, mixed, crazy family. When one American succeeds in making life better, we all succeed. It’s time that we bring goodwill back into our lives. If we stand firm in our beliefs and at the same time will the good for our fellow Americans, we can make America a better place.