Dear Grieving American
Dear Grieving American,
You’ve been on my mind. A lot. I see you in the stories I read and across my own social media pages. I feel the shock. The disappointment. The fear. The anger. My heart sinks as I read stories of people who are terrified that their voice, their perceived value, and their very freedom is coming under imminent fire in what’s supposed to be “the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave”. I have heard your heartbreak, even disgust, as you try to wrap your mind around all that has been said and done on every side of an incredibly divisive period in our country’s history.
I have grieved at the hatred, the name calling, the bullying and the ignorance that has spewed out as we’ve raised our opinions as violent weapons against one another. And yes, I have seen those who have rallied behind the recent election results as as if their team just won the Super Bowl…but this is very, very different. It is different because this isn't about a weekend pastime. It is about you. Your hopes. Your dreams. Your future. I grieve for how carelessly so many have responded in the wake of this election.
I believe deeply in us being educated on the issues and voting from our conviction. That said, I’m not a man driven by partisanship. I’m driven by passion. For you. No matter who you are - whatever your race, gender, creed, religion, lifestyle orientation - I want you to know grieving American that I love you. I am proud to be on team humanity and believe so deeply in the dignity in you. I’m not afraid of our disagreements, because I believe a Good Father knit goodness into us. Before any of the brokenness, there was goodness. And I believe that, if we are genuinely seeking truth for the hope of a better America, our places of disagreement will only refine our final decisions as “iron sharpening iron”. That was the original intent of our democratic process, wasn't it - to balance and strengthen one another in our diversity? A polarized and divided America wasn't the design. It isn’t what our Founding Fathers sacrificed everything for.
I have heard that this was “White Evangelical America’s” desire and that they rejoice greatly in all that's happening right now. As a white evangelical American, I want to humbly say I disagree. All of this aftermath looks nothing like the nature of the very dark skinned Savior who is the bedrock of my being and hope of my every breath. As a white evangelical American, I want to say, “I’m sorry”. I’m sorry for the way many of us have stood on platitudes of morality and not spent the time to get to know and love you. I’m sorry for the tunnel vision that allows us to hoist up one value, while destroying another.
Mostly, I’m sorry we haven’t been more like Jesus. He sought out the lost, the least, the lonely and the lepers of his day and embraced them with compassion. He upheld the dignity of the most misunderstood, showing them the unique worth that was knit into them. He definitely stood for concrete values, but he never allowed those values to be used as weapons aimed at people. They were always a healing balm - a vehicle of hope. He was, and is, incredible. And because of my faith in Him, I am believing that this is not our final, gloomy chapter.
I want to say to you, grieving American, that like you and scores of Republicans, Democrats and Independents, I do not want a home where bigotry, hatred, bullying, racism, homophobia and sexism are descriptive words of what we've become. And I will fight with all of the passion within me for this not to be so. Dear grieving American, I live with you in a flawed, but still great country. I still believe in the United States of America - not for the current state of its’ government - but the dignity that our Creator knit into each of its’ citizens. I am praying for you. For hope. For healing. And I want you to know this day and every day that I, a white evangelical American, love you. I really do.
