Verboten Reconciliation

At the end of the Civil War, a number of key leaders chose the path of reconciliation. Jay Winik details the leaders and the decisions they made in his book, April 1865: The Month That Saved America. In the present day, we do not fight internally with weapons that kill, but with words that tear asunder the social fabric. When the current process ends (as it must, eventually, one way or another) will the nation be permanently divided? 

An eloquent plea can be found in the peace prayer attributed to St. Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy;  

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love. 

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.  

Such a prayer may well express the heartfelt desire of many on all sides of political rancor. But there is a problem. It is verboten. It is politically incorrect to express Christian thoughts, ideas, or sentiments in political life. In some contexts, the courts have ruled it illegal and unconstitutional.  

This cultural norm has even more poisonous implications than current politics in Washington, D.C. We have rejected and excluded from our nation’s public life the only possible source of life itself. We are rejecting the very Gift of Christmas, Him of whom the angels sang “Peace on Earth, Good Will toward men.” In accepting the lie of the devil that Jesus has no place in public discourse, we have condemned our public forum to separation from Him, into the outer darkness of divine separation.