TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021 MY CHRISTMAS LIST - PART II

 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021 MY CHRISTMAS LIST - PART II

This week I’m looking at my Christmas wish list.  Yesterday I wrote on honoring your parents and elders.  Today, about love, not hate.

Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.”

Love, not hate.  

My Christmas wish is that people can find ways to communicate and agree or disagree without being disagreeable. 

“I can’t like them, they are different from me”.  

I read an article from the New York Times recently that said we are looking at a new Civil War.  It wasn’t over race and slavery, but over (in this case) abortions.

(see: Opinion | We’re Edging Closer to Civil War - The New York Times (nytimes.com)_ 

Abortions as such were not listed in the Constitution of the United States - either for or against.  The arguments are strong on both sides - morality (killing of a child in a mother’s womb), or self-choice (ending an unwanted pregnancy).  

But, that is not the only source of murder in the United States.  Two newspaper/television headlines say, “Chicago has exceeded 800 homicides in 2021”; and “Murders rise 16% in 2021 across major US cities”.

Blomberg notes, “Why Is the U.S. Murder Rate Spiking?”.  The article goes on to suggest the following:

“Many commentators blame the pandemic for the violence. Others attribute the spike to record-breaking gun purchases or claim that protests against police brutality have undercut effective law enforcement, opening the door to mayhem.”

“These are seductive arguments. But if the past is any guide, they’re wrong. Instead, the spike in our murder rate is more likely the product of something else entirely: political instability.”

“Randolph Roth’s research also focused on the American case but went much further back in time. When he examined so-called “impersonal” killings — murders between strangers or people unrelated to one another — he found a close statistical correlation in times of political crisis. He hypothesized that “state breakdowns and political crises of legitimacy produce surges in non-domestic homicides [while] the restoration of order and legitimacy produces declines in such homicides.”

While these are somewhat academic students (“he found a close statistical correlation in times of political crisis”), the analysis is interesting.  

We (humans, or humans in the United States) can’t get along with others.  Maybe going back to Kindergarten “Johnny doesn’t play well in the sandbox” - we fight, we find fault with others' views, and even to the point of killing others.  

Whether you take this as real or hypothetical, from Genesis 4, we have this, “Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out into the fields.” While they were walking in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord asked Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He answered, “I do not know. Am I to be my brother’s keeper?” The Lord told him, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil.”

Brother against brother, spouse versus spouse, black opposed to white, pro-choice against pro-life, Republican against Democrat, conservative disagreeing with liberals.  

“Thou shall not murder”.  

Matthew 5:44, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Can we put aside our hatred, and learn to love?  A first-century Jewish fisherman said, “Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins” I Peter 4:8. 

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I’ve mentioned many times the Dorothy Day quote “I can only love God as much as the person I love the least”.  

How about 1 John 3:15, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

My Christmas wish is to get along, to love (or at least to tolerate) each other.  

Is that possible?  Can I judge those who want to let women choose to abort their babies over those who demand that women cannot kill their babies?  I can’t judge - for me, only God can really judge.

Can I hate?  Can I murder?  Can I really love everybody?  It is tough to love everybody - with supernational help, I can work towards love.

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So, with two days this week, my wish list for Christmas is to love/honor your parents and elderly, and love/honor all people.  

Merry Christmas!!

Karen