A Resolution For The New Year

I've come to believe that a person  filled with hate cannot think straight.

The political scene in our country tests the point.

Many contemporary partisan commentaries and news reports reflect a rancor  that ignores truth and cares nothing for civility.

Dishonesty and chicanery become tools for scoring political gain. The end justifies the means. Even perjury is an acceptable avenue in the arsenal of unscrupulous but determined politicians.

The so-called mainstream media have too often fanned the flames of emotion without giving due place to reason and the search for truth.

Civil War America experienced something akin to what we see and hear today: "The hoary-headed old tyrant whose presence now defiles the honored seat of  Washington has usurped powers which the constitution has conferred neither upon the President nor Congress, nor upon both together. He has declared war against the sovereign States of the South, in order to coerce them into subjection....Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God" (Editorial, Nashville Union and American, April 16, 1861).

Such rhetoric stirs the emotions but too often foregoes reason.

Wisdom and prudence suggest that allegations be researched, that commentators and politicians be vetted, that online stories be taken with the proverbial grain of salt --all in the interest of finding the truth.

It is easy to spew fighting words; it is hard to think things through.

There is something in the human spirit that seeks a cause, something to live for, something to promote. When a person finds that cause he can easily give in to an emotional response which makes him feel righteous and possessive of the higher ground. That feeling can relieve him of further search and assessment. it almost resolves into simple contradiction: "My mind is made up; don't bother me with the facts."

Jesus appealed to the better angels of our nature in what we call the "Beatitudes." He described the attitudes his followers should assume, and went so far as to say, "Everyone who is angry with his brother is liable to judgment."

Clearly in the teaching of the Christ, hatred is the opposite of love. A hateful person cannot think and act like Christ, and even if many of our fellow countrymen are not Christian, those who are must put a check on hatred to help abet peace and justice in the culture and politics around us.

A resolution for the new year?