OPINION: Blessed are the peacemakers

In 1921, William Butler Yeats wrote a poem entitled "The Second Coming" which picturizes much that is happening in our own time.

The first stanza goes like this: "Turning and turning in the widening gyre/the falcon cannot hear the falconer/Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned/The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity."

We live in a crazy, diabolical, dialectic (Webster: "The art of arriving at the truth by disclosing the contradictions in an opponent's argument and overcoming them") world. It used to be that when two people disagreed about something, they would discuss their pros and cons, agree to what was mutually acceptable, and agree to disagree with what they could not reconcile. We called that "negotiation." It didn't solve all of our disagreements, but it did provide a way to work together in order to accomplish important things.

The message coming to me these days suggests that this is no longer the situation. The issue no longer appears what the facts happen to be, who is right or wrong, or even what is best for everyone concerned. Rather, the issue appears to be who is the strongest and how to get rid of anyone or anything that interferes with your perspective. Although it is easiest seen in politics, its essence is present in almost all of American life these days.

Let me illustrate. Since Dr. Fauci is arguably the strongest voice in our country for wearing a mask, maintaining an appropriate distance, and getting a covid-19 vaccination; the normal thing to do if you do not like them would be to exercise personal freedom and not do them. However, today there is a strong movement to simply get rid of this person who influences people to do them. Liz Cheney voted over ninety percent of the time in Congress with the Republican Party, but recently the party replaced her leadership and gave the position to a woman who only voted some 47% of the time for Republican causes. Cheney's problem: She was undoubtedly replaced because she did not espouse the false stories about the insurrection attempt on January 6; that is, she was not with the Trump Party.

If people today do not happen to like what a pastor says from the pulpit, a CEO of a company says about religious issues or perhaps has a political bias, or perhaps someone espouses a different sexual orientation that causes others to be upset, the tendency today is not to talk with these people or negotiate with them but rather to get rid of them. I may be wrong, but it is my observation that people simply do not want someone around who does not agree with what they want to hear or see done.

Of course, the most visible proponent of this thinking resides in our government. There are good Republicans and Democrats but, for various reasons, they are so divided today that they cannot even hear one another. Too many times, I hear people express their feeling, saying, "I just don't trust our government any longer." That's terrible! We elect good people to represent us, and we need to provide the kind of support that enables them to make good choices and to work with others to enhance our country.

Many years ago, Jesus stood on the Mount of Beatitudes in Galilee and proclaimed, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9).

In our divided country today, where are the people who stand between the two polarized sides? Where are the peacemakers? Where are the people who seek the truth and not popular favor? A study of truth through Jesus in the Bible is revelatory. It is said that the Law was given through Moses, but truth and grace came through Jesus (John 1:17). Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32). Even Pilate, the Roman procurator who sentenced Jesus to the cross, in his deliberations with Jesus' affirmation that "Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice (John 18:37)," raised the most important inquiry. He said simply, "What is truth? (John 18:38)."

Without peacemakers standing in the middle and speaking the truth, it is as Yeats said so long ago, "the falcon cannot hear the falconer/Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." Pray for the peacemakers, for they will be called "the sons of God."

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Robert Box has been a law enforcement chaplain for 27 years. He is a master-level chaplain with the International Conference of Police Chaplains and is an endorsed chaplain with the American Baptist Churches, USA. He also currently serves as a deputy sheriff chaplain for the Benton County Sheriff's Office. Opinions expressed in the article are the opinions of the author and not the agencies he serves.