The Opposite of a Call to Arms

In St. Paul?s first letter to the Corinthians he wrote, ?When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.?

Over the last 30 years politics in America have become increasingly childish, petulant and angry to the point where it seems like we often do not see or hear those we disagree with as people who have differing views but as an enemy to be crushed at all cost.

And yet even the most disparate of us have more that we agree on than we don?t. We all value education, safety, family, and American values as we define them.

When men like Eric Rudolph, James Adkisson and Scott Roeder commit their acts of violence they may help their cause in the short term insomuch as it makes abortion more expensive because of security costs and may scare some away from their legal rights however in the long run they hurt their cause by sullying the reputation of the entire pro-life movement and its supporters in the eyes of the majority of Americans.

In light of Dr. George Tiller?s murder there has been a lot of mention of how certain news channels and websites went out of their way to call Dr. Tiller a murderer or Nazi and during the Bush years there were many on the opposite side of the political spectrum who called the president and his supporters murderers and Nazis. In either case, no matter how heart felt the opinion, such expressions reflected more poorly on the speaker than their subject matter.

Can we as Americans agree to disagree where we do without name calling, without death threats, without incendiary speech or literal calls to arms? Can we as Americans, right and left, pro life and pro choice, religious and atheist, come together to discuss, debate and even disagree like mature responsible people?

And if we can, can we also come together in calling out those who can?t, whether we agree with their fundamental position or not? Can we as a society put away these childish things and speak, at long last, as adults?