OP-ED by Judith Niewiadomski, Yonkers
Is it really worth destroying a relationship because of political disagreements? Let’s focus on building unity in our nation.
“E pluribus unum–out of many, one,” an unofficial motto of the United States appears on the Great Seal , reflecting how people came from all over the world, put aside old world hatreds based on ethnicity or religion, and became Americans together. Sadly, the recent spew of aggressive marxist identity politics has divided Americans to levels approaching that of the antebellum period. Marxism has numerous guises (eco, racial, gender, socialism, progressivism). This totalitarian ideology substitutes the state for God and the family, and is incompatible with America’s founding principles, which are based on God’s natural law. “One Nation Under God,” our official motto is a guiding principle for how many states and ethnicities can become one united nation. Without God, it degenerates into conflicting self-serving tribes.
Representative Barbara Jordan was a substantive representative who understood the Constitution, and brought the country together unlike the attention-seeking marxists spewing racial and gender marxist ideology and ready to thrown down on the House floor, attacking those who don’t share their skin color, gender or political views. Representative Jordan lived though the contentious Civil Rights era, yet concluded: “America is the most successful multi-ethnic society in human history.” It was, because legal immigrants put aside Old World political, religious and ethnic hatreds to be something new and better: Americans bound together by common principles articulated in the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
America is the only nation in history based on godly principles. All others were based on language or ethnicity–things that divide. Anyone can become an American by adopting those principles; none of us can ever become French, Chinese, Ugandan or Dominican if we do not have ancestors from those countries.
Key to building unity is to not vaunt yourself or your external characteristics above others, but to view other as equals. Rep. Jordan found unity on issues and did not divide herself from others by constantly talking about her race, gender, nor whom she was living with. But marxists constantly labor and propagandize to divide us by superficialities. It’s not about justice, our common principles have to be the basis o justice—it’s about power and money for them. No country, business nor family can be strong and healthy if its members constantly elevate their personal characteristics above others. Unity takes diligent effort. But its result is peace.
Ephesians 4:3 Endeavoring [making a diligent effort] to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If your mindset is “someone who looks like you did something to someone who looks like me decades or centuries ago, therefore I am going to make your life miserable for the rest of my life and demand reparations and preferences,” you are not building godly peace and unity. If you want peace and unity with your neighbors and co-workers, work with them as individuals who have the same rights as you. The first three chapters of Ephesians tell us what God made us in Jesus Christ; chapters four through six provide practical instructions for how to live in that power, peace, and unity.
Unity requires searching for and building on the positives in each other, forgiving mistakes and working together for common goals. Unity is not built by formalized bullying sessions pestering people for something they had no part in. Early Christians lived in a culture where Jews and Gentiles did not socialize nor enter each other’s homes. Their countries were controlled by a pagan Roman empire held together by military prowess. Only Roman citizens had rights. Early Christians were diverse in culture and language, but united in what God had done for them by Jesus Christ’s achievements despite superficial differences. Galatians 3:27, 28 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” We are called to a higher lifestyle
The key to living abundantly, spiritually and physically as God wants for us (John 10:10) is what you feed your mind and what comes out of your mouth. Does it edify? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. People reveal their inner soul by what they focus on and promote. Marxism is anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, anti-God; there is no peace in an ideology that preaches continuous revolution to empower itself by promoting strife via group identity. American marxists failed to divide US by economics because everyone in the world knows that you can come to America, work and get comfortable and even unimaginably wealthy. Unlike most of the world, America never had classes, nor nobility. Marxists latched on to the civil rights movement after Martin Luther King was murdered. Their three pronged attack to divide and conquer focused on race, gender and sex (i.e sexual perversions) as excuses for grievances. Being grievance minded worsens division by alienating people who would be your allies. Focusing on real or imagined grievances degenerates your physical, mental, and spiritual health. Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Change to a vision of building something better for the here and now.
Focus on the vision: Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Working together on a peaceful and prosperous community instead of being in bondage to ethnic and religious hatred, we all win.
