Typically in polarized issues we think of it as sort of
either or. It is a or b, black or white,
good or bad. We do not as often think
of the polls as falling on a spectrum, and we definitely don’t think of a
spectrum as curving the point where the far ends might meet up (An example of
this being if you put American politics on a circle the far left anarchist and
the far right libertarians begin to meet up.)
It is painfully apparent that the US is extremely polarized
right now on almost every issue and politics have become so divisive again (I
say again because it is actually not the first time – remember families divided
by the civil war? or not speaking to each other in the 70’s over hot button
issues?) that once again there are families that cannot sit down to a civil
Thanksgiving and where people I know are disowning family members. I hear much despair both about how these
gulfs will be bridged in families but also about how our country will be governable
again.
Ironically, at the same time my Meeting has also become very
polarized – but over a very different issue.
A registered Sex Offender has come to our Meeting and there was been far-ranging
response to his presence in Meeting as well as far ranging interpretations of
his behavior while in Meeting. The
Meeting initially came up with a policy regarding sex offenders and then after
an incident where it became very clear that vagueness in the policy resulted in
widely varying interpretation of whether the policy was violated or not, the Meeting
has set out to rewrite the policy. Sadly,
the Meeting has also become very polarized in the process.
One Friend has helpfully asked us to think of this
polarization as not whether x did Y or whether Z has unfairly accused x of something,
but rather as that all of us in Meeting fall at different places on a spectrum
that at one end values welcoming people, anyone, especially those who maybe
underdogs in our society into the Meeting, and the other end of the spectrum
those valuing safety for all the members of our Meeting and holding up the
Meeting Community as of supreme importance.
This same member has then invited us in a series of conversations to
notice the things we actually believe in common – which winds up being that:
* we would all like to feel safe
*that we believe in the redemptability of our fellow human
*we all want to be welcoming to other humans
*the world holds no guarantees anywhere about safety
*we believe in taking sensible precautions to reduce risk
when we can, etc.
By finding these initial values we agree upon we are slowly
inching our way forward.
Like most Friends in the Meeting I was so dismayed that we
were having this conflict and also that it was having the destructive power
that it was having in the Meeting. I wondered how this could possibly come out
right? But also being new to the
Meeting it was very clear to me that the conflict like some sort of bull dozer
was pushing up to the light of day all the dark places, all the dysfunctioning
and broken places in the Meeting. And
it becomes increasingly clear that there is no way through this conflict
without fixing all the broken places….which if we fail will leave us shattered
and if we succeed will make us stronger and vastly better as a community.
Recently George Lakey came to town giving a workshop on his
new book: How We Win. One of the
very encouraging things George shared was how in his research for his previous
book Viking Economics he discovered that the Scandinavian countries, now
amazing models for the world in so many arenas, were a “mess” before they
transformed into democratic socialist countries. He discovered that they were at their most
polarized point right before that change in governments. Out of the polarization the common people
kicked the 1% out of rulership. He then
looked at our own US history and realized that out of the polarization and class
divide of the Great Depression came all of the reforms of the New Deal and out
of the polarization of the 60’s and 70’s came the civil rights movement, the
Clean Water and Clean air act, etc. In
listening to a friend of his who did beautiful metal work he heard his friend
talking about having to heat up the metal to make it pliable and George
realized that this is what polarization does – it heats things up till they
become changeable. George asks us to see
the polarization of our time as an amazing set of possibilities about to
unfold.
I have believed about the Meeting conflict that if we succeed
that we may find some answers that our society has yet to find about how we
allow people who have committed crimes against society to be welcomed back into
society and integrated back in. But
this week I had the even more radical thought that the nations polarity on
immigration goes on the same poll between those who want to be welcoming to
all and those that want our country tot be a “safe place” that provides for
those already here. I realized that if the
Meeting succeeds maybe we will find some answers on how the heat of conflict and
the longing to be community allows for the transformation of our broken US society. Maybe it will equip some of us with some ways
to approach the yawning US political divide which I think begins with finding
where we hold common values even when our rhetoric and preferred policies are
worlds apart.
It is also very helpful to remember that God exists at all
points of our poll. The Creator is not
just hanging out on one side of that poll.
So if God is in all part of the poll, the Divine is able to hold the
tension of those conflicting points of views and to keep seeing as loveable all
members of the conflict.
