Morality Plays

Reasonable people can disagree on certain things.  My professional journey in ministry has taught me that trying to get everyone "on the same page" is mostly futile and often downright destructive.  As important as consensus and shared vision might be to the life of a church you cannot force it into existence.  I have tried, and I have been on the other side of people who were trying to get everyone to agree on something that was deeply emotional, rooted in tradition and called into question what we believed and how we interpreted the Word of God.
The issue in question was whether or not homosexual people ought to be allowed to be ordained as Teaching and Ruling Elders within the Presbyterian Church (USA).  At the time of the debate I was serving in Western Pennsylvania, not in Pittsburgh, which means it was conservative territory.  My own convictions on the matter were in flux.  Caring for people was becoming more important than theological litmus tests.  There weren't even any out LGBTQ people in my congregation, nevertheless the issue was raised because of the action being considered by the General Assembly that would change our polity to allow it.  People were angry about it, and it was creating hostility and fear.  Ultimately it was the hostility and fear that brought me over the line, those things just seemed wrong for followers of Christ. In the long run, what has proved to be true is what Jesus said in Matthew 7, "you shall know them by their fruit."
I looked at what was going on.  On the side that was fighting for inclusivity I saw patience and a willingness to enter into conversation.  I saw passion but not anger. While those qualities were not absent on the side of those who insisted that the Scriptures clearly label homosexuality as a sin and therefore the church ought not to affirm those who are unwilling to do the same, there was a much more defensive posture to say the least.  It was during this time that the phrase "like minded" went from a term that seemed to define community to one that revealed itself to be destructive of actual conversation.
I am thankful to a few wise, kind people who took the time to help me wrestle through this issue by really engaging in dialogue.  I am also thankful to the people who revealed their anger and fear, even if it was often misdirected, and in a few cases even directed at me (because I was clearly not as convinced of the truth as they were).
The experience taught me to look at the behavior of people and underneath the behavior to the motivations.  It taught me not to trust the echo chamber logic of "like minded" groups.  It actually taught me to seek out the wisdom of those whom I thought occupied the "enemy" position. In that case I found my enemies to be less toxic than my friends.
In the long run, the final healing was not found in what eventually became my position winning the long and painful struggle, it came in learning to forgive those who had hurt me during the battle, and learning to own some of my own bad behavior and repent of my own sin. I'm still working on that.
Recent events on our national stage have brought back memories of that struggle. There are deep divisions and profound disagreements.  I once again find myself conflicted about what to think and what to believe.  Stones are being hurled once again, both sides seem to be operating out of fear, anger and disillusionment. I am personally looking for a way to put down my stone, again.
One of the most hopeful movements I have heard about is the Moral Monday movement in North Carolina.  It has been a gathering of people of all faiths, races and walks of life that gather in Raleigh on Monday and speak about the moral issues facing our nation: healthcare, voting rights, racism, justice, and rather lengthy list of others.  They are not at all satisfied with the status quo of either of the ruling parties, Democrat or Republican, because rather than being an issue of left v/s right is an issue of moral v/s immoral.
This, it would appear to me, is the way out of this quagmire.  We may disagree on how best to solve some of the critical issues facing our society, but we can at least (I hope) agree that it is immoral for a society at our level of advancement to allow a person to face a disease like cancer without proper health care coverage, it is immoral for children to go hungry, it is immoral for people to be denied the right to vote, it is immoral to discriminate against people based on the color of their skin or their sexual orientation.
Neither liberal nor conservative has managed to truly engage the immorality of these sorts of problems.  Shouting at each other isn't getting us anywhere, choosing up sides is dragging us deeper and deeper into the pit of anger and fear and allowing the quicksand of immorality to swallow us whole.  But I'm preaching now and it's Saturday.