We Must Call Out Hate

Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on 8 April 2021 4 Comments

Entertaining Long's sexual addiction as a believable explanation for the killings diverts attention from his acts of intentional xenophobia and racialized misogyny. The fetishization of Asian American and Pacific Island women has constantly made their lives expendable to sex traffickers and men's violent fantasies.

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Question

How can we stop the hate and bring the far right & left together to find the middle we can walk together and work for the USA’s survival?

Answer

Dear Jude,

I’ve been asking myself and others this same question for quite a while!  And I don’t have the full and definitive answer.

But I do believe that the first step toward an answer is the one Jesus inspires us to take – into unconditional, divine “agape” love.

To love people with whom we vigorously disagree is to pay attention to them, to listen with open hearts and minds.  The goal is not necessarily compromise, but understanding and connection.  We don’t need to “find the middle” in the process.  There is no “middle” between hatred and compassion.  There’s no such thing as being “half racist”.  But by asking sincere questions of people we perceive to be haters or racists, and by respectfully receiving their answers  - hard as they may be to hear - we model the compassion we hope will prevail, and we establish relationships that may, over time, change hearts and minds.  If we spent most of our time in political discussions asking questions instead of spouting out our opinions, we’d go very far toward healing the divisions in this country.

As your question suggests, democracy is seriously threatened in this country and many others around the world right now.  A major cause is media illiteracy:  tens of millions of Americans get their information about public affairs from unreliable sources.  Propaganda masquerading as journalism has poisoned political discourse.  When I get into a conversation about politics with someone I don’t know very well, often I start by asking them where they get their information.  What do they read?  What do they watch?  Are they consuming long-form journalism, editorial opinion pieces, or both?  How and why did they get started following these media outlets?  If we share the same kinds of news sources, then we can have discussions about what we found in them – which can lead to meaningful dialogue about issues.  But all too often, our sources are drastically different - misinformation from Fox versus in-depth reporting from PBS or NPR.  If we start political discussions with conversations about information sources, we can politely invite folks who inhabit the media miasma of conspiracy theories, overheated punditry, and outright falsehoods to pay a visit to the media universe that is committed to reporting facts.  There is little point in debating politics with people who aren’t grounded in the realities that public policies address.

Good journalism is attentive inquiry: it is a form of love.  It is the opposite of the angry invective, whether of the right - or left - wing variety, roaring out of commercial radio and television stations.   To heal our politics, let’s start by asking each other serious and thoughtful and honest questions – and by following news sources that do the same.

~ Rev. Jim Burklo

 

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