Either-or World

We are living in a world, especially on social media, which increasingly sees things as either-or. Here are a couple of recent examples.

• Support for veterans or for first nations.
• Support for refugees or for our poor.

It seems to me that an either-or world is a world which makes no room for and. It makes no room for new possibilities. And so…

• We build our political worlds around either-or. 
• We build our economic models around either-or.
• We build our social worlds around either-or.
• We build our religious worlds around either-or.

We create dichotomies that I often think are artificial and harmful. So I hear people say thing like

• You have to be anti-abortion or you are evil.
• You have to hold to this particular interpretation of scripture or you are a heretic.
• You have to be conservative or liberal (depending on who you are talking to) or you are wrong.

We make no room for new opportunities

• You have to be anti-abortion or you are evil.

I am pro-life, which means we work for the caring of the unborn and the born, for the health of the infant and the mother, including the post-abortion mother.

• You have to hold to this particular interpretation of scripture or you are a heretic.

We need to remember that all theological models or interpretations are just that – a model or interpretation. Basically, they are an attempt to put boundaries around scripture, and around God. And, in most (99%) cases those interpretative models become more important than scripture and God (I will probably get a lot of push back on that, which I think demonstrates the point). We make no room for mystery, for views that are bigger and more diverse than my mind can hold together.

• You have to be conservative or liberal (depending on who you are talking to) or you are wrong.

I have never been a member of a political party. I have voted (and this I am sure will get me in trouble with some) Conservative (in its various incarnations here in Canada), Green, Independent, Liberal, NDP, and I have refused my ballot. When will we learn that the Kingdom of God is political, but it is not about a political party?

Let's learn to live in the and.