Part 3: Love the One You're With - shrinking the political divide by being who you are

Tomorrow, half the country will celebrate the change that we've all been waiting for.

Tomorrow, half the country will feel that we've irreversibly turned a corner toward doomsday.

It's bothersome that any personal schisms I may experience over this election will be only a microcosm of the divide in this country. Red states and blue states barely speak the same language, much less read from the same page.

The American dream has always been freedom from and freedom to. This was a place, formed and founded by dissenters. I fear we stand on the verge of a dark and deep precipice of divide where dissent is treason, and to the Blues, the Red's are always "the other guy."

I believe ever increasingly that politics matter a great deal. I am also wholeheartedly convinced that a real and robust faith speaks directly, clearly and precisely to the core of the conditions that define the political agenda at any given time...

1. Social issues aren't simply about some sort of human widgets. Social issues deal with actual people actually formed in the image of God. I can't be neutral on abortion because God is intimately involved in every single step of the creative process... even in utero.
2. Welfare doesn't work because we're not supposed to be dependent on any system or structure, but rather on God alone. It's not just about making sure that the poor have sustenance, it's about making sure that ALL people have a purpose and an opportunity to thrive
3. Fiscal policy isn't just about getting rich or being poor. It's about stewardship, so I have to ask what the best use of the money God has given me is. If I have the choice to invest money in a cause or a purpose that compels me, or giving it to a government (through higher taxes and wealth redistribution) that has never ever handled its money as well as I have (that's why communism hasn't ever worked), I want the freedom to invest it (give it) myself.

The current divide in our country is such a big deal precisely because my faith compels me to feel a a personal responsibility to do whatever I can to shrink the real and perceived gap between the two sides.

As a believer, I have a mandate to "be one [with others], even as the Father and I are one." (Jesus said that). I don't believe the unity we are called to can come primarily by political means, although I believe there are political implications. I believe it is my job as a believer to begin bridging that gap.

That doesn't mean slashing and burning my ideas and principles in the name of bipartisanship. It doesn't mean making good liberals into good conservatives by making a good conservatives into good left-center moderates.

That is, in all regards, a worthless shift.

It can't mean moral compromise because that denies the existence of real answers. It does mean a return to statesmanship and humility. It means reaching above and beyond ideological tags and searching for and promoting real solutions to peoples real problems. It means leaving the national platform and walking the streets. Most of all, I think it means seeing that "the Democrats," are as real people living in the same economic climate as me, faced with losing the same jobs, and the same crashing retirement system.

There are solutions, and I believe conservative solutions are the better solutions. What I as a conservative may not have is a broad base of trust. We don't have a widespread belief from society that we are working toward the greater good, not just our own good.

As a believer, that is my clarion call. As an American, that is my clarion call. One nation, under God compels me to seek unity (not compromise). The United States of America wasn't created to live in the midst of a wide and growing political split.

So between now and the 2010 midterm elections, what if the conservative base took to the streets and began talking to people who are different from us, sharing ideas and solutions. What if the Republican party became known as the party that walked the neighborhoods talking to the people and taking the initiative to share with them why big government isn't the answer?

That what I'm supposed to be doing anyway. I don't have to be something different to be an agent of healing in this land. I just need to be more of what I'm supposed to be.