We are at a critical moment in the life of our society. Politics have grown more divisive over the last few decades. It has become increasingly crass and mean, and sometimes violent.
Our institutions are strained. Our agreed-upon and shared values don’t seem to be actually shared by many wielding and hoarding power. Too often the only options seem to be a winner take all or “both-sides” accommodation to the status quo.
We find ourselves in need of a transformational political movement. A movement where politics and government are used to serve the common good — the good of all — not merely the maintenance of current systems and self-serving power brokers. If we are to renew our communities and move our society forward, there are a few core values we must dust off and return to the center of what forms our life together.
Honesty: We must have the deepest commitment to telling each other the truth and listen to each other as we share our truths. Spin and propaganda are habits we must unlearn.
Ignoring voices and using parliamentary procedures to silence the marginalized and those in the minority must end. We can’t make decisions that affect people whose voices have not been heard, really heard, so that the truth they speak directs our course of action. Honesty includes both giving space to all voices and acting on what is said.
Respect: We must have the deepest commitment to honoring the humanity in each other. Meanness and vitriol, or even dismissiveness, have no place in our discourse.
This doesn’t mean we can’t tell each other how we feel and what we think. This isn’t about tone policing. This is a foundational understanding that the respect we give each other — especially those typically overlooked or disrespected in our society — is the respect we are giving ourselves, that what happens to one of us affects all of us, that we are connected and tied together in a mutual fabric of destiny, that (as Sikh leader Valarie Kaur says) “you are part of me I don’t know yet.”
This is not about being deferential to elected officials or those in power. This is about honoring each and every person as a precious and irreplaceable part of us.
Collaboration: We can only move forward by working together, where policies and actions are shaped by all of those impacted by them. When a few “win” at the expense of others, we have all lost. When we rush decisions and don’t listen to, or respect and act on concerns raised, we harm ourselves, we harm our society.
It may seem that collaborating is slower or less efficient, but it is only by slowing down and working together that we can build our society into one that is healthy and whole for all of us. Working together across differences of perspective, experience and concern, and working especially with those who have studied specific matters long and deeply, we can build a good, healthy and lasting body politic.
Joy: This may seem out of place as a value to build a political movement on, but it is most needed in our moment. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us, hate cannot drive out hate, only love can drive out hate.
We can’t overcome meanness with opposing meanness. But we can turn our focus into what we enJOY, into building lives together we enJOY. We can enJOY telling, listening and sharing honestly with each other. We can enJOY each other’s essential presence in our community. We can enJOY working together to solve the challenges facing us.
Our politics need not be driven by fear, jealousy or animosity. We can choose joy, and in rooting ourselves in joy, we will have the light and energy to transform our lives together into the beloved community.
Michael Raburn is a pastor at Gainesville Vineyard, a non-denominational Christian church.
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