McMusing: The Litmus Test is Violence
Republished from November 2024--because we have arrived.
This piece was the fourth part of a series published last fall but not sent out in emails. I felt that what I had to say was important, but I didn't want to add to the overwhelm in my readers’ emails. I also wanted to wait and see. Was I correct? At this point, I have no qualms about saying, “Yes, I was correct.” I said, “If the world continues to escalate, we will reap a whirlwind of unimaginable pain.” I fear it is upon us. I also said, “The litmus test for knowing when to stand is violence.” That was my message to my future self to understand when I needed to republish this article. Today is the day.
Part IV: Can Bridges Ever Be Mended?
It is hard to imagine healing the rift that politics has caused in our nation. So many have not only burned the bridges between themselves and those who disagree with them, they headed upstream and bulldozed the dam. Now we are drowning in vitriol and chaos.
Can these bridges ever be mended?
As I explained yesterday, this political crisis is deeper for me than a disagreement. I have spent the last ten years recovering from the impact of unrestrained evil only to have it applauded in stadiums. It isn’t as much about those who are power hungry—these people have always existed—it is the inability of people to recognize it. The previous three McMusings are my best effort at understanding why this has happened.
How can we possibly move forward?
Ultimately, the vote will happen and the dire predictions—from either side—will come to fruition or prove to be unworthy of our concerns. Mind you, what some will see as evidence of a prediction coming true, others will see as a reason to applaud. We are just that divided.
How will we know what to support and not support?
The litmus test is violence.
Violence is what occurs when evil either gets its way or does not get its way. The point is power. If evil is unrestrained, the violence will increase as a path to cementing the power. If evil is thwarted, violence will attempt to gain power another way. Following the money is one way to track evil; following the violence is the other.
Nothing works better to keep people in survival mode than violence. In that dysregulated place, we will react in four ways: Fight, fawn, freeze, or flee. The priority is to be safe. Jesus understood this and told people to flee. Don’t grab anything, just run for the hills. This lends some credence to fleeing.
Jesus was talking to people who had no power. None. Zilch. He understood what would happen to them if they tried to stand up to unrestrained violence. (Note that I use violence and evil interchangeably.) It is also safer to freeze (lay low and keep silent). What is generally viewed unfavorably is when people fawn by making friends with power. It can serve as protection or as a way to gain more power. Jesus called out the religious leaders who did this.
The fourth alternative is to fight—which is unwise if we have no power. At this point, there is no certainty that there will be any violence though all levels of law enforcement are preparing for it. That begs several questions:
Are we completely powerless if violence occurs?
Is it possible for unrestrained evil to be restrained?
Is it safe for us and our family if we fight?
What does fighting look like?
In every part of my story, there was a little girl, teenager, young adult, or adult who kept getting up the next day and living her life. One of the biggest surprises of my healing journey was that it was not necessary to fight to live every day. Life wasn’t a battle, but without supportive adults who understood trauma, it became one.
I no longer face that daily battle, but I still know how to fight—it is just different. I fight with the keyboard on my laptop. We all can fight against unrestrained evil but must figure out our path. The path is never to return violence for violence. If the world continues to escalate, we will reap a whirlwind of unimaginable pain.
Is there any hope?
I am often a bit too Pollyanna-ish, but this time I have a reason to hope. I believe the good people in our nation can stand up and say, “I did not come here to watch someone die.” What gives me hope that it is possible to restrain evil/violence, was the young man who made an egregious moral error at the river, but recognized it in time to save my life.
The litmus test for knowing when to stand is violence.
Standing against violence is the one thing that holds the possibility of repairing bridges in this divided church and nation. Because to be like Jesus means that we neither choose nor support violence. We stand up against it and work to help those who have been wounded. Jesus said violence was not the answer and healed the servant’s ear.
The new bridge will be our arms linked against violence of all forms—emotional, physical, and spiritual. We all have the potential to be wrong in what we believed as we walked to the polls or mailed in our ballots. True courage comes at the point when—whatever our choice was—if violence occurs, we can set aside the differences and stand up to restrain that violence. We are already seeing those who are willing to do this. We do not have to agree on everything to stand together on a bridge of resistance.
I would imagine that the young man who saved me from certain death beside that river has faced a life of regret for allowing himself to be swept up by the powerful force of unrestrained evil. I can still hear him as he leaned over to help me dress. “I am so sorry.” I hope he found peace, and that he continued to stand up for the innocent. The gift he gave me was an audacious hope that in these difficult days, the people who claim the name of Jesus will stand against the violence of evil.
Bridges can be mended by a common bond that sets political differences aside to restrain evil and violence.