Maybe it's time to take a lesson from Jesus and work a little on our ability to forgive those who do those stupid things that really rile us.
Three years ago George W Bush invaded Iraq. At the time there were a large number of people who believed what the President said and they believed that America was protecting itself from an evil dictator that was about to drop a nuclear weapon on us. The people who bought into this idea worried that if they didn't do anything the bomb could be dropped at any time. The fear spread through the country from 9/11 was still fresh in everyone's mind and fear makes people believe just about anything.
I know how fear works, because I have experienced it. I am sure that many people have. It makes you do irrational things. It makes you paranoid. A suggestion can begin to consume you.
When I was a teenager I got the idea to hop a fence at a local pool and go in for a midnight dip. It sounded like a lot of fun, so a few of us found a pool that seemed to be secluded enough that swimming in it wouldn't attract attention. We hopped the fence easily and we went into the changing area to take our clothes off. The changing area was a concrete structure and the traffic noise from the road seemed quite loud inside the building at night. After getting changed we began to think that someone might be outside. The traffic noise was so loud that if someone were outside we probably wouldn't be able to distinguish their noise from the traffic noise. We began to imagine someone outside the building and fear began to overtake us. We thought about going out into the pool, but it no longer sounded like a good idea because we had become paranoid that someone might catch us. In a few minutes we had put our clothes back on and we were back over the fence. When I think about this story I can still sense some of the fear I felt when we were in that changing room. Fear had influenced our decision not to swim in that pool that day.
It may seem obvious that people should be fearful when they are doing something wrong. Going swimming in a neighborhood pool was certainly wrong, and that fear could have been a good thing. After all, penalties for breaking the laws are supposed to deter people from breaking the laws. But, there is more to fear than just fear of breaking the laws. Terrorism itself is based on fear. During the French Revolution terror was used to scare the people into joining the revolt. The French Revolution was not about defense of a nation, but it was an uprising against the ruling class. Terror created fear in the people and that fear made them do things that they might not have done if they had been thinking rational thoughts.
But, after a while people are no longer afraid. The fear goes away, and people feel free to act in rational ways again. Just because I was fearful to go swimming in that neighborhood pool one midnight did not prevent me from going swimming with my friends on other nights. We just found another place that seemed to be safer and we were less fearful. We ended up finding a secluded beach at the lake instead.
Similarly, three years ago many people were afraid of Iraq attacking us with nuclear bombs. The fear made them rally behind a stupid idea of invading Iraq. Based on opinion polls, a large majority of Americans agree that the Iraq War is a major debacle. This could have only happened if people changed their minds. Americans have changed their minds because they no longer fear Iraq attacking us with nuclear weapons. Many of these people still believe that there are people in Iraq that might wish us harm. But, the major fear of nuclear weapons no longer exists.
Some people have always been against the Iraq War. They never feared the nuclear attack. They saw the war as a war for oil, or power in the Middle East. They weren't afraid of Iraq. They may have been afraid of the Bush administration, but for whatever reason they chose to oppose the Iraq War early on. And, these people find it hard to forgive those who had supported the Iraq War and later changed their minds. After all, those who had recently changed their minds had listened perhaps all of the death, destruction and wasted money could have been preserved. It is certainly hard to forgive this sin.
However, I am here to tell you that we must forgive these people and accept them into the anti-war movement. We need to make these people feel welcome because there is strength in unity. After all, Jesus taught us to forgive the sinner.
Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit