POLITICS

I don’t like talking politics and current affairs. It feels divisive, and I always only want to be inclusive. I’ve also seen several friends now, who’ve fallen headfirst into their political tribe, and are now happily throwing rocks at the others to the tune of retweeted likes.

They’re nice people. It’s heartbreaking to see them so furiously hating other humans: jibing and jabbing and effing and jeffing with venom, with spite, and with consonant-spitting vernacular.

They would argue of course that this is necessary. The world is in such a terrible state: the powers that be, the wealthy 1% are busily crushing the heads of poor people, driving them mercilessly into the ground, and it is righteous perhaps even required by our faith to punch up violently in response. To be on the right side of history, you must stand up for those who can’t, right?

Well.

I read Corrie Ten Boom’s book a while ago. I was struck by her sister Betsie’s attitude towards the Nazis.

“And then, incredibly, Betsie began to pray for the Germans up there in the planes, caught in the fist of the giant evil loose in Germany.”

“Whatever in our life is hardest to bear, love can transform into beauty.”

“I glanced at the matron seated at the desk ahead of us. I saw a gray uniform and a visored hat; Betsie saw a wounded human being. And I wondered, not for the first time, what sort of a person she was, this sister of mine … what kind of road she followed while I trudged beside her on the all-too-solid earth.”

• The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom

I think this is why I feel sad at my friends slipping into hatred. Corrie and Betsie came to see the evil of their time as an entity that had fallen on the world, and the prison guards, the informants and Nazi workers as simply people who had been entangled in it. Everywhere they were taken, every cruel face, stern voice and terrible thing that they saw, they chose to pray for their oppressors, and they had compassion for them.

I am not saying that people shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. I believe they should. I think I am saying that it’s much more Jesus-like to look deeper, to pray for our enemies and see them, well, for want of a better word, saved. And by that I mean saved from the evil that has ensnared them and so clearly twisted their hearts.

I guess that’s why I don’t like talking about politics. I really do want to be inclusive and not divisive. If that means standing in no man’s land with rocks hurtling at me from pro-lifers, pro-choicers, liberals, conservatives, progressives, blues, reds, Brexiteers, Europhiles, socialists, evangelicals, deconstructionalists, cessationists, republicans, democrats, croc-wearers, sandals-with-socks-enthusiasts, unionists, loyalists and just people who like marmite, then so be it. I’m going to love you anyway.