Divided We Fall?

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I am praying hard for the outcome of this presidential election. I'm not listening to pollsters and national media sources who tell us it's over. It's over when it's over. I will pray until the very end, and I'm praying that it's a miracle we get -- a miracle for the culture of life.

I am, however, starting to look beyond the election, and I am beginning to pray for this nation. I have heard several talk radio hosts say that this is the most divisive election this country has ever experienced. I can't say that's true, I've only been voting since I first voted for Ronald Reagan, and I've only been alive since Kennedy. There were a lot of elections before my day. But, even if this is not the most divisive election ever, I will say it is divisive in a way never seen before.

My husband, children and I live in what I believe to be a very typical American city. There is a mix of mostly middle to middle/upper class families with a small population of lower economic class, probably mostly two-incomes, most kids go to school, most families under three children. It's mostly religious, but a mix of Catholic and different Protestant denominations, and probably a lot of not really any religion. There are some minorities, but not all black minorities, there are Asian and middle Eastern and African. In other words, it's not any one thing. And maybe that's why I see what I see, but it's disturbing nonetheless.

What I see as I drive through my own neighborhood, and then my city, and even beyond my city, are yard signs that indicate one neighbor is voting for McCain and his next door neighbor is voting for Obama, and his next-door neighbor is voting for McCain. As you drive down the street you see them alternate, pretty much one for one. In our own neighborhood we have seen signs pop up that have surprised us. You think you know someone, but do you?

I know that this is happening in families too. Husband and wife cancel each other's votes. Children fight with mom and dad and think they don't understand what's at stake. Parents at odds with their children because they are choosing to vote a different party.

I think that in elections past, at least in the first 200 years of this country's elections, what you likely saw were large groups of people voting for one candidate, and then other large groups voting for another. The Polish Catholics voted for one guy, and the English Protestants another. It was divisive, but at least those you lived near, and with, were "on your side."

I said to Doug last night, "after this election, how do you look at people the same way when you know that they voted for the other guy, and you know what's at stake if the other guy is elected?" I know we have to forgive, and I don't even think it's really mine to forgive, but how do you forget? If Obama is elected and he does what we fear (and I am only talking about life issues here), how do you continue to have relationships with people who voted for him?

So much is at stake in this election, at least from the side of life, that I just can't see people getting past it and resuming a normal life. How do you walk out to get your mail and wave at the guy you know voted against life?

This country has so evenly divided itself, right down the middle, that I don't know that it will ever be cohesive again. And will our division be our demise?

Patrick Henry used the phrase "United we stand, divided we fall" in a speech he gave in 1799. “Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.”

Haunting words, for it appears as though that's exactly what is befalling.


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