Article in Stretton Focus, December 2016
Watching the news and reading the papers it seems to me that the world is becoming more and more polarised on a number of issues.
Take politics for example. The Trump/Clinton confrontation was highly polarised. Obviously, there were differences between the two candidates but they were scathing about each other using vitriolic language to express their personal revulsion. Of course they had major conflicts but did they need to express themselves so offensively?
Political polarisation is not limited to Trump and Clinton. Pro and anti Corbyn factions were more outspoken and nasty than usual and pro and anti Europe groups were very polarised before that vote.
In society there is an increasing polarisation between rich and poor, between haves and have-nots. In l998 the average pay of the Chief Executive of one of the top 100 UK companies was 47 times that of their staff. Today the difference is 130 times. Our new prime Minister has said she will encourage a fairer society. It will be interesting to see. In the meantime the rich get richer and the lot of the poor improves more slowly.
In religious circles there is increased polarisation. Among Christian churches there is little talk of ecumenism and inter-faith activity is not high on the agenda. So there is an increasing tendency to take up an extreme position in opposition to an alternative view – polarisation.
Internationally there seems to be a danger of returning to the kind of polarisation which characterised the Cold War.
What do we do? We must work for reconciliation.
Desmond Tutu had to deal with an extremely polarised situation in South Africa. White South Africans who felt dispossessed on the one hand and blacks who felt they had an opportunity to correct a few decades of ill-treatment on the other. He sought reconciliation, or rather looked for truth and reconciliation. Change can be slow and painful but reconciliation is the only way. To face the truth and seek to be reconciled to your enemy may result in rejection, failure and disillusion but it is the only way.
On 8th May 1994 at a service of thanksgiving in South Africa the following words were used:
“We are reconciled to the patience and persistence that make peace; to the transparency and fairness that make justice; to the forgiveness and restitution that bring harmony; to the love and reconstruction which banish poverty and discrimination; to the experience of knowing one another that makes it possible to enjoy one another; to the spiritual strength of the one God who made us of one flesh and blood and loves us.”
Words still relevant 22 years later.
Howard Bridge
