Backlash!

It was inevitable.  It has happened before. It is evident now.  It will happen again.  BACKLASH!  A friend told me nearly eight years ago that there would be an adverse reaction to the election of our first Black President. We’ve witnessed some of this in the obstructionist tactics of congress.  The present backlash, however, goes far deeper.  It is revealed in those who say that the GOP presumptive nominee isn’t afraid to say what they have been feeling, thinking and wanting to say themselves for years.  These deep-seated feelings have been seething beneath the surface long before the present administration.  All that was needed was for someone to come along and stir the embers of the smoldering inner fire of resistance to the emerging new world.

We do live in  a “new” world.  It is different from the world we knew in our yesterdays, and it will be a different world tomorrow than the one we know today.  The new emerging world of today is not perfect.  It faces challenges that have never been faced before.  The emerging world of tomorrow will not be perfect either.  But that world of our yesterdays was even more deeply flawed than today’s and history tells us that we have made some giant steps in producing a new and better, though still imperfect world of today. 

Prague:  A new order emerges.
  We have resisted for a long time.
 "Love is at the Heart of all Things,"
and the new will become reality!

The old adage, “You can’t go home again,” is true.  We can’t go back to what once was—thank God!  I prefer building bridges, not walls!  In the old order of yesterday there were many walls separating nations and people—in the new order being born today we have built some bridges to eliminate those gaps.  More bridges are needed because there are still many gaps. 

Whenever there is the emergence of the new we will always be confronted by the recalcitrance of the old. This is natural, but the present backlash is unnatural because it goes against the grain of basic human and moral values.  For years, as a minister I have proclaimed the biblical theme: “The old order is passing away and a new order has come.”  This new order is all about love, not hatred; togetherness, not separateness; peace, not bullying;  bridges, not walls; truth, not lies; compromise, not “my way or the highway;” diversity, not segregation; dignity, not degradation; respect, not contempt; politeness, not nastiness.  The present backlash seems to abhor these basic human/moral values by their rhetoric and behavior.  In spite of this, the new order will continue to emerge.  It can be delayed to our peril, but it cannot be stopped for "Love is at the heart of all things!"