I can’t address the rest of the world……..but America seems to have evolved into two separate and completely different worlds. There is the urban world, concentrated primarily on the coasts and the rural world concentrated primarily in the “flyover” states. One world is primarily liberal……the other is primarily conservative. One world leans secular humanist…….the other leans creationist.
These worlds are so different that we have trouble conducting a civil conversation……..much less reaching a consensus on solving important problems. The divide is getting wider and more contentious with each passing year. You can argue that this divide is an existential threat to our democracy and to our culture.
But, where did it come from?
I think it comes from our surroundings. I live on a hilltop out in the country. This morning I’m sitting by a fire on my patio waiting for the sun to come up. I can’t see my neighbors’ houses. I am surrounded by trees. The only sign of mankind in my view is a pair of cell towers on the horizon. Deer, turkeys, coyotes, and the odd red fox wander through my yard. In a word, I live in a world where I am surrounded by beautiful things that man did not create…….that man could not possibly create……ever. A few hundred miles away, on 104th street in New York city, there is a guy who is very much like me. He too is having his morning coffee, he looks out the window of his apartment and sees a huge incredibly complex city…….with theaters, museums, restaurants, and millions of people. He lives in an amazing world as well. But, his world is exclusively the creation of man.
Much of my world is beyond my control. It rains and the grass turns green…….it doesn’t rain and the grass turns brown. My brother’s house was flooded by a hurricane and then narrowly missed by a tornado. The guy in New York, on the other hand, controls, directly or indirectly, most of his environment.
I live in a beautiful world that I did not and cannot create or control. He lives in an amazingly complex world that was created and is controlled by man.
Is it any wonder that I give the credit and glory for my world to a creator…..God…….while he gives the credit and glory to the genius of man?
Is it any wonder that I say that I have been blessed and that he says that he is smart and has worked hard?
Is it any wonder that I put my trust in my creator and his plan for me……for my future………and that he puts his trust in human government?
The trouble is that one of us is wrong.
I suspect that we are not going reach a consensus any time soon. But, perhaps, we can develop some insight into where the other guy is coming from. Perhaps, we can learn to have a civil exchange between our two worlds.
They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
Nehemiah 9:17, ESV
I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices
God, Isaiah 65:2, ESV
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Paul, 2 Timothy, 4:3-4, ESV