KNOWING OUR FINAL DESTINATION AND THE DIFFERENCE IT MAKES

Most of us have been affected by the growing polarization of American culture. It is not simply a matter of divergent ideas but of a contempt for those ideas and the people who hold them. This divide and intolerance has become so acute that former friends now regard us as enemies at best to be silenced.

This is the "Closing of the American Mind" observed by Allan Bloom a couple of decades ago, and now coming into full bloom as stinging nettles.

Not all students and universities are the same. While in the West, students are screaming to close mind and silence any viewpoint diversity, students in East Europe, emerging from the stifling oppression of Communism, are marveling at their Western counterparts.

Religion is one area where this divide is painfully apparent. At one rural youth hostel, we sat at the breakfast with young Western travelers. The topics were superficial - which sites have you seen, how much did they cost, and how to get there.

Finally, I couldn't take it any longer and offered a theistic topic for the table. One young American fired back, "Do you really think that this is appropriate for the breakfast table?"

I responded that I had never seen a rule book disqualifying this topic. 

Eastern European students would not have been so dismissive. God might not be prominent in thinking, but they would listen with interest and respect.

Is this an ability that they have or just a willingness, and what would make them willing? I think that the answer is very simple. They have a greater respect for diversity and their fellow humans.

I think Hillary Clinton expressed it well when she claimed that half of Trump's supporters are "deplorables." This is to say that these human beings deserve to be deplored and hated.

How could she utter such a damning denunciation? Clearly, she knew that many would resonate with this denunciation.

What does it say about people who regard their fellow humans in such a contemptuous way. It says that they have rejected their Christian roots which require that we love and honor even our enemies:

• Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:9-10)

Instead of loving and honoring, we grasp for control and are intolerant of anything that will get in our way. 

However, this is understandable if our reward is just to be found in this life. But if we understand that our ultimate reward is to be found in eternity, we need not grasp and degrade the other person who is also created in God's likeness. Instead, we live as those who know that they are heaven bound.