The Conflict

There seems to be a general consensus that the intensity of the "conflict" is heating up. There have been observations that we may be getting close to another civil war. The Speaker of the House begged for a reduction in the violent rhetoric because she knows that such language leads to violent actions. There are many who suggest that our conflict is more vicious, more aggressive, meaner, nastier than in previous generations.

Heaven knows that right now we have a lot to fight over. Maybe that is one of the reasons for thinking our conflicts are worse. Too many things have been put on the table to fight about: health care reform, immigration reform, financial regulations, bail outs, climate control, and the fighting of terrorists. Each of them is a major contentious issue which pits large portions of people against others.

There is an underlying common thread in all those issues: the struggle between those who believe we need to have "government" help us manage society and those who believe that we are better with less government intervention. I think that is a theological question because it is rooted in a theological concept of human life. Are we good people who will do good if given a chance or are we really like St. Paul sinners who seek to do good, but find that the evil that they do not want to do keeps showing up? Those who want to have less government believe we are all nice and kind people who will do good if left alone. Unlimited freedom will result in unlimited good (or so it sounds to me when I hear them telling their side). The other side believes that individuals and groups need protection from the abuse of power, wealth, and size because power, wealth and size tend to do harm if left unregulated. (Think sub prime meltdown rooted in greed.Think Ponzi schemes. Think airline corporations failure to maintain airplanes. Think tainted milk and sheet rock, think auto industry's opposition to increased gas mileage.)

The Christian confession of sin would suggest that most Christians would understand that the evil in each of us needs to be watched by the rest of us so that we can help each other. The evil in each of us does manage to show up just as much in government as it does in corporate America which is why each of us has to be involved in elections and in the debates on major issues. We all do have to watch all of us in government, but that is not the same as fighting for less government. Only demanding better government.

Jesus in the wilderness had conflict with Satan over whose world it really is? Satan claims it is his and that it can only be run and governed by his means. Jesus lived and believed that it is really God's world and it can only be truly governed and fulfilled by his means. It seems to me that is still the real conflict we are fighting, whose kingdom is it, and whose means do we use to fulfill and bless it.