Speaking of the LA Riots, there's this moving play (Twilight: Los Angeles) by Anna Deveare Smith where she took interviews from Los Angeles residents about that time. "Swallowing the Bitterness" is my favorite piece from the play: https://youtu.be/Wr34x9VYf6I.
I keep coming back to those same simple feelings I had in high school. I think we, as humans, operate with this tribal mentality of picking and choosing sides. It's not about disagreeing with a facet of an issue or a party or a person, it's about sizing up the issue, party, or person, simplifying it into an easy to navigate map, and then deciding if you accept or reject your well designed route. After this is done, you inject a lot of emotion into your decision and sometimes you make it part of your identity. After your identity is secure, you make every other route the pathway to hell.
While maps are very necessary to navigate difficult terrain, I think we sometimes place too much confidence in our assessments. I think we should be open to modifications--even drastic ones. I also think it's silly to hate the person who chooses an opposite route. And I think sometimes we make our maps too hasitily.
I'm talking too metaphorically.
A few years ago, I was sitting in front of the relief society of my ward as second counselor when the topic of women holding the priesthood came up. It was not part of the lesson but something on the forefront of our minds with Kate Kelly's growing popularity. I remember one woman in the group stood up and gave an impassioned testimony about the gospel and how she felt about those women who opposed the church. It was so passionate that a few other women vocalized their agreement in a way that it felt a bit like we were along the Bible Belt. I agreed with a lot of what she said, but her rejection of those "opposing" women made me pause. I felt impressed to share my thoughts of not making "those women" into the enemy, and to be careful not to alienate those among us that might feel sympathetic to Kelly's cause. It was one of those rare moments that I felt that my Heavenly Father was carefully guiding my words (perhaps so as not to alienate the speaker in my attempt to not alienate those who felt differently).
We do NOT need to be caveman in warring campgrounds. We DO NOT need to make everything into "us vs. them."
Especially in the church.
Especially with our neighbors in this beautiful country.
Especially with our brothers and sisters in faraway lands.
We need to think more critically than this if we wish to be the civilized people we claim to be.
I might still be over-simplifying things (and contradicting myself in the process), but this is the map I've made so far. (And maybe I'm playing it safe by sharing broader ideas rather than sharing my thoughts on specific issues...)
