Treat me like a dog . . .

My father and my sister Meg (not her real name) did not get along very well during her early teens.

Once Dad became so exasperated with her that he fell to his hands and knees in the midst of a department store and began to bark. When a large enough crowd had gathered (I don’t know how large it was, though even two or three strangers would have been enough to horrify my sister), my father said,

“If you treat me like a dog, I will act like a dog.”

I am happy to report that Meg and Dad got through this stage and learned to love one another well. But I can also report that Meg never again, even while that difficult season persisted, misbehaved in public.

I wish we could be a bit more like Meg after this encounter. Instead, we are stirring up our inner mongrels by snarling and snapping at each other, especially over politics.

“Watch and listen to politically polarized commentary today,” writes columnist Arthur Brooks, “and you will see that it is more contemptuous than angry, overflowing with sneering, mockery, and disgust.” (New York Times, 4/10/16)

What especially troubles me about this trend is that many who align themselves with Jesus, an alignment I share, are contributing to the problem. The other day a public figure posted a video:

“I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall.”

She had said, ‘We’re all going to die,’ in response to an objection that a policy she favored would do people great harm. She continued,

“I made the incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those who would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

What distressed me especially was the final sentence, where this person identified herself as a servant of Jesus (“my Lord”). For very little, if anything, in her “apology” showed her to be one. Her words misrepresented her master profoundly. It is one thing to disagree vigorously with someone (Jesus did). It is another thing sarcastically to demean those with whom one disagrees (Jesus never did).

This video got me thinking, by way of contrast, of the evening when Nicodemus came to Jesus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the “opposition party”, a group whose teachings and practices Jesus vigorously objected to. And yet Jesus did not cancel him. He did not treat him as the contemptible and dismissible embodiment of his group’s policies. He received and engaged him.

There is plenty to disagree about in our moment in America. That we disagree is inevitable and healthy. How we disagree is just as important. And this how is particularly important for those who identify with Jesus to take to heart.