Don't panic

I normally don't read from my Kindle so I forget what books I've downloaded, usually ones that were free. As I was skimming the index, I found this book - Body Broken: Can Republicans and Democrats Sit in the Same Pew? by Charles Drew. I am not looking forward to the upcoming election cycle. If we are already this polarized, can it get any worse? So I started reading.

Those who bemoan the moral and social disintegration of American culture are often right. But when they speak to us in such a way as to stir up fear and panic in our hearts, they are wrong. God reigns, and therefore we need not - we must not - be afraid as we exercise our civic responsibilities no matter what seems to be going on around us.

Consider the damage panic can bring. First of all, panic impairs judgment. If we give in to the voice that cries "Act now, or our great country will the forever lost!" we will find ourselves demanding easy and quick solutions to our nation's problems, when in fact there are no such solutions. Christians, more than others, should know that no candidate, no platform, no party has all the answers But fear makes it easy to forget this. 

Panic breeds impatience not only with political process but also with people. It easily leads to browbeating and to polarization even in the church, the very place where God expects us to model the one community that will outlast all others. How quickly and tragically we accuse and demonize one another when we are afraid.

I think this is going to be a timely book. Interestingly, this was written first in 1999 and rereleased in 2012. Nothing new under the sun.