Lincoln's Words Might Speak to Today's Division

   It was 1858. Abraham Lincoln had just been nominated by his party to oppose Stephen A. Douglas in the Illinois race for senator. And, he gave us one of his famous speeches, titled, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

  He spoke of agitation that had not ceased, but only gained strength since a new policy on slavery had been instituted.  "In my opinion," he said, "it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."

  One wonders, then, if such searing division threatened to tear apart the nation then, could it now? Is slavery the only division capable of doing that, or could other matters so divide this nation that it will not endure?

  Say, politics. Say, political football. Could the division of Republicans and Democrats also threaten our nation?

   It has been 162 years since then. The R's and D's have been fighting all along. No, in all that time, the nation has not been torn asunder. But, one wonders. Have the two parties ever been so divided as they are now? Has it reached a tipping point? 

  Lincoln's words echo. Let us change a few words to apply them to our times. Listen to them: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half in mortal hatred of Democrats and half in mortal hatred of Republicans."

  Mind you, this: Even as in Lincoln's day, turmoil over race is a great part of the division.

  When hatred becomes so pronounced, when each side looks at the other as if they are looking at the devil himself, then the division is so deep, the nation is imperiled. When you look at the other side and see only the devil, the hope of reconciliation grows thin. Lincoln spoke of how the nation would have to pass through a crisis, and that crisis would then have to pass. "It will not cease," he said, "until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed." One wonders if we, too, must face a crisis, and if we, too, must have it pass, if we are to endure. 

  They called the crisis back in Lincoln's day, the Civil War. Considering today's environment, and the contempt and wrath the two parties have for each other, we might could call the crisis we must pass through, the Uncivil War.