I only have fifteen minutes to write this and I hope I can get it done before I have to head to the station. Usually when I write such a personal message it takes me hours. But I want to leave you this message on Friday – I want you to have it over the weekend. I want you to share it with your friends.
Because it’s who we used to be.
I believe if we want to survive as a nation – as this great Constitutional Republic – as a people – we need to become this again.
It’s a message about forgiveness, and it’s who we used to be.
We live in a zero-sum world. I hate that. It used to be that if you and I agreed on 70%, we had much in common and were close friends. We would discuss – or ignore – or agree to disagree on the 30% on which we didn’t see eye-to-eye. But we were friends.
Today, we must agree on 100%. We must be in lockstep mentally and ideologically or we’re thrown out of one another’s tribe. And not only thrown out of the tribe, we work to destroy that other person. They must be discredited! Shut down! Minimalized and silenced! Because they don’t 100% agree.
Because we live in a zero-sum world.
If Joe is having a bad day and accidentally blurts out “X!” Then Jane, who is a card-carrying member of the Society to Prevent X (dot org), is OFFENDED! And Jane and the members of the Society to Prevent X must Tweet and Snap and Insta and Facebook just how evil Joe is and how he needs to accept their views and about how Joe must be minimalized and discredited and silenced!
“Boycott Joe!!!” scream Jane and her tribe. Joe is evil! Joe’s wife and kids and business are evil! Joe must not be allowed to prosper or pursue happiness!
Because in a moment of weakness or honest mistake Joe blurted out X. And people were offended. And you just don’t blaspheme X and offend people.
Joe realizes his mistake. He’s horrified. Ashamed. Embarrassed. “How could I possibly have blurted out X?!” Joe thinks to himself. “I don’t really believe that – I was having a bad day! I made a mistake! Please forgive me!”
So, Joe apologizes. He humbles himself and asks for forgiveness. He is truly sorry for offending.
But this is a zero-sum world and Joe’s apology is just not good enough. His apology is not accepted. Joe must be minimalized and silenced and destroyed. And now Joe is offended because it was an honest mistake. So, Joe retreats into his corner and bands together with his tribe who now hate Jane and everyone in her tribe. And that’s okay. Because Jane and her tribe hate Joe and his.
And the wound on society deepens and festers. Because this is a zero-sum world.
Do you know who Amber Guyger is? She’s just 31. She’s a former Dallas cop. Not that it matters, but she’s white. On Wednesday, she was sentenced to 10-years in prison for fatally shooting a black (not that it matters) neighbor in his own home. Guyger said she thought she had walked into her own apartment and mistook Botham Jean, who was sitting on his own couch eating ice cream, as an intruder.
Guyger, who was in uniform when she shot Jean, quickly and tragically realized her mistake.
She’s never lied or tried to cover it up. She has always owned up to her mistake. But viewed through the lens of a zero-sum world, a white cop shot a black man in his own apartment while he was eating ice cream. She must be a racist! The tribes gather and the drums beat.
Brandt Jean is just 18. He’s the victim’s younger brother and at Guyger’s sentencing on Wednesday he did something miraculous. Something almost unseen in today’s tribal, zero sum world. He embodied the gospel of Jesus Christ when he loved his neighbor as himself, spoke words of forgiveness into the heart of Guyger, and then asked to give her a hug. Right there in the court room. He practically begged the judge to let him hug his brother’s killer.
He forgave her. He said he didn’t want her to go to jail. He said all he wanted was for her to know Jesus Christ. And then he hugged her.
It should be the hug felt round the world. Because it represents who we used to be. Forgiving and loving and understanding and caring.
And we need to be this way again.
Watch the video below, read the story HERE, and #PleaseDoGoodStuff.