Fractures and the Ties That Bind Us (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 06/09/23)

This is our first presentation for the weekend. We do have three. The sermon tomorrow is going to be on this same topic

It also is going to fit very nicely into the sermon series that I have been doing because we are talking about social strife

this week so that the title for this three-part series is social strife how to live today without fear of tomorrow and

Specifically this evening's message is titled fracture and the ties that bind

So fracture and the ties that bind that's tonight's message

So because we're talking about fractures. I have a question how many of us have ever broken a bone or

more than one bone or

Multiples of bones or know someone okay

So in other words we can relate to the idea of a broken bone except for me. I can only relate to it because

My younger brother I remember when he broke his arm first day

He rode a bike and on his birthday and he tipped over and he broke his forearm

And then I have heard stories of my dad and other family members, but I have not

Thankfully broken anything yet and I say yet because a broken bone is fairly common

The average person has two broken bones in a lifetime

So if you have two you are perfectly average if you have one you're a little better if you have more than that

Well, then you're just helping the rest of us that have zero. That's all you're doing

Causes for fractures though

One we know that a fracture usually occurs when force is exerted to the bone

When it is stronger than the bone itself so a stronger force than the bone itself

And I I tried to summarize the types of causes for fractures that I could find and I have four

I'm sure there are more but these are the four that I have for tonight one would be a sudden severe trauma

You can think of a vehicle crash

You can think of a bike accident or falling down some stairs a severe traumatic

Event that puts that that significant amount of force on your bones

You can think of on the other end of the spectrum something like a stress fracture if you are a runner

Oh my goodness very nice

If you are a runner then a stress fracture might be something that you have to consider because if you aren't

Managing your training and your rest and you're overdoing it or the pavements too hard

Or whatever the case may be your bones may just go enough is enough

And you get a hairline fracture as a result due to just ongoing stress

Then of course osteoporosis a disease that that thins and weakens your bones

Can lead to an increased risk or likelihood or an experience with fractures

So if you have osteoporosis if you're at risk of osteoporosis

If you're at risk of osteoporosis you want to keep that in mind because it breaks down the bones ability to resist stress

And then the one thing that we can't avoid is age

As you age your bones naturally get more brittle which means you're much more susceptible for broken bones

Just as you age

That's just the way things go

So that's something else that I have to look forward to

And who knows maybe i'll make it all the way through without one but we will see

But when we're thinking of fractures and we're thinking of the bones and we're thinking of what to do with it

Well, we have some steps that should be fairly familiar

Well one you want to identify the problem or you want to see the injury and and kind of what's there and how extensive it is

What other systems in the body does it affect and interact with?

Then you want to investigate possible causes

Because if you have a broken leg or a broken finger and it was caused by a car accident

You also want to rule out osteoporosis

Maybe there's an underlying cause why your bone broke when perhaps someone else in a similar situation

Theirs did not

What underlying causes led to the injury?

When you have injuries, especially if they're severe and especially if they're traumatic

It can lead to fear

There is a fear that you can face when you have fractures and things that break it apart

I haven't experienced a broken bone, but I have been stung by wasps

That put a fear in me at my young age of seven or eight with my first sting

And it traumatized me well into my adulthood

I used to ask my wife to go clean out our shed or open up the shed because that's where the red wasps flew around

So when you get injured when you face some sort of a fracture in your life

You can also face a fear. Well, then you have to ask the question. Well, what next?

What do you do with your injuries? What do you do about the underlying causes?

And then what about the fear that's a result of those other two?

How do you actually face it and move forward?

Well, because we're talking about strife in our society

This is of course our illustration the injury the broken bone the fracture the underlying causes

But we are going to talk about

strife in our

society

one

And just so we know up front

This is not a comprehensive list

As I was preparing for tonight's presentation what I looked at are what at least I consider

Three of the biggest most divisive

Social strife if you will in our society presently

Some have been long standing some are a little bit more recent

But when I look at the social landscape these three categories to me stand out

Kind of above the rest if you will

So we can always have more but these are the three big ones

Our first one is racism and racial tension in our nation

In the history of the united states of america if we're talking about social strife if we're talking about an underlying cause

If we're talking about a history that society still talks about

Still deals with to some extent and still wonders what next

This is part of it

It has to be part of the conversation

It really has been around

And affected us for far too long we know the history in the united states from our country's inception until the civil war

Slavery largely based on race was the reality of the land

We have to acknowledge that that was the reality of the land

I'm not saying that was a good reality

Saying it was and and it was there

We also have to recognize that as the country was as our nation was founded and even up to the civil war

That was a very contentious subject

The original founders of our nation in their extra writings talked about how they were torn between

The presence of slavery and the ideals for the nation

Clearly it didn't perfectly get born out, but they expressed and recognized the tension

We also need to recognize that it wasn't only

Europeans who held africans as slaves

One of the first slave owners that's documented and registered in our nation was a slave himself

Before he was freed and then he bought slaves

So this was a black man who bought black men and women as slaves

Just saying that was the reality of the country and he saw it as this is the reality of the country

That's it

from the civil war

to the

1960s

We had a bloody battle

that

Is fair to say was going against the

Union until the emancipation proclamation was taken seriously

And that's documented in our history books. There is a major turning point

Once the civil war was no longer being fought just to keep the nation together. It was being fought to free the slaves

Then the tides turned a fantastic book. I recommend as a nation in god's hands

A fantastic book I recommend as a nation in god's hands written by professor judd lake from southern

He outlines a lot of that history and and how really the union was losing

Until we took slavery

Seriously, once that became the motivation

Then everything turned and it went in the other way the confederacy lost

At times when really they should have won but from the civil war until the 1960s

And again, this is all roughly

We recognized all men were created equal but that didn't mean equal rights

I think that's a fair broad statement

We had segregation

Written into law people couldn't eat in the same places drink from the same water fountains ride on the same buses get the same education

Not even the same location much less the same level of education

Uh again, that was what happened in our nation and it was the law

It was permitted. It was allowed in the south. It seems that it was especially pervasive

When I talk about

Some of these issues still carrying into the present day

I was born in texas. Don't remember it raised in arkansas. Remember that

Our cities around of that area they were segregated cities

That's not because there was a law in place

But that's because it was it was kind of ingrained in the culture

There were neighborhoods and whole cities that were 99 white and if you drove south a little bit

99 black

And they just stuck to themselves

And if you were of the other race going into one of those cities

You were prejudiced against

It just came with it

It was part of the culture that I grew up in in arkansas

and

Sadly to say it was a very familiar culture to me

Recently here nearby in in a neighboring area

But that was the reality all men were created equal we said but that didn't mean equal rights

Well, then you have the 1960s to present

With the civil rights act and so on where I would say

Apart from the civil war we have made some of the more

More significant gains in terms of equality based on race from the 60s moving forward

Just as an idea of what was going on in 1852

Frederick douglas had a wonderful speech about the fourth of july he was invited to do this speech

If you notice the date 1852 is pre civil war

Pre civil war so as a freed slave in the north being invited to speak on independence day

He had some strong words

And I believe those strong words give us a fine sense of what it was like then quote

What to the american slave is your fourth of july?

I answer a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year

The gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim

To him your celebration is a sham your boasted liberty and unholy license

Your national greatness swelling vanity

Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless

Your denunciation of tyrants brass-fronted impudence

Your shouts of liberty and equality

Hollow mockery

Your prayers and hymns your sermons and thanksgivings

With all your religious parade and solemnity are

To him mere bombast fraud deception impiety and hypocrisy

Very true

You can't have a place a nation

With that level of racism and slavery that type of looking at your fellow human

And still seek the blessing of a holy god who created all people in his image

He goes on there is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody

Than are the people of the united states at this very hour

Later on in that same speech he doesn't only talk negatively but he holds to task the

What was written in the independence in the declaration of independence

What was written into our bill of rights that's what we're expecting

To see that's how he progressed in his speech he holds to task and he sees what is but then

He says we can do better and it's right there why are we ignoring it it was a good good

Statement good perspective on what was there then and then of course we have the famous

I have a dream speech by martin luther king jr in 1963 where he all the time was in the

1963 where he also picking up similar language is speaking to where the united states should

Have been by the 1960s quote five score years ago a great american in whose symbolic shadow

We stand today signed the emancipation proclamation as momentous decree came as a great beacon light

Of hope to millions of negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice

It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity but 100 years later

The negro still is not free 100 years later the life of the negro is still sadly crippled by the

Manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination 100 years later the negro lives

On a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity 100 years later

The negro is still languished in the corners of american society and finds himself in exile in his own land

Progress but not enough very true very true in the 1960s it was a moving speech the rest of it is

Fantastic it was appropriate for that time because it spoke of a true condition a true history in our

Nation certainly a cause for strife but then even more recently we have the summer of 2020

Where if you can remember any of the news images of the cities burning and the people protesting and

And the rocks being thrown etc etc it was again another demonstration of underlying strife and

Tension that at least for that summer hit a point and that point erupted all across our nation

And we got to observe it firsthand in other words our first strife that we talk about

Has long history and recent history in our nation I don't see any reason to think that it's perfectly

Healed and we are this evening recognizing that it still causes strife today people still get upset

About it and there are still injustices based on race and racism it's real and we should acknowledge that

Our next major topic for tonight is gender and sexuality this is one that seems to have

Exploded in recent years our current administration and every leading politician you go back as recent

As 2008 and 2012 and everybody understood that marriage was a man and a woman that men were men

Women were women nothing else was true yes there were people who believed or felt other things yes

There were people with other lifestyles and the ideal was we weren't cruel to them

But we all recognized what gender and sexuality actually was amongst humanity

What we see oh let me see that oh that went blank what we see today is something different

What's causing the strife or coming out to the surface in terms of the gender sexuality

Strife issues began in the earliest parts of the feminist movement because it was there that the

Seeds that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle or that in hear me all things men and

Women are exactly equal all you got to do is look around and see that that's not true they have whole

Books what is it men are from mars and women are from venus i mean that title alone it tells you

We recognize the differences every data point tells us this but from those early seeds it's so

It's so to the thought that would eventually lead to present-day

Strife because from those seeds we then had the separation of gender and sex

It used to be that they went hand in hand well now we have one is your genetics and the other

Is how you present yourself to society and if you don't present yourself to society

In a way that aligns with your biology well then you are something different and then you are

Something different and then the list has expanded i lost count about the different genders that are

Quote and i need to say quote recognized because some of them

Some of them you have to be rather imaginative to look at genders that are associated with edible

Foods like cake genders that are associated with spiritual beings like angels and demons

Genders that line more up with animals in nature so if you feel that you are that and so on

It has caused strife because there really are a small number of people that push this idea very hard

And many others who still look around and go no i think we kind of are still men and women

And we just allow people to feel across the spectrum that doesn't really change your being

That doesn't really change your being to go further than that what has caused even more

Significant strife is now it has gone from an idea to an idea that adults engaged in to an idea that

We kind of could okay and be fine with if it was in the privacy of your own home

To then it's out into the public and now everyone has to agree with it each time it's progressed along those steps those stages

It's met with pushback and that inevitably leads to strife inevitably

Right now the greatest areas of strife on this topic happen to be have to deal with how children are being brought into the conversation

It does not take a lot of effort not at all to get online and find full education curricula designed for kindergarteners on up in these various options

You do not have to struggle very hard to find doctors that are willing to do irreversible surgeries and treatments on young boys and girls

By young I mean eight and nine year olds that's irreversible that causes strife

Because at the same time parents are saying I think we have more of a right to raise our kids the way that we would like them to

And others are saying no an example of this just today I read California is is entertaining a bill

That would classify not affirming a child's gender identity by one or both parents as child abuse

Which means that in that state that gives the state permission to remove the child from the home forcefully under child abuse laws

If you just would rather raise your daughter as a girl and your son as a boy

That causes strife it causes strife when a Christian Korean women only spa is now being ordered by a court to admit fully male clients who say that they're women

So now we're getting into not only the strife caused with the genders and the sexes but knowing that this is also a Christian clinic that starts to also push into a religious strife

And we're just recognizing these strives are there and you can find them

Our third category I promise I won't I won't stay on this but we have to acknowledge it is the political strife in our country

I'm I'm only as old as I am and I can only remember as much as I can remember but what I do know what I have in my memory is today a lot more vitriol compared to 15 years ago

It it just seems it just seems that every conversation is only hate and it's only fighting and it's only there were in there were multiple articles written during the 2020 season

Which wore me out but during the 2020 season of families completely separating and disowning one another purely on who did you vote for

That's strife that's fracture you now have some companies that will fire or cancel contracts with other companies based on political affiliation

We again we're not talking very long about this but it's easy to see that there's very little in common in our political sphere today

Those that talk in political circles boy there's not a lot in common and it seems that as we go along it's becoming increasingly polarized to farther and farther extremes

Each party or each position is taking a further edge and then digging their heels in even deeper and there's not a lot of conversation on what could happen in the middle

And then you're never going to make anybody happy everyone's going to be mad at you

There are also attacks on what used to be even in my short lifetime basic tenants of political understanding so these are being threatened

Meaning that today neither one of the two major political parties in recent years seem to recognize the results of our elections

You can find records of both parties calling the results of elections illegitimate

If we as a society can't even come to that basic agreement is it fair to say that that causes strife and tension

I think that's fair to say because no matter who wins we lose right it's it's very easy it's very recognizable to see that our political landscape is full of strife

We want to move on to possible causes because much like the broken bone we have to ask what caused it if you just walked into an ER and you said I broke my finger and they said well how did you break your finger and you're like I don't know

They have to do more tests than otherwise if you walked in and said I broke my finger how did you break your finger well I slammed it in my car door

They can go right well let's look for severe blunt trauma or something like that I'm not a medical professional I can assume that they might immediately rule out other options

So let's look at some possible causes for some of the strife that we see today this should have gone in a different order

We're going to start at the top and you'll forget that the other one is there

Systemic injustice it is often promulgated and you will read articles and hear speeches and you can read very lengthy books that detail how ingrained in our system as a nation there are injustices at the core

Those injustices need to be rooted out need to be adjusted or redefined or reassessed and then the strife will calm down

But so long as we have systemic injustices systemic racism systemic sexism systemic fill in the blank as long as those remain then the strife will continue

Because what's built into the system causes the strife that's one proposal another proposal is that there are and there have been attacks on traditional understandings and beliefs

The attack on marriage I consider the redefinition of marriage to be an attack on a traditional belief and understanding throughout ancient human records and history it's only ever been marriage between a man and a woman

And most societies around the globe continue in that it's really only in the most westernized cultures that you have differing definitions

I would say that attacks on traditional understandings and beliefs have to go with parental rights with their children as I read from at least one article and there are more it used to be that the parents had a high recognized high level of authority in the upbringing of their children

That seems to be diminishing on purpose more and more and more we have accounts of doctors and courts and the state intervening in areas that used to be perfectly reasonable

And they would say no you don't have any input in this one clear example of that would be last year the year before and the year before really since 2020

Some of the conversations that have happened at school board meetings have really caught the attention of the news as parents have learned about some of the curricula that's going on in the school they've at minimum had questions and mostly have said I don't want you teaching this to my children

And if so then not at this age wait till they're older that's how most of the objections have gone but we also have some of the heads of our leading educational institutions saying parents don't have that right anymore

That they need to relegate it entirely over to the teachers and the educators they're the professionals with the degrees and so parents need to give up that opinion

That is certainly an attack on a traditional understanding and a belief because it used to be all kids were homeschool all kids were taught by their parents and all kids were going to be raised with the type of morals and upbringing that the parents wanted to pass on to the next generation

This would also be something that would be along in the racial tension area a difference from the same I have a dream speech later on Dr. King says we know this I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin

But by the content of their character that's a great quote and that's a great ideal that's something that we should get behind you don't look at the super excuse me you don't look at the superficial but you look at their character that should be the defining distinction

Today though we have this quote Ibram X. Kendi who is a in many circles he is well respected he is listened to and he does influence in his book how to be an anti-racist he has this the defining question is whether the discrimination is creating equity or inequity

If discrimination is creating equity then it is anti-racist and since he wants you to be that he's saying that's a good thing he goes on if discrimination is creating inequity then it is racist

To summarize he's saying that discrimination is good so long as it produces the results that we want in a nutshell that's what he means because he's desiring something particular and if discrimination will bring that about that's desired

That's very different than the speeches of the 1960s which led to the Civil Rights Act that's very different than those that were in favor of emancipating the slaves back in the 1800s it's very different

It used to be let's get rid of discrimination wholesale and let's start looking at everybody as equal created in the eyes of their maker but now we have a different type of language

Men and women we've talked a little bit about how the traditional understanding of men and women has been redefined has come under scrutiny has really made it into the headlines

I never thought in my day that legislators would have to debate over making a law on what defines what we can simply observe with our own eyes

That would never have occurred to me but they're finding themselves needing to do that and being met with a great deal of resistance

The same thing with gender identities and how far that has gone and then now you are not just simply what you are born as your sex is assigned to you at birth

They look at the little baby in the birthing room and the doctor doesn't observe and state the doctor now gives you one or the other options

And later on you can choose for yourself if that's correct or not it's an assignment

I would say though that one of the more insidious causes of some of our stripe that we've seen is the normalizing of sexualizing children and pedophilia

And by normalizing I'm not speaking in hyperbole they are trying to make an attraction to minors a recognized and socially acceptable form of attraction

To the point where in California they did pass a law that downgraded the offense for pederasty which is the sexual abuse of a minor

They passed a law that allowed that this is all over the place right now there are many many many court decisions being debated over what is appropriate for

Quote unquote family friendly types of activities because some of these family friendly activities are extremely mature

Extremely the kind of things that you probably wouldn't even see on most R rated movies at the theater but they are being advertised for children

The term groomer has taken up a new kind of usage and it's taken a secondary meaning not that we're always grooming children for the purpose of abuse

But we're grooming them into an ideology that sets them up for a desired lifestyle and that desired lifestyle would be right now what is causing the strife in our society

If you're wondering what the results are in terms of our youth generation what historically has been in terms of anyone who fit into the LGBTQ plus community

Historically it was right around one to three percent depends on where you're looking and who you're asking roughly one to three percent that held true into the silent generation

And then into the boomers it was a little bit more somewhere around five percent and then you get into gen x and it gets a little bit more than that

We're creeping up around eight or nine percent then you go into millennials and it jumps into the teens and now gen z it is right around 20 to 25 percent of a single generation

Fits into this that's causing strife it causes problems in homes in schools from one state to another from one community to another

It's causing fractures and it doesn't seem to be leading to a healthy community I think it's fair to recognize that

I would like to ask the question if it has ever felt fabricated to you if some of the strife in our society has ever felt like it's being pushed so hard on you that it can't be organic or grassroots

That it's really being put together on purpose well I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions I'm not saying this is extensive and I'm not saying we're all going to agree on it

But I am going to say maybe this this should be looked at with with some questioning eyes

One would be the covid response the reason why I have it in this category is because there has never been a time in history where every nation around the world together made the same agreement on what to do with their citizens about a disease

The only conclusion that I can come away from is that there was at a minimum cross talk and everybody's saying let's get on the same pages as one another

We have some data to suggest that was true that they were communicating with one another that they were pushing forth a common kind of narrative a common kind of approach to what to do how to do it how to respond etc

And I'm just suggesting that maybe this is one example of a fabricated or a manufactured form of tension because the response caused tension it did

If we also look at summer of 2020 I mentioned it a little bit earlier

We've had racial tension in our nation for a long time we've talked about that never before has it gone coast to coast resulting in more than 2.2 billion dollars worth of damage

And many of those people responsible for it being purposefully let out of jail to go back and do it again the record show very few have actually faced long punishments for breaking the many laws that they broke and they and many of them did

There were some that were perfectly fine they were perfectly peaceful but then there were also some that earned the now infamous chiron title fiery but mostly peaceful for buildings are just burning down in the background

I would suggest that for that period of nine months there was a coordinated communication effort to rile it up bigger and inflame the flames a little bit higher you can go back and you can see some of it

We now know through the exposure of the background communications at twitter known as the twitter files we do know now that from government agencies to social media heads to legacy media individuals you name it they did coordinate with each other to

Get rid of speech silence voices ban people that didn't agree with everything that was the popular discussion we know all of that now we know through the dumping of this information that financial institutions were on board with will close out their bank accounts for them so they can't get their money

We know that it was coordinated and they were rather jovial at times about who they would silence you have to you have to walk away with at least some suspicion that the strife caused by that was fabricated was egged on and encouraged

And then we have the world economic forum not everybody knows about it but you should this is a rather small collection of some global elites and we're talking the highest and highest of the elites founded and led by a man by the name of claus schvab

That get together on an annual basis they've been doing this for some time and amongst themselves they discuss what are we going to do with our countries where are we going to move the world at large

Because these are representatives of nations and international companies and activist groups and so on we have this one quote from just this past year claus schvab says quote we couldn't meet at a more challenging time we are confronted with so many crises simultaneously

What does it need or what what do we need to master the future i think to have a platform where all stakeholders of global society are engaged governments business civil society young generation and i could go on i think is the first step

So a group of elites do get together on an annual basis they say that right now with all the crises with all the strife that we see going on simultaneously is the opportunity to change how we want the world to look

That would be a fabricated and coordinated effort at adjusting things and they see the strife and the crises as an opportunity

He has also openly talked about controlling online speech through governments through strict governmental intervention it's being put in place in countries right now not only like china but also australia new zealand places in europe and so on they are actively doing this

If you don't agree then you get kicked off or someone shows up at your door and you might face actual criminal penalties for saying the same those kinds of things

This is one example and this is this is so you're not taking my word for it there for a while if you chose to not get the covid vaccine you were treated as the worst of society

I think that's the only way that i can interpret this if hopefully this will work and this is this is a sampling we won't play the whole video but this was just the language that was being used about those who chose to not get a particular form of medicine

These uh these civilized people they'll eat each other you are the unvaccinated you are the problem it is the unvaccinated who are the problem period end of story

The only people that you can blame the only people you can blame this isn't shaming this is the truth maybe they should be shamed or the unvaccinated

It's time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks not the regular folks

Anyone you came into contact with will blame you as will the rest of us who have done the right thing by getting vaccinated

Because frankly we know that we can't trust the unvaccinated

I think it's time to get our moral house in order Anderson it's the unvaccinated who are the threat

All these vaccinated folks are going to start wearing masks to protect the unvaccinated folks it's called a Christian value

You're basically punishing the vaccinated uh for the the sins of the unvaccinated

People are not behaving honorably the unvaccinated are basically saying well it's open season for me I can do whatever I want as well

The unvaccinated are basically beating their breasts running around the country saying ha ha we don't care we're living

It goes on for another almost two and a half minutes from there um

We know now uh things that we didn't know then at a minimum I'd like to recognize that the language being used causes and caused strife intention

If you have a population of people that are publicly with with viewerships of millions and millions and millions being told

You're the problem you're immoral you're unchristian you're this you're that does that not lead to strife intention

It would be appropriate and it seems that is a reasonable response for those in that group to go now hold on a minute

I don't happen to think that I'm an evil person because I make this one medical decision

There were articles being written that suggested that the unvaccinated needed to be forcefully locked up in their homes not to be allowed out for any reason

There were people there were articles there were news anchors that talked about how if an unvaccinated person went to a hospital and they were sick

The doctors should just go I'm so sorry we won't help you and they were championing that idea desiring it to be policy

If we're talking about what can cause strife ostracizing entire groups of people is going to cause strife intention

When you lump everybody together this is one more example and then we're going to move on

This is an example when we talk about the popular narrative

When we talk about how the reporters might be all in unison in their messaging

You don't have to just take it for the tin foil hat wearers words

This is one example of what we're talking about

The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media

Some media outlets publish these same fake stories without checking facts first

The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media

It goes on for almost another minute.

That's one example, and if you paid attention to the symbols that were in the background,

you would have seen NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, ostensibly different companies, all saying

the same words.

That's one example.

In other words, it is a good practice to not always take everything exactly as it's being

said to you, especially if the results have led to increased strife and tension.

I want to share possible causes 2.0, something a little different.

This is from a Wall Street Journal and NORC poll published March 28 of this year.

These are changes in our nation compared to a Journal and NBC poll from 1998, so changes

in our nation over the past 25 years.

Patriotism is very important.

The respondents, it dropped from 70% to 38% in 25 years.

Those who agreed that religion is very important dropped from 62% to 39%.

But having children is very important, dropped from 59% to 30%.

That community involvement is very important, dropped from 47% to 27%.

But that money is very important, rose from 31% to 43%.

I would propose to you that what this is telling us is that as a nation, what we used to hold

in common and saw as very important is no longer the case.

And you can say that this is the result of the strife or you can say that this change

causes the strife.

I happen to wonder really which one it is.

Which came first in this case?

Which came before the cart?

But we are pointing out that as Americans, what we hold as important, what we hold in

common with one another is becoming less and less and less.

And when you hold less in common, what is there to help defend when tension comes up?

When tension comes up, and we have this in my own family, this will be relatable.

You get tension inside a family.

You have disagreements with those that you love.

Inside of the church, people disagree.

We argue.

We sometimes pout.

We sometimes fight.

We do all of those other things.

But when you have an agreed upon set of common values, that will hold you together even when

you have disagreements.

Inside of our marriage, inside of my family, we're committed to each other until death

do us part.

That's our commonly held value that nothing is going to separate us until one of us croaks.

That means when we disagree, when we argue with each other, we're not going to leave

each other.

That value is more important.

Inside of the church, when you have disagreement and you have tension and you have arguing

and fighting, but held in common is the fact that we are all disciples of Christ.

In common, we are all looking to the same eternal salvation.

In common, we recognize that we are all sinners and forgiven by the same God because we were

all in the same mess and we all have the same reason for saying hallelujah.

When we remember those common things, then when we disagree, we pray that it doesn't

actually fracture us because those other values are more important.

One final interesting response.

What do you think happened when people were asked if tolerance for others is very important?

And just so you know, this isn't over the span of 25 years, but four for this result.

What do you think the result was?

How many think it went down?

How many think it went up?

We believe tolerance for others went up.

It went down.

Those who agreed that tolerance for others is very important dropped in four years from

80% to 58%.

When you have nearly half the nation saying it's not important to tolerate others and

you have a multiplicity of tension and strife and underlying causes, do we expect unity

and fellowship and community?

We do not and we cannot.

That right there, in my own opinion, is the most important answer aside from one others.

We'll get to that in just a moment.

The result from all of this is the fear it brings.

The fear that all of this tension and strife has brought can be lumped into a couple of

categories.

One, we have a fear for our safety.

When people are fighting with each other, you don't feel safe around each other.

You never know if you're going to get mugged or tripped or hit or you name it.

There are sadly graphic videos of that being played out in many of our major cities.

Safety is a huge thing.

Crime of every kind, but especially violent and drug-related crime, has skyrocketed since

2020.

We're not talking incremental, we're talking exponential.

This has caused mass movements out of major cities and states to other locales with lower

crime rates.

In other words, people are saying, I want to move someplace where I feel safe.

If you know anything about the hierarchy of needs, safety is right up there.

If you aren't feeling safe, you're not going to care about anything else that comes after

that.

Our strife has also caused a fear for the financial future.

I read a recent stat that only 1% of Americans actually feel safe in their financial future.

And something like, let me see, I have this, 41% of Americans are already preparing for

a severe financial turn down.

And just so you know, if you think we aren't already in one, we are.

We've met every metric for a minimum stagnation, at minimum.

So there is serious fear of financial future.

A lot of the strife has led to a future for our youth.

I, for one, as a parent of two at home and one an adult and out, I do worry about the

younger generation.

When I hear about the divisive causes and then I see the crime and I see the hate and

I see the finger pointing and so on, I know that it doesn't lead to good things in the

young people's minds.

I know that it's not looking good for them.

And in fact, Americans confidence that life for their children's generation will be better

than it has been for them.

Another very recent poll, Americans that are confident that life for their kids is going

to be better than them, those that felt confident in that, 21%.

21% of American adults feel confident that their kids are going to have a better life

than they did.

It should be the other way around, my friends.

Each generation should be providing something a little better for the next one.

But then what about eternity?

Have you ever had a fear for what the eternal holds?

Do you think beyond this earth and what we have here, are you worried that what we're

going through is all that there is or do you consider something beyond yourself and the

mortal?

Well, how to deal.

That's our final thing.

We don't want to just, I mean, I could just say goodnight and we all could just go, oh

my goodness, that's awful.

How to deal?

We'll run through this quickly.

Well, much like broken bones, you heal them, you can heal strife in similar ways.

One, we set the bones.

For social strife, what that means is that like fractured bones need to be returned to

their original healthy position, much of what's causing the strife needs to be returned back

to its original healthy position.

The traditional family structure needs to be championed and supported.

We don't need to consider fractured broken homes as the norm.

We want to encourage unbroken homes as far as possible.

We want the acceptance of natural and observable realities to again be the observable and acceptable

reality, not just simply based on the feelings or the whims of the day.

We also would like to see tolerance and love for others returned to their previous rates.

Just four years ago, we had an 80% agreement that tolerance for others was very important.

We need to get back to that 80%.

That's the original position that we should set these bones back to.

We also could have surgery when you're dealing with a fracture.

I describe surgery as a controlled injury to heal the underlying problem.

You're causing some harm, you're cutting.

Oh man, I've seen videos of orthopedic surgeons going at it.

They are not gentle.

And people that have those procedures, I think they feel it afterwards.

But surgery, sometimes it's necessary when typical methods are ineffective and injury

or the injury is too great that you need something more invasive.

You need something that might in the short term hurt a little, but it will help in the

long term.

In other words, the most toxic and divisive practices may need stronger confrontation.

We need to stand up to the abuses that happen in our nation.

And if someone is being mugged or threatened or belittled and ostracized, they need an

advocate.

They need a defender.

Will it be easy?

And can you step into the line of that fire and receive some bruises at minimum?

Oh yeah, it's not going to get fixed unless some are willing to do the surgery part of

it.

Prejudice and racism needs to be rejected in all its forms.

Not allowed in some and not in others, but universally prejudice needs to be rejected.

We all need to be seen as children of God and we all need to be valued because of that.

Regardless of the color of our skin, the background of our homes, or what nation we were born

into.

Harmful and debased behaviors should no longer find a place in public society.

We should take a more serious stance on this.

There are extremely perverse behaviors that occur in open public settings with people

of all ages being encouraged to not only observe but participate in the perversity.

Surround yourself with friends and family who share your positive values.

Consider a close friend as an accountability partner.

One that will hold you accountable if you fall into previous bad habits.

If you're a source of some of the strife, pray that God lets you see that and try to

mend that.

But you don't have to do it alone.

It's better with a support system.

You also can consider joining institutions and attend events that foster unity, compassion,

and hope.

By their fruits you shall know them, the Bible says.

If the fruits of an organization, if the fruits of an idea, if the fruits of an event lead

to increased strife, lead to increased hate, lead to harmful and hateful language and ostracization,

maybe reconsider.

Join those that lead to the moral good than the alternative.

Pain though is a part of the process.

It's inevitable when you're dealing with injuries.

Pain is a great communicator.

It lets you know when something happens that shouldn't.

Pain is also unavoidable when you're dealing with hurt and strife that runs deep and in

a lot of what we've talked about even generationally, it's not only understandable that there'd

be pain but it's expected.

You don't always want to try to avoid the pain.

Avoiding the pain often just lets things fester.

If you are part of the cause, then sorrow for being a part of the cause and turn from

it.

Don't run away from the pain.

Look at it and say, I don't want to keep causing it anymore.

If you are on the receiving side of the pain, then forgive.

Don't hold a grudge forever.

Of course I didn't say forget and I didn't say you have to be around the abusers but

God has asked us to forgive and to love even when it's appropriate to distance from the

harmful.

But you have to recognize the pain that's there before you can do anything about it.

And finally, healing takes time.

Yes, it would be nice if healing from injuries happened instantaneously or even overnight.

However, the reality is that it takes more time than we would like.

Most of these issues aren't going to happen by the end of this weekend or this month or

this year.

If we're going to fix this, there's a road ahead of us.

And I'm even mentioning even if there's something in our own lives, often it takes a process.

Often you are walking with others and you're walking with Jesus longer than you'd really

like.

But it takes time.

Keep walking, in other words.

Keep looking for the healing.

It won't happen overnight and then finally don't pick at the wound.

Once things are starting to heal, don't itch it again.

There seems to be a lot of that as I observe our fine communities.

Seems that as soon as things are starting to kind of calm down a little bit, people

can't help themselves.

They go, you know what?

I need to pick at that.

We're going to rub it raw again and see what happens.

Maybe it'll be better this time when we rub at it.

It never is better when you keep itching that wound again.

So don't pick at it.

Let the healing take place and then thank God that healing is happening.

So you want to set the bones.

You want to set our things back in order.

Surgery may be needed.

We want to have a brace, a support system in place.

Pain this is inevitable.

Sometimes we'll go through it to be better on the end.

Healing takes time.

We remember that.

But here's what we're going to lead into for tomorrow.

A quote by a man named Cardinal Manning.

He's a cardinal in the Catholic Church but this is a great line and it seems to be biblical.

All human conflict is ultimately theological.

As we've gotten farther and farther away from recognizing a creator, as we've gotten farther

away from using objective morals as our guide, we've just fallen farther into the pit of

strife and sin and debauchery.

And to only think that we can confront that without confronting the theological implications

is only looking at it one dimensionally.

Because ultimately we are all engaged in a theological conflict and it just happens to

bear fruit with conflict with one another.

So tomorrow we will continue our consideration of social strife, how to live today without

fear of tomorrow.

At 11 o'clock it's titled Common Crisis, Common Cure and because we ended with a theological

idea, I'm a theologian, you can expect a more theological approach to this.

Common Crisis, Common Cure and then tomorrow afternoon at 1.30, we're in this together

is the part of it because if we're looking at strife and we want to get from strife to

something then we want to get back to community, togetherness.

So Saturday afternoon at 1.30 we'll look at we're in this together.

I want to thank you all for being here tonight, for listening if you happen to be listening

at another time.

If you will indulge me in a word of prayer we will conclude.

Heavenly Father we thank you so much for your love and we thank you that even with all of

the strife around us you are stable and constant and consistent.

I pray that you would let us be truthful with ourselves and with others as we consider some

of the problems that we see and we experience but I also would pray that according to your

will and your wisdom you would lead us into something much better than we can ourselves.

Lord we pray all of these things may we be safe tonight, bring us back together tomorrow

we ask in Christ's name, Amen.