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PDFA more recent Reuters Poll finds that close family and friendship relationships have ended over the presidential election.
And a woman now living in Bellingham, WA., has left her husband because he said he was voting for Donald Trump.
In late November, following the presidential election, CNN published a story about how badly divided America is following the election.
The article was, of course, tilted toward the notion that had Hillary been elected things would have been different.
Better. Much better.
Obviously, American voters disagreed and elected Donald Trump.
CNN says, "The push for bipartisanship is less intense than the last time a single party controlled both houses of Congress and the White House in 2008."
Translated: President Obama brought unity to America---President Trump has divided us.
CNN declares that the divide is "largely because Republicans now are less likely to think their party's leaders ought to work with Democrats than Democrats felt in 2008."
The missing link to CNN's great wisdom is that Republicans and conservatives are still trying to recover from the all-out assault on marriage, family, the sanctity of life, freedom of religion, the economy, America's healthcare system, education, our military readiness, and .....
America is divided. While politics mirror that division, it is more than politics that divide us.
The fault line runs between 2 very different moral worldviews.
Abraham Lincoln, in his time, knew it was more than politics when he gave his famous "House Divided" speech.
He said then, and it remains true today, that;
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South."
The division in Lincoln's day was a moral division, not primarily a political one.
CNN and other secular news organizations find it difficult to explain the division that exists in our country today, because, for the most part, the profound differences in our nation today are related to moral issues, not political party preferences.
"Democrats," CNN says, "now express greater dissatisfaction with the way democracy is working."
CNN, in the way their article is written, provides a snapshot of the division they are attempting to explain.
A more recent survey by Reuters finds that 13% of respondents admit having broken off a relationship with a family member or close friend over the election, 16% have stopped talking to a family member or close friend, and 17% have blocked someone on social media for the same reason.
More than 38% say they have had an argument with a family member or close friend over the election.
Gayle McCormick, a retired prison guard, actually left her husband of 22 years after he told her he was voting for Trump.
The 73-year-old woman describes herself as a "Democrat leaning towards socialist" so when her husband told her he was voting for Trump last fall, she decided that was a "deal breaker."
McCormick says, "It totally undid me that he could vote for Trump. I was incensed. I said, 'I can't believe that somebody that I would be married to would vote for someone whose track record is so obviously poor in terms of civil liberties, his feelings about women, how he treats women in general'."
McCormick who lived with her husband in California, has now separated from him and is starting a new life in Bellingham, WA.
McCormick's husband has since told the press he ended up writing in "Newt Gingrich" on his ballot in an effort to save himself.
The husband also told Reuters, the couple remains separated, but have no plans to file for divorce at this time. And he is hoping "they can vacation together sometime soon."
I am grateful that my wife and I are on the same page politically and spiritually ---as are all our children.
But several things can be taken from this.
With February 14th just around the corner, politics may or may not be a great topic over that special dinner.
Happy Valentine's Day
Be Discerning. Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Blessed.