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During an exclusive broadcast interview this week with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Laura Ingraham asked him if he is surprised that things are so "rancorous in the United States today about foundational issues?"
He said, "No I'm not surprised...What do we have in common anymore?"
Justice Thomas said,
No I'm not surprised, I mean, what binds us? What do we all have in common anymore? I think we have to think about that. I think this is--when I was a kid, even as we had laws that held us apart, there were things that we held dear and that we all had in common. And I think we have to---we always talk about E pluribus unum. What's our unum now? We have the plurbis. What's the unum? And I think it's a great country. I think we, for whatever reasons, have made it our---some people have decided that the Constitution isn't worth defending, that history defending, that the culture and principles aren't worth defending. And certainly, if you are in my position, they have to be worth defending. That's what keeps you going. That's what energizes ...I don't know what it is we have, we can say instinctively, we have as a country in common.
Justice Thomas is not the only person who has noticed that the fabric of our country and our culture is being torn and ripped "rancorously," as Laura Ingraham put it.
The City of Seattle is aware of some of the issues. And they're looking for a solution---one that will bind us together---at least in Seattle.
Yesterday, the Seattle Times reported that "For generations, Seattle was segregated through racist neighborhood covenants, deed restrictions, even banking policies designed to keep certain minorities out of largely white enclaves."
They note that 50 years after the landmark Fair Housing Act sought to reverse racial segregation in the city, the city remains "strikingly separated along color lines."
In many neighborhoods, they say, there are more than 100 whites for every black, and citywide, 1 in 14 Seattleites is black.
The story says city planners and other experts are working to rezone---force races to integrate---thus creating government-sponsored, government-enforced, E pluribuis unum.
This, they say, was a vision held by former Mayor Ed Murray.
Chris Matthews, with NBC, said this week that President Trump is always looking for a "partisan divide" or when its possible, an "ethnic divide" that he can exploit. He said the president is "trying to reignite" the Civil War.
Matthews says the president is always "looking for north/south, blue/gray fighting again---trying to reignite the Civil War."
So, if we can get Mayor Ed Murray back in office, and President Trump out of office, we have begun to reunite the country, right?
Justice Thomas spoke about things that brought us together and united us when he "was a kid."
Perhaps "The View" on ABC, last Friday, gave us some insight to what Justice Thomas has found missing---that bonding agent.
The hosts on "The View" were discussing the results of a British poll The Christian Post reported on that found most Britons believe that only 6 of the Ten Commandments are relevant today.
Co-host Paula Faris began talking about her upbringing, saying her parents taught her not to use the Lord's name in vain.
She said, "My parents were really strict about what we said in the home. We couldn't say, 'Oh my God'. We couldn't say, J.C. We couldn't say [bleeped out]."
She said, "We could say 'Jeez'...unless you were praising Him, and then you could say [bleeped out, again]."
Apparently, she was unaware she was being censored, because she continued saying she holds the same rules with her own family...going on to say the great thing about the Bible and God is the same yesterday, today and forever, citing the verse in Hebrews 13:8 which actually reads, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever."
There was a backlash from the public, even from some news commentators, asking, are they actually "bleeping out Jesus?"
ABC later tried to explain that they were merely taking caution because they didn't want someone to take the Lord's name in vain.
I don't believe them. Neither did a lot of other people.
I certainly don't know what is in the heart of ABC, but I think this little exercise of "bleeping" shows more of the hostility toward Christianity, than any attempt to protect Jesus or Christianity, given the current history of the media.
Alexis de Tocqueville, the French historian, was stunned by the unique relationship he found in America between the civil government and religion---specifically Christianity.
He wrote in "Democracy In America" that while democracy and socialism have nothing in common, they both seek "equality."
He said, "While democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."
And he wrote the following, which is what Justice Thomas remembers when he was a kid...and so do many of us.
It is what bonded America in its founding, and it's what can mend America now.
Tocqueville saw in in early America, I pray we will all see it again.
Democracy in America
Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts - the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.
Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.Alexis De Tocqueville: "Democracy in America"
Religion in America ... must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion-for who can search the human heart?-But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.
This is the "unum."
Be Informed. Be Prayerful. Be Vigilant. Be Faithful.