Unity is a basic principle in the effective functioning of an organization, be it a family or a nation. It is difficult to come by. It needs to be taught, worked through, and believed rather than assumed. If assumed, and unity is evasive if not generated and cultivated, it will not be realized. The citizenry needs to be educated in the context of mutual understanding and functioning in life so to be efficient in absorbing differences in genders, languages, faiths, interests, vocations, values and the list lengthens in variant factors. Founding fathers of the United States understood the variances so moved to form from a confederacy of thirteen separate states to a democratic nation of thirteen states. The concept was challenged during the Lincoln years, but the democratic concept prevailed, in legal form if not in the hearts of all the countrymen. The Christian Church (spiritual) has a unity, but the Christian church (natural) is weakened by some disunity, even to the point of imposing prejudice on Scripture so to follow private interpretations. In private interpretation slavery separated Christians and denominations. Today it is marriage. In our time period same sex marriage is justified by private interpretation separating Christians and denominations. Such division began when Christians were separated by the laws of circumcision, so that some churches required circumcision before admission to membership in a body that advanced the redemptive story of Jesus Christ. The issue may have divided the Apostles for a short time. (Acts 15:5-6)
The world in our time seems to be torn with a sense of disunity (offense for differences within and between nations). The Muslim nations would like to find unity by imposing a particular Muslim unity worldwide; the democratic nations by learning unity in diversity for freedom; and, the Communist nations by the imposition of a humanistic manifesto. Many nations will likely follow the winners closest to them, or those on whom their future seems to rest. In the mixture the world simmers, suffers, and fears warfare – even reduced civilization. Humankind has the mental resource to find unity in diversity in the Christian interpretation by committing to it in peace, which begins with an acceptance of diversity which becomes the atmosphere of world society. This does not mean approval but recognition of reality which, in freedom, can be borne so as to manage human problems. Christians are partly motivated in that God has managed his affairs in the creation, working in the midst of diversity. Jesus followed it well, putting the current social burden over to lesser concern than his redemptive message, and his Apostles learned to function in the same context. It was commanded to become the modus operandi related to spirituality. Citizens, as corporate body, have not functioned well in the matter. The meaning of Revelation 22:11 is lost.
American culture has assumed a national unity, and incorporated it in its language and psyche, but not effectively into reality. We are supposed to be fellow Americans, but we are majority and minority Americans – ethnic and Caucasian, native-born and hyphenated-born, law-keepers and law-breakers, family makers and family separators – the list is long. Family changers include the divorced, the live-together- without-marriage couples, and the same-sex marrieds belonging to a different biology. The society is now facing the increase to 40% of children born to unmarried parents. These often live through childhood with one parent and that most likely in a home without a father. Mitch Pearlstein has made a study of the problem, the evidence of break-down from unity for the population. He presumes in his careful collection of evidence that the problem looks bleak for the future in which various groups become islands in a sea of differences. For example, the high rate of imprisonment by one segment alone is creating an enormous probability for failure for many. The decline of a father figure in the home opines a different and troubled nation losing unity. Pearlstein recognizes that all this might be changed in that societies do sometimes wake up to what must be done to make a livable and progressive nation designed to serve its people in a peaceful and helpful context. Scripture provides that menu. Society will not choose it, not knowing it. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020