- From Psalm 85
Look at these concepts that are grouped together. They belong together. They cannot be separated out, and merged back into other concepts, that are inconsistent with any of the other words in the group.
Mercy
Truth
Righteousness
Peace
We find here, two words that are probably overused in our time. Or rather, they are used too much, without consideration of the two other words in the list.
Yes we should have mercy, all right. We have been lacking mercy, and it's a systemic problem. The problem of merciless humans predates the foundation of the United States, since before recorded time. And when all that's left of the USA is ashes, still there will be a problem, a systemic problem, of a lack of mercy among humans.
Racism derives from lack of mercy. Divorce. Abortion. Poverty. Homelessness. If people were merciful, as they should be, they would take care of these things. But you can't legislate mercy. You can't force people to be merciful. Yes, for a finite period of time, you may tax, and then force people to act as though they have mercy. But that doesn't change what's in their hearts. Real mercy proceeds from hearts that actually feel, and willfully choose, mercy. In fact, government coercion to act merciful probably creates more systemic mercilessness . . . because what it really does to many human hearts, is create resentment.
It also would be nice to have peace. We all want peace. But this is the same as saying, we want to be left alone. We want to be able to pursue happiness in our families, success in careers, pleasure in our hobbies. Just leave us alone . . . that is peace for all of us. But when our peace is mandated from outside us, we are no longer at peace. Being forced to do something you don't want to do, is not peace. And of course, people in want, the hungry, the homeless . . . it can never be said that they are at peace. Their daily path is too dictated by their circumstances. When we start committing violent and destructive acts, out of frustration for the lack of "peace," we're only making the problem worse. We're making it eveb more systemic. You can't advance peace by being violent. You can't tear things down, and get in the faces of innocent strangers, out on the street. You can't tear symbols down, that have positive meaning to uncountable hosts of good people. That's not peace.
There's a whole lot more to it.
Truth, and Righteousness.
You can't get to Truth, if dialogue is shut down. We humans are too error-prone. We need each other, to check our assumptions and challenge our theories. We have to have open minds and open community discourse. When you insist on your truth, you're promoting anti-truth. (And I realize that I have just made a hot-button statement that will make some people recoil. Please share your thoughts in the comments section and let's go deeper.)
Your Mercy, Peace, and Truth are null and void, without righteousness. Case in point: the problem of politicians getting a blank check to say whatever they want, and do whatever they want, because of their "side's" skill at circling wagons. We're great at rooting out corruption on the other side, but horrible when it comes to our own side. Corruption should not be tolerated! Ever!
Righteousness means honesty, integrity, ethics, morality. And if you want to know whatever it is you might be doing, that, frankly, doesn't "look good" or pass the "smell test," just ask someone else to level with you, honestly. Ask someone on the other side. And then make a covenant with yourself, to avoid doing what looks bad, even when your opponent is the one noticing it!
Mercy, Peace, Truth, and Righteousness. You can't have one without the other three. Not really.
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