“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Abraham Lincoln, (excerpt from his first inaugural address)
These words were spoken by Abraham Lincoln, the revered and possibly the best of our Presidents, along with George Washington. He spoke these words on the eve of the Civil War. He was desperately hoping to appeal to the “better angels of our nature” in order to avert such a disaster. He trusted that perhaps by exhorting his people, a calamity might be avoided. It did not work.
In these difficult times in America, we again exhort those better angels to prevail in strange political times. Just last week, the Secretary of Defense announced that there would be a public execution of a mass murderer, by firing squad, on live streaming media. Civilized countries do not do such things. When we celebrate violence as a society we diminish the culture.
This harkens back to actions of ancient empires that needed to exercise ultimate power with a show of ultimate public violence. I am hoping that there can still be an appeal to the “better angels of our nature” to stop such a travesty from taking place.
Prayer: Lord, give us the wisdom to deal justice in a meaningful manner, Amen
