Uniting the United States of America

I write this early Monday morning, November 4^th, the day before the 2024 election. Most of you will read this on Wednesday, November 6^th, the day after the 2024 election. 

Someone won yesterday.

Someone did not.

There may be a delay in who becomes President of the United States for a reason unknown to me. After the results are finalized, what is certain is clear. Some are celebrating. Some are not.

To even suggest that the United States unites right now seems abrasive (if not all out impossible) to those who are grieving. And yes, they are grieving.

Even to those who voted for the one who won, bringing the united back into the United States of America may seem nearly impossible, at least for the time being. After all, if we mix the red and the blue, our color is purple—and everyone knows purple is the prime color in a new bruise. How can those who voted for the winner possibly chat it up, let alone align with those who voted for the other candidate?

Here’s the same question again, but I take one step back for perspective and rephrase. How can we possibly come together when there has been such a deep divide?

The answer is we take down walls.

The first walls have been coming down. This began ever so slightly. It wasn’t a notice in the beginning. It wasn’t a white-knuckled concern at the time.  

Before I share how this uniting began, please hear that I am a pastor. I am not a politician. My field of knowledge and experience is very well hemmed in when it comes to speaking about the political realm.

But uniting the ununited has, in fact, already begun. Years ago, I shared here in my column that church attendance has been on the decline since the late 1970s. Someone questioned me on this, but the numbers speak for themselves. Each year, less and less people identify themselves as being a part of organized religion in any way.

The decline in church attendance means that the walls that existed in the mainline denominations are thinner or are coming down altogether. I don’t have the numbers on this, but conversations—if not intentional connections—are happening. Said simply, churches are uniting.

This uniting is not universal by any means. Some denominations remain at a distance from others, but I remember well the joy I had this past August in the office of a pastor whose church alliance has been a good and obvious stretch from mine. Said simply, his denomination (which is no longer in the title of his church) is one branch on the tree. Mine is another.  

We did not spend a second on what or where our differences are. Instead, we rallied. We spoke of the common love we have for Jesus’ love to guide us and the ministries we are called to do. We spoke of the passion we share for bringing others to Christ. We commiserated on the plight of the human condition and lifted the redemptive work of our Savior on the cross, a work that liberates us from sinful to ones who are saved. The conversation that stretched so quickly over at least an hour was delightful. I still smile at that time. I still find God blessing our union.

In a reel I created last week, I shared a thought I have never expressed in my sixteen years of ministry. The thought was influenced by our sixteenth president who said, “A house divided cannot stand.”

In the reel, I ruminated on the possibility that God is now taking down the differences that once kept churches apart. Numbers are low now, but the high we experience is from our God who is dissolving divides. Walls are coming down. The United States is uniting. This union is happening with the churches you know of (or may not know of—yet).

Where God gains—where God wins—is when we see rigid and entrenched divides as a sign of another time. Oh, there are differences and even disagreements among denominations, but the end of such distance is over.

Hallelujah.

If Americans can see churches are speaking to each other so well after decades (if not centuries) of detachment, then yes, there is hope for more uniting not for some, but for all.

Let’s work together. Yes?