Relevant wisdom in unlikely places

There is a very talented elementary school teacher living in the State of Oregon named Christopher Naze.  Although we've never met, he was one of my early inspirations in the online journaling world... and for more than two years I have read every word he has published.

Christopher and I come from very different religious and cultural backgrounds, but I keep coming back to read him because he has an uncanny ability to locate essential truths that transcend whatever issue he is discussing.

A recent example is a short quote he shared on his site a few days ago.  The quote was taken from a long article about, of all things, political immaturity posing an obstacle to the Oregon Legislature's ability to govern.  As usual, Christopher zeroed in on the money quote:

"We have spawned a generation that does not understand what it means to govern. Ideological lawmakers know what they know and cannot get along with anyone who differs. They are only interested in getting their own way. If a process prevents it they change the process rather than accept its results. They behave like spoiled, indulged children."

~ by Russel Sadler ~

[Taken from an article entitled 'Our Childish Legislature' that appeared on a progressive Oregonian site called BlueOregon.]

Truer words were never written... and they could be applied equally to any political faction here in Israel.

A few days ago I wrote a post entitled 'Reap what you Sow', about the Jewish terrorist attack last Thursday. In the comments on that post Jonathan Edelstein praised the points I had made and went out his way to make sure I understood that the compliment was coming from someone who considered himself 'left wing'. 

This bothered me to the point where I responded:

"While I'm flattered by the compliment, I am longing for people to start thinking about themselves less as 'left' or 'right'... and more as 'concerned, thinking people'. If you disagree with someone that claims only to be concerned, and professes to having thought about a problem for some time, you may not agree with that person's solution but you might be a bit slower to immediately discount what he/she has to say. My new resolution is to no longer identify myself as right left or center... but rather that I am simply a concerned, thinking member of society. Anyone who listens to my thoughts on a particular issue will quickly be able to use his/her own label... but at least they will have listened."

My point was that I find labels do more to cloud people's thinking than most are willing to admit. 

However, Jonathan misunderstood my reply to mean that I was pretending that 'right' and 'left' did not exist, and went on to list his left wing bona fides.  While Jonathan is clearly not a good example of the closed minded, immature political outlook that most bothers me... it troubled me that someone who has proved himself capable of sophisticated and nuanced political discourse found it necessary to cling to the 'left wing' mantle at all costs.

I wish people here in Israel would loosen, just a bit, their fervent grip on political/religious labels and prejudices.  This is not to deny the existence of 'left' or 'right' or 'religious' or 'secular' as real or legitimate. I just think that these labels and prejudices often deafen/blind us to small truths that we routinely ignore or dismiss because we view the source with suspicion, or even contempt.

We see over and over throughout our history, and in our Scriptures, that our heroes are often tremendously flawed... and our opponents are sometimes inspired to play an unwitting role in our redemption.  Who are we to now pretend that relevant wisdom cannot be found in unlikely places?