The Myth of Mutual Exclusivity:

The Myth of Mutual Exclusivity:

It seems that the myth of mutual exclusivity is such a driving force behind nearly all divisiveness. In churches, in the workplace, in families, racism, law enforcement, ministers, denominations, gender issues, sexual assault.... the myth is so pervasive it feels like no topic can escape the devolution to that end.

(consider the antithesis of each statement as assumed)

• If you are pro BLM then you must hate cops.
• If you are pro LE then you must hate black people.
• If you believe a sexual assault complaint then you have to be a liberal.
• If you are a Christian than you Must be a Republican.
• If you minister to women who have had an abortion than you are pro murder.
• If you are a liberal church then you don't believe the Bible (but if you make up 1,000's of laws that Jesus never imposed then you are somehow deemed "conservative")
• If you love trump than you must hate all minorities
• If you don't believe Christians should be involved in politics then you must hate America.
• If you believe that God loves the LGBTQ community then you don't believe in God.
• If one thing in the Bible is inaccurate/mistaken/contextual/allegory then NONE of the Bible is true.
• If you don't believe in a physical Hell then you can not believe in a physical Heaven.
• If you want to reach millennials then you must want to abandon, discount, and even (probably) hate the older people.

On and on and on and on we go....

These Us vs Them, Right vs Wrong, You vs Me, black and white lines in the sand creep in, infest, and take over every conversation we have. It makes us fearful of our own beliefs, first, which then makes us fearful of everyone else's beliefs.

Misunderstanding-->mistrust-->Fear-->skepticism-->protectionism-->hate-->dehumanization

I realize that's a lot of rambling without a defined "point" but know we all encounter these every day if not every hour.

We must combat these in ourselves and then learn (genuinely... I don't know the answer....)

how to combat them all around us.

The myth of mutual exclusivity is tearing our relationships, our churches, our country, our world, our very souls apart.