WTE: Christmas is for everyone

The secular celebration of Christmas kicked off on Black Friday and ended Wednesday. As prelude to the twelve days of Christmas, just begun, it makes all of December a time of self-conscious generosity and “good will toward men.”

In a culture fraught with self-seeking, Christmas turns our thoughts to friends and family, to coworkers, postal workers and next-door neighbors. Hearts weighed down with pain and emptiness, are blessed with an opportunity to think of ways to bring joy to others.

Total strangers wish one another a merry Christmas and happy holy days. Nobody asks, as a condition of kindness, how you voted in the last election or your policy preferences. Christmas is for everybody.

What kind of force can “bid our sad divisions cease”? How it is that Christ’s mass is named by so many people who have never even been to mass? How is it that even those who consciously avoid the word, Christmas, nevertheless acknowledge these are holy days?

Many might dismiss this as a mere holdover from a more Christian time. That may be true. Customs do have a way of carrying on long after the ideas that inspired them have been forgotten. Still, if the customs of December are holdovers from a more Christian time, they remind us that such a time once existed, and they offer us hope that it could exist again.

They also give us an opportunity to reflect on our actions and rediscover the meaning of Christmas. Gift-giving is at its center. This points to God’s gift for all people--a newborn child.

No serious historian disputes the fact of Jesus’ birth. It is reported in both pagan Roman and in Jewish sources. It is reported in books that were written and widely circulated while many who personally knew Jesus were still alive. While historians both within and without Christianity debate the actual date of his birth, they do not deny that he was born.

Nor do many deny that Jesus is a gift to the world. Of course, each person who has ever been conceived has added some value to the world. But Jesus is special. Agnostics, Muslims, Jews—even atheists—all acknowledge this. Some value him as a moral teacher. Others, as a great prophet.

No single man in the history of the whole world has influenced as many people as Jesus has. Unlike philosophies and religions that were spread by cultural expansion and military might, Jesus’ influence is cross cultural. It did not capture people and cities, but hearts and minds.

Christian ideas gave rise to our most merciful and cherished institutions. Hospitals and orphanages, education and science, the dignity of women and of marriage, human freedom and the defeat of slavery—all these blessings are in the world because of Christ’s birth.

Another custom of Christmas is that the gifts we receive are wrapped. Colorful paper hides the content and value of a gift at its presentation. It is in our possession, but we don’t enjoy its full benefit without unwrapping it, learning what it is, and making it part of our life.

While anyone can plainly see Jesus’ beautiful influence on Western Civilization, the fullness of God’s gift to the world is not discovered until one looks beneath this wrapping to see the gift himself. This reveals the distinctly Christian truth.

Unlike other cultural influencers who came and went, Jesus impacted the world after his disappearance more than during his time in Galilee. That’s because unlike any other, Jesus’ disappearance does not mean that he is dead and buried. His crucifixion was only the beginning of the story. After that his tomb was found empty and no one—ever again—found his corpse.

Instead, hundreds of people said that they saw him walking and talking and eating with them—both singly and in groups. Some of these reported that after forty days his disappearance took the form of an ascent into the clouds. All of this leads to the Christian understanding that God’s gift to the world was not just a great man, but God Himself.

If you thought the wrapping was pretty, look at what’s contained in it! “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16 KJV). If you appreciate the perks of Western Civilization, you will be blown away by the God who is celebrated at its heart.

In Jesus we learn that all the kindness, charity, generosity and selflessness of the Christmas season is because the Creator himself is kind, charitable, generous and selfless. He gave himself to the world as its rescuer. “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This gift is for everyone, especially you.

Christmas is for everyone

The secular celebration of Christmas kicked off weeks ago, on Black Friday. The real celebration of Christmas begins tonight. As a Lutheran pastor, I don’t begrudge the secular season. It has many beneficial features.

It makes December a time of self-conscious generosity and “good will toward men.” The downside of Christmas commercialization is that retailers use consumerism run amok in order to meet their annual profit margin. The upside, however, is that three hundred million people spend December thinking about other people.

In a culture where feelings of entitlement constantly turn our attention inward, Christmas shopping turns our thoughts to friends and family, to coworkers, postal workers and next-door neighbors. Hearts weighed down with pain and emptiness, are blessed with an opportunity to think of ways to bring joy to others.

These feelings of good will are not confined to mere thought. Pocketbooks are opened to make them real. Every charitable agency also uses the Christmas season to conduct a year-end appeal for donations. This is most visible in the red kettles and bell-ringers in front of retail stores. The Angel Tree buys gifts for local kids while Operation Christmas Child sends necessities to the poor in third-world countries.

All this generosity and selfless focus has the additional effect of making people speak and feel warm thoughts toward others. Total strangers wish one another a merry Christmas and happy holy days. Nobody asks, as a condition of kindness, how you voted in the last election or what your worldview might be. Christmas is for everybody.

This makes me smile. What kind of force could induce such widespread feelings of good cheer despite the most rancorous political and social climate in our generation? How it is that Christ’s mass is named by so many people who have never even been to mass? How is it that even those who consciously avoid the word, Christmas, nevertheless acknowledge the holiness of these days?

Many might dismiss this as a mere holdover from a more Christian time. That may be true. Customs do have an inertia of their own. They have a way of carrying on long after the ideas that inspired them have been forgotten. Nevertheless, they never cease bringing those original ideas back into consciousness.

If the customs of December are holdovers from a more Christian time, they remind us that such a time once existed, and they offer us hope that it could exist again. They give us an opportunity to reflect on our actions and rediscover their meaning and value.

Gift-giving is the most obvious action of the season. It signals the fact that God gave a gift to the world. The gift in view is the gift of a newborn child. His parents were from Nazareth, but he was born while they were travelling in Bethlehem.

No serious historian disputes the fact of Jesus’ birth. It is reported in both pagan Roman and in Jewish Roman sources. It is reported in books that were written and widely circulated while many of those who personally knew Jesus were still alive.

That Jesus was a real man, and not a myth, is simply historical fact. While historians both within and without Christianity debate the actual date of his birth, that does not deny the fact that he was born. Nor are there many who would dispute that Jesus is a gift to the world.

Of course, every child is a gift of God to the world. That’s not a uniquely Christian assertion. Each person who has ever been conceived has added some value to the world. Agnostics, Muslims, Jews—even atheists—can acknowledge that Christmas celebrates the gift of Jesus to the world.

Some value him as a moral teacher. Others, as a great prophet. Both are true. But they do not exhaust the truth. Still, let’s take a moment to develop these first thoughts.

It is a fact of history that no single man in the history of the whole world has influenced as many people as Jesus has. Prior to his birth, philosophers, kings and religious figures might exert regional influence, but most never broke out of the borders of their own country. Those that did lost influence soon after they died.

But Jesus is unique. His impact on the world did not diminish after his disappearance. In fact, unlike anyone before or since, Jesus’ influence spread across continents not by military conquest or by accident of birth. It spread by the sheer power of the ideas themselves.

And the ideas associated with Jesus gave rise to our most merciful and highly cherished institutions. Hospitals and orphanages, education and science, the dignity of women and of marriage, human freedom and the defeat of slavery—all these blessings are in the world because of Christ’s birth.

Among the customs of Christmas is that the gifts we exchange are wrapped. This also has a very deep meaning. It means that the exact content and value of a gift is hidden when we first receive it. The gift is in our possession, but we don’t enjoy its full benefit without unwrapping it, learning what it is, and making it part of our life.

While any secular historian can plainly see the “wrapping paper” of Jesus’ influence on Western Civilization, the fullness of God’s gift to the world is not discovered until one looks beneath the wrapping to see the gift himself. Finally, here we come to the distinctly Christian view of Christmas.

When we look at the man himself and his historical life, we see that the way he disappeared from the world was unlike any other man. All know that he was crucified and put to death. But after that comes a mystery that demands explanation. His tomb was found empty and no one—ever again—found his corpse.

Instead, hundreds of people said that they saw him walking and talking and eating with them—both singly and in groups. Some of these reported that after forty days his disappearance took the form of an ascent into the clouds. All of this leads to the Christian understanding that God’s gift to the world was not just a human child. Rather, the gift was God Himself.

If you thought the wrapping was pretty, look at what’s contained in it! “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16 KJV). If you appreciate the perks of Western Civilization, you will be blown away by the God who is celebrated at its heart.

In Jesus we learn that all the kindness, charity, generosity and selflessness of the Christmas season is the result of the only God in the world, who is kind, charitable, generous and selfless. He gave himself as gift not like a Trojan horse, but as a rescuer behind enemy lines. “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

After weeks of secular Christmas observances, the Christian Christmas begins today. It would be a great time to read the Christmas gospel in Luke, chapter 2. Better yet, join us for Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols (December 24, 2019).

St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Kemmerer at 5:30 P.M.
Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Evanston at 8:00 P.M.

WTE: What I learned singing in the community choir

Last night I was blessed to sing in Evanston’s annual Christmas concert. Volunteer musicians from all walks of life rehearsed for months. They came from as far as an hour away for the pure joy of making music together.

In a world of individualism, live music requires togetherness. Sheet music is only paper and ink until real people in real space and in real time bring it to life. In the beginning, it’s not pretty.

Sour notes, missed cues, nasal tones and a thousand other personal sins muddle the music in the early going. Every singer makes more than his or her share of mistakes. “No one is righteous. No, not one.” Practice makes it better, but not as quickly as you might think.

We submit to correction and cajoling from the director and from one another. Rarely do tempers flare. Mostly the flubs are acknowledged with self-deprecating humor. We are striving for excellence, but happiness does not depend on it. Joy is found in the striving.

I think that we all start rehearsals hoping that our mistakes will be hidden in the general cacophony. But the closer we get to the performance, the more we realize that there is no place to hide. To enjoy the chorus means that we each take full responsibility for our own part in it.

What started as pressure from the director turns to an internal desire to learn the music. Once that shift occurs, people roll up their sleeves and do the hard work behind the scenes. That’s when the community chorus begins to gel, and real music begins to happen.

What is true of a chorus is true of every community. It may start off with rules and regulations. But unless the desire to work together comes from each individual member, it will never gel as a community and “make music.”

In a community, just as in a chorus, every member will make plenty of mistakes. As a result, we all need both to bear with the mistakes of others gracefully and to help lift them up with gentleness and love. Most of all, each member of the community is responsible to work behind the scenes at developing habits of the heart that come out when we come together.

This kind of community-building cannot come from coercive rules. Laws can only set boundaries that provide a framework. Community depends on a personal willingness to do what cannot be enforced. It also comes with a dawning realization that there is no place to hide.

As in the community chorus, we may start off thinking that our own sins will be hidden by the background noise of everybody else’s sins. With this mindset, our only motivation is to be mediocre. We tell ourselves, “Don’t do anything stupid that will make you stick out of the crowd.” This is easily accomplished by doing nothing at all.

But eventually you come to realize that if you want to contribute to the chorus, you must risk blurting out a wrong note. If nobody is willing to take that risk, we will mumble through life without ever having the joy of making actual music.

The truth is that all the world’s a stage. There is no place to hide. Every person matters. Your voice and your actions impact everyone around you. Silence speaks as loudly as a scream. Inactivity does just as much as action. You are on the stage by virtue of your birth. You can play your part or not, but either way you remain on the stage.

As each member of the community learns this lesson for himself, he comes to enjoy the unique note that he is given to contribute. As he confidently sounds it out while blending it with the other notes around him, he contributes to the living harmony.

Ever since the advent of recording technology, we have been tempted to skip live performances in favor or perfect recordings experienced privately. Yet, such sessions can never deliver the same impact. A live concert touches the heart like nothing else can.

That’s because at the human heart is the heart of music. Music is not about the perfect arrangement of sound waves, but about human beings working in harmony.

Every day we are saturated with recordings of people we don’t know. They fill our minds with disembodied thoughts that churn away and distract us from the actual people in our lives. These recordings do not create community, they fragment and frustrate it.

But an old-fashioned community concert gives an opportunity to witness human hearts in harmony. It creates a sound that reaches not just your ears but your very heart. And it draws you into the harmony.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on December 20, 2019.

What I learned singing in the community choir

Evanston Civic Chorus, 2019

The Evanston Civic Orchestra and Chorus is ready to perform a Christmas program called “Carols and Fantasies.” It will be held at the Davis Middle School Auditorium at 7:00 P.M., Thursday, December 19, 2019. You may have seen flyers in shop windows around town and shared on Facebook. This is your personal invitation to join the fun.

Of course, you will hear seasonal favorites like, “Twas the night before Christmas,” and the “Nutcracker.” You will hear the glories of “Angels we have heard on high.” You will experience a medley of English carols and an arrangement of “Jingle Bells” that will make you laugh out loud.

Musicians and singers have been gathering on Thursday nights for months to prepare for the occasion. They drive in from Kemmerer and from Morgan, Utah. They come from our middle schools and high school, businesses and churches. They come for the pure joy of making music together.

In a world of increasing individualism and fragmentation, live music is something that requires togetherness. Sheet music is only paper and ink until real people in real space and in real time bring it to life. In the beginning, it’s not pretty.

Sour notes, missed cues, nasal tones and a thousand other personal sins muddle the music in the early going. Every singer makes more than his or her share of mistakes. “No one is righteous. No, not one.” Practice makes it better, but not as quickly as you might think.

We submit to correction and cajoling from the director and from one another. Rarely do tempers flare. Mostly the flubs are acknowledged with self-depreciating humor. After all, we are there because we want to be there. While we are striving toward a common goal, happiness does not depend on perfection. Joy is found in the striving.

I think that we all start rehearsals hoping that our mistakes will be hidden in the general cacophony. But the closer we get to the performance, the more we realize that there is no place to hide. To enjoy the chorus means that we each take full responsibility for our own part in it.

What started as external pressure and admonition to learn the music turns into an internal desire. Once that shift occurs, people roll up their sleeves and do the nitty-gritty work behind the scenes. That’s when the community chorus begins to gel, and real music begins to happen.

What is true of a chorus is true of every community. It may start off with laws and law-enforcers. But unless the desire to work together comes from each individual member, it will never gel as a community and “make music.”

In a community, just as in a chorus, every member will make plenty of mistakes. As a result, we are all responsible both to bear with the mistakes of others gracefully as well as to help lift them up with gentleness and love. Most of all, each member of the community is responsible to work behind the scenes at developing habits of the heart that come out when we come together.

This kind of community-building cannot come from coercive rules and forced participation. Laws can only set boundaries that provide a framework. Community depends on a personal willingness to do what cannot be enforced. It also comes with a dawning realization that there is no place to hide.

As in the community chorus, we may start off thinking that our own sins will be hidden by the background noise of everybody else’s sins. With this mindset, our only motivation is to be mediocre. We tell ourselves, “Don’t do anything stupid that will make you stick out of the crowd.” This is easily accomplished by doing nothing at all.

But eventually everyone comes to realize that if you want to contribute to the chorus, you must risk blurting out a wrong note. If nobody is willing to take that risk, we will mumble through life without ever having the joy of making actual music.

ECOC performs the Messiah, 2012

The truth is that all the world’s a stage. There is no place to hide. Every person matters. Your voice and your actions impact everyone around you. Silence speaks as loudly as a scream. Inactivity does just as much as action. You are on the stage by virtue of your birth. You can play your part or not, but either way you remain on the stage.

As each member of the community learns this lesson for himself, he comes to enjoy the unique note that he is given to contribute. As he confidently sounds it out while blending it with the other notes around him, he contributes to the richness of the harmony.

But enough of the lessons about life. What about the concert itself? Sure, the performers may be having the time of their life, but can’t we hear the same songs with perfect acoustics and perfect performances downloaded from the internet?

Ever since audio recording was invented in the nineteenth century, we have been tempted to believe that music can be distilled into the pure physics of sound waves carried through the air. If that’s true, a pair of ear buds can give you the very same experience as a live concert.

Yet, no matter how far technology advances, recorded audio will always leave the hearer disappointed. There is something intangible in a live concert that touches the heart like nothing else.

That’s because at the heart of all music is the human heart. Music is not about the perfect arrangement of sound waves. Music is about human beings working in harmony.

No matter how perfectly the sounds may be reproduced, no recording can convey the united hearts. Conversely, even where an audience member may sneeze during a solo or a baritone strike a sour note, the exuberance of the players is not diminished in the least.

Before the invention of audio recordings, music could only be experienced live. From a harmonica on the front porch to an orchestra at symphony hall, people listed to people. The musicians were not performing for a machine, they were connecting with other people. Likewise, the audience was never listening to magnets and paper, they were listening to friends and neighbors.

Every hour of every day we are saturated with audio and visual recordings of people that we don’t know. They fill our minds with disembodied thoughts that churn away and distract us from the actual people in our lives. These recordings do not create community, they fragment and frustrate it.

But on Thursday night, all of Evanston has a special, one-time opportunity. We can turn off our cell phones and pull the plastic from our ears for one special hour.

It will be an hour of great music with great friends. Most of all, it is an opportunity to witness human hearts in harmony create a sound that reaches not just your ears but your very heart. That little community on the stage of DMS will draw you into the experience of community that music was made to give.

WTE: Respect for ICE detainees starts by respecting one another

CoreCivic's Otay Mesa Detention Center, San Diego, CA

The Uinta County Commissioners recently hosted an informational meeting for the public concerning an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility proposed to be built near Evanston. After nearly two years of speculation, the first official document was filed by CoreCivic in late November. Given two years of negative press, I went to learn the facts.

The first thing that struck me was how we, the people, have asked ICE to enforce our laws but have never given them any facilities of their own. For decades ICE has had no choice but to lock up foreign nationals in county jails and state-run facilities—often alongside hardened criminals.

Ten years ago, ICE announced an overhaul of its Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS 2008). According to the ICE website, “They were drafted with the input of many ICE personnel across the nation, as well as the perspectives of nongovernmental organizations. PBNDS 2011 is crafted to improve medical and mental health services, increase access to legal services and religious opportunities, improve communication with detainees with limited English proficiency, improve the process for reporting and responding to complaints, reinforce protections against sexual abuse and assault, and increase recreation and visitation.”

These 2011 standards authorize ICE to contract with private companies to build and operate facilities that meet the 2011 PBNDS standards. Out of 24 ICE regions across the U.S.A, 11 of them now have such contracted facilities. ICE’s Salt Lake region is looking to become the 12th.

Currently, more than 500 detainees are scattered in county jails and state-run detention centers from Nevada to Montana. ICE hopes to correct this with a new 1,000-bed facility somewhere in northern Utah or southwest Wyoming.

Current holder of ICE detainees in the SLC region

Let that sink in. Humanitarian upgrades approved by the Obama administration and enjoyed by nearly half of ICE’s jurisdiction are suddenly reported as sinister actions against the very people they were designed to help. Have the 2011 improvements of humanitarian standards suddenly become evil? Or has Wyoming’s press corps failed to report the facts?

Facts require context. In a vacuum, it is easy to criticize anything or anybody. But we don’t live in a vacuum. Currently, there are real people stuck in county jails. They should be consulted about whether moving from a county jail to a detention center improves their quality of life.

The same goes for our treatment of potential contractors. No doubt, terrible wrongs have taken place in—state-run, county-run, and private detention centers. The salient question is: which arrangement has the better track record? Decisions made without an actual comparison of facts may, in reality, make matters worse for detainees.

Ten years ago, multiple government agencies and NGOs did, in fact, examine these questions. The Obama administration concluded that companies like CoreCivic and MTC actually served the detainees better than the current archipelago of county jails. Until a similarly rigorous study overturns that conclusion, it is manifestly unfair to accuse those who act on the 2011 PBNDS of being uncaring, immoral people motivated by greed or animus.

To be clear, it is not my intention to advocate either for, or against the Evanston facility. Others are better equipped for that job. There may be good reasons that the people of Uinta County support it or oppose it. There may also be sound reasons why the 2011 PBNDS should be reconsidered. If so, let us hear them and help ICE do its job in the most humane way possible.

Only, let the discussion be fair and civil. Denouncing one’s policy opponents in categorical, moral terms is always polarizing. Doing so without a careful consideration of history and context is irresponsible. I have very good friends on both sides of the issue. Each one deserves respect and a careful hearing.

I don’t believe that those who express concern for the people detained by ICE are uncaring about the welfare of Evanston and her citizens. Nor do I believe that the people concerned about Evanston’s future are uncaring about the people who could be housed in the proposed facility. These concerns are not mutually exclusive. Ad hominem attacks to the contrary are beneath the dignity of Wyoming.

We all agree that the first goal is to find the best way to respect and care for the ICE detainees in the Salt Lake region. That starts with respecting and caring for one another.


PUBLISHED IN...
Wyoming Tribune Eagle (behind a paywall)
Laramie Boomerang

Conversation over ICE facility offers community an opportunity

The Portland Rose room at the Roundhouse saw a marathon meeting of the Uinta County Commissioners on Monday, December 2, 2019. For the most part, the capacity crowd consisted of Uinta County residents from all walks of life. There were, however, a few others. I spotted a reporter from Laramie, two lawyers from Salt Lake City, and two professional lobbyists—to name a few.

It has been a while since so many people attended a commissioners meeting. That alone is reason to commend the good people of Uinta County. Lately, America has been so focused on national politics that local involvement suffers. If Monday’s meeting helps to reinvigorate everything from the school board to the city council, that would be its greatest benefit.

ICE regional map

The crowd gathered for an informational meeting concerning a proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. ICE has two dozen regional offices scattered around the United States. None of these regional offices operate any detention facilities of their own. All our detainees are housed in state- and county-run jails that contract with ICE.

Since the early days of the Obama administration, ICE has been working a plan to improve this housing situation. It has both raised the humanitarian standards of our detention facilities and contracted with private companies to build and operate new ones to meet these standards. Nearly half of ICE’s regions now have such contracted facilities. A new, centralized detention facility for the Salt Lake region would bring us to the halfway mark.

The Salt Lake region serves Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana. Currently, we hold over 500 detainees who are housed in six county jails and four state-run detention centers scattered through the region. ICE is expected to put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) in the very near future. It will contract with a private company to build and operate a 1,000-bed facility within a specified radius of Salt Lake City.

Management Training Corporation (MTC) originally contacted city and county leaders to inquire whether there were any suitable sites around Evanston. After identifying one possible site east of Bear River State Park, it decided to bow out of the process.

More recently, CoreCivic has begun looking into the project. It recently filed an environmental plan with the federal government. While awaiting an answer, it sent a team of managers to talk with the people of Evanston. After presenting some drawings and discussing what such a facility would likely entail, they and the commissioners answered questions and heard comments.

Proposed facility, night rendering

Almost immediately, the plan to distinguish the question period from the comment period went out the window. That was not a bad thing. It allowed a genuine dialog so that the comments could be informed by factual answers to clarifying questions. County Attorney, Loretta Howieson, should be commended for moderating a meeting that allowed people to speak their minds, while also allowing room to correct misinformation.

Comments were divided into two basic concerns. Many were concerned with the impact of the proposed facility on the ICE detainees, while others were concerned about its impact on the citizens of Evanston. While the comments were divided along these lines, it would be unfair to assume that the people commenting were divided in this way.

I don’t believe that those who expressed concern for the people detained by ICE are uncaring about the welfare of Evanston and her citizens. Nor do I believe that the people who spoke about Evanston’s future are uncaring about the people who could be housed in the proposed facility.

A just and decent society never pits one people-group against another. Human beings are created by God to be in community. Therefore, what is truly good for one is truly good for all. The key to building community lies in the phrase “truly good.” Truth itself is both the unifying force and the liberating principle that knits people into communities.

Sadly, there are very strong currents in our culture that deny the existence of truth, at all. To the extent that we fall under the spell of such nihilism, we lose hope of either unity or freedom. This is poison to community.

For several days, I have been talking with people on both sides of the issue and reflecting on Monday’s conversation. The most distressing pattern that I have noticed is a widespread cynicism and distrust of everybody and every institution from the federal government to townspeople that some have known all their lives.

In such an environment, there is no statement of ICE, CoreCivic, the County Commission—or anyone else for that matter—that can serve to build community. Rather than statements being verified as factual or discarded as lies, statements are either accepted or denied based on which side of the debate we want to believe. Personal will substitutes for objective truth and community is replaced by one group imposing power on another.

Perhaps that’s why many have told me that they are reluctant to voice their opinion. They are unwilling to be bullied into submission or silence. Alternately, they are afraid that long-time friends will interpret their own opinions as mere bullying in return.

Uinta County Commission

There is no simple answer to this problem. Surely, every single reader of this column has experienced enough lies and broken promises to justify a cynical view of the world. No government agency, news source or person—myself included—can be the final arbiter of trustworthiness. So-called “fact checkers” are just as biased and unreliable those they label as “fake news.”

But that does not mean we are without hope. Community starts with a personal confidence that the truth exists and that it is knowable. Such confidence overcomes the despair of nihilism. It sets our feet on the path of a mutual and hopeful search for common truth.

Once we have rejected the poisonous notion that nothing is true, we are freed from the tyranny of pure power. Life is not about one person exerting force over others. Life together is made possible by both people gladly acknowledging the authority of truth.

In turn, mutual respect for the truth makes room for mutual respect of persons. The most unkind statements made at Monday’s meeting were personal attacks on the integrity and intelligence of those on the other side of the issue. Such comments were like hammer blows that insulted people and shattered community.

Respect of persons allows people to speak freely about what they truly believe without bludgeoning them as “immoral” or “ignorant.” It removes the walls of our own self-defense while avoiding words that cause reflexive defensiveness in others.

This may seem like a pipe dream, but it was not very long ago that America enjoyed much more of it than she does now. To return there is not an impossible dream. Nor does it require us to remove offending speakers from the debate by force. Rather, the return of civility lies within the power of every citizen.

By committing to learn the truth and eschew every lie, half-truth and exaggeration, you become a force for rebuilding communal confidence in the knowability of truth. By committing to respect your fellow citizen as a fellow seeker of the truth, you tear down barriers and repair the bonds of community.