Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Unity vs. Civility

If you click on the left side over there on Pastor Hall has perhaps the best review of President K's response to Mollie's article. I instead, will write about a specific topic - the difference between unity and civility.

The convention this summer was quite civil. There were very few points where tempers flared, and it was generally a place for discussion - even discussion on topics that were sorely disagreed upon. But Civility is not unity - in fact, the fact that things can be thought of as "civil" shows that there is no unity.

Civility basically means that there was. . . niceness. . . that there was a respectful tone kept throughout - that we didn't beat each other to death. We played, by in large, nicely (except the scarlet letter L for those who filed the lawsuit - but hey, even that was overturned). If there is unity, if we are all in one accord - you don't notice civility. It's not surprising, it's not something to comment on. Civility is a cease fire - Unity is two formerly warning nations saying, "Having two nations here is foolish, let's merge!" Different thing entirely.

How often do we sadly settle for civility instead of unity and peace?