Faith and Values: Path to unity can be found in scripture, ‘If it is possible … live peaceably with all men.’

Red versus blue.

Black versus white.

And now, flag kneelers versus flag standers.

Just when you think our polarized and fractured culture cannot get worse, it gets… well, much worse.

Thank President Donald Trump for triggering our present polar storm with this rhetorical hand grenade: professional athletes are wrong to protest racism by refusing to stand during the national anthem.

Or, if you prefer, protesting athletes are right and Trump’s wrong.

On this issue, like all the others, pick your pole and hang on.

Just don’t miss the irony in this anthem angst: We’re now badly divided over how best to draw attention to the fact that we’re a nation badly divided.

Disunity is a bit like a serious cold; the cure seems elusive, but we can at least treat the symptoms. And treating the symptoms begs much of you and me.

Consider the wisdom of scripture: “If it is possible,” says Romans 12, “as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”

Here is an acknowledgment from God himself that it is not always possible to be at peace with others. More on that later.

First, the salient point: if there is to be peace among people, much depends on each person.

Unity doesn’t just happen. It is not mankind’s default setting. We’re a contrary bunch, all of us.

Unity is costly: It costs our willingness to listen to contrary viewpoints without immediately being indignant, or feeling personally devalued, or worse – demonizing those who hold views out of sync with our own. Unity costs our willingness to suffer insult without responding in kind. And it costs our willingness to try to understand an opposing view, rather than attacking it first.

Media – social media in particular – have made it all too easy for us to substitute quick, cutting criticism in social discourse when tempered, thoughtful responses to divergent views are needed. The latter preserves unity; the former, destroys it.

Given our president’s penchant for quick jabs via Twitter, we citizens may have to lead from behind on this one: let’s not get baited into sophomoric mud-slinging.

Unity is not only costly, it’s also precious. And like so many precious things, unity is very, very fragile.

Wherever you stand, or kneel, on this anthem issue, surely we all can agree that Americans past and present have paid a high and bloody price for our freedom to speak our minds. Surely, we all can agree that freedom is best handled with care.

Unity is a Christian social construct in this regard: peaceable living is meant to be displayed in the relationships within God’s family – the church – and also in the church’s relationships with others.

Yet even within the church itself, unity is hardly automatic. Its preservation demands that fellow Christians “be humble and gentle… patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults,” says Ephesians 4, and that we “make every effort to keep yourselves united.”

The church is wildly diverse in terms of race, culture, nationality, economic status, gender and age. Yet it is precisely because of its great diversity that the church’s unity shines brightly in a disjointed world.

But what of the caution: “If it is possible…live peaceably with all men”?

That also relates to the uniqueness of the church. Human nature, apart from God, is incapable of overcoming disunity. At best, we can merely treat the symptoms, like that common cold.

The only real cure is for proud hearts, alienated from God by sin, to turn to God’s remedy. True unity is a work of God through the gospel – the good news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, to purchase our peace with God.

Peace with God leads us into peace with one another.