As Election Day approaches are you, as am I, exasperated to the point of despair by the cacophony of fear mongering and half-truths uttered by those who believe the rightness of their cause excuses the wrongness of their means? It corrodes our souls and the soul of our nation.

How does one keep balance and perspective? It helps me to return to the prophet Micah who clarifies God’s priorities for our lives and thus our voting.

The prophet begins his teaching in Micah 6:6-8 asking, “What do you think God requires of you?” He then runs through a list of significant offerings that escalates as he enumerates: “a burnt offering of a year old calf?”, “thousands of rams?”, “your first born child?” He punctuates his proclamation at this point with a thundering “NO!”

“God has shown you, O human one, what God asks of you. Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.”

Revisiting these charges to action — do, love, walk — I am particularly caught by the thought of what increasing the practice of kindness would mean to me and our world.

What would our election process be if you and I developed a particular sensitivity and preference for kindness in our candidates and looked for kindness in the propositions we choose to vote for? Even more, what happens if we work to cultivate our own capacity for kindness, particularly to those who think differently?

The Christian ethicist, Christine D. Pohl, examines kindness by considering its opposite, which she sees as ruthlessness involving a strategic form of self-centered heartlessness, a total disregard for persons who block our personal goals or broader commitments. It is a choice not to see the impact of our actions on others because our goals, purposes, and opinions are too important to fail.” (“Recovering Kindness,” The Christian Century, Oct. 31, 2012)

Ruthlessness is the consequence of depersonalization. Kindness is the consequence of personalization, seeing the other as a person in need of respect and attention.

There are many spectacular lines in Arthur Miller’s play, “Death of a Salesman.” The one that comes to mind as I write this is the salesman Willy Loman’s wife Linda’s frantic defense of her all too human husband to their son Biff. “His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.”

Personalization is paying attention. Kindness is the fruit of that attention, the consequence of finding our own humanity.

Now that I think of it, Micah’s counsel calls for three interdependent actions. It seems a chicken and egg question as to which comes first, maybe humility. It diminishes our fear of our own incompleteness which in turn diminishes our fear of the incompleteness in others. This sets the stage for kindness which opens our eyes to injustice and empowers us to do justice.

At various times in our lives, however, I suspect that we can hear God’s call to us for one of the three behaviors more strongly than the others. Today, in the clamor of the ruthless depersonalization of negative campaigning, I hear a loud and clear call for kindness.

Bill Gregory is an author and retired minister. He can be reached at:

wgregor1@maine.rr.com

 

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