When we hear the phrase, “A House Divided,” most people think of Abraham Lincoln and the speech he gave in 1858 at the Illinois Republican Convention, where he said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” But did you know that the phrase was not original to Abraham Lincoln? Jesus is the one who actually coined it first when He said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Matthew 12:25

That phrase has been going through my mind this week as I listen to the news. The media loves to bring division to our society. In 2019, the drumbeat was black vs. white. In 2020, it was Democrat vs. Republican. In 2021, it was vaxed vs. unvaxed. So far in 2022, it is government vs. truckers. Listen carefully when you listen to the news or other media outlets; you’ll notice that many of the speakers are pitting one group of people against another.

Does it really have to be that way? Can we not shake ourselves awake and recognize the programming that is being disseminated on the airwaves? If we don’t, we will succumb to the division that is deliberately being sown in society around us.

Think about your own prejudices and those of your peers around you. Don’t they mimic the programming that is on the news channels? We must recognize that we are being conditioned to look at others with suspicion if they do not think or act the way that we do. This is happening on both sides of the political divide. Surely we don’t have to fall for this, do we?

Abe Lincoln was right to quote Jesus when he was talking about slavery in our nation. He recognized the division that would break our union apart. Now there is a more insidious division taking place; it is family member against family member, neighbor against neighbor, city against city and state against state.

We may not be able to stop the vitriol that is spewing forth from the media but we can quit listening to it and stop being conditioned to hate those who do not agree with us on a political or social level. I don’t know about you, but I refuse to hate my brother or my neighbor because of the color of his skin, his political affiliation, his vaccination status or his choice to protest.

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas. Courtesy of Pixabay.