Wednesday, August 5, 2020

E Pluribus Unum

There are some very noisy people in our society right now trying to eliminate our diversity. They want us all to look like them, to talk like  them, and to think like them. But that is not really who we are, is it?

Look carefully at the back of a one dollar bill. The great seal of the United States is depicted there with the back of the seal on the left and the front of the seal on the right. In the right hand image the eagle is holding a banner in its beak that proclaims “E Pluribus Unum”. It is a Latin phrase meaning “from many, one.” It is of course a reference to one nation being formed from 13 colonies, but also represents to many of us that we are all different but we form one nation.

The book of Revelation speaks of heaven being formed from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Jeremiah warned his people “Do justice and righteousness and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3). The apostle Paul spent 15 verses writing of the church, comparing it to a body, saying each part is different, each has its own function and no one part should think it is more important than another. If that kind of thinking is good for the church then why not for the nation?

Neil Diamond remembering his grandmother put it like this”

“They’re Coming to America”

It is time we all stood up for the strangers among us and those longing to be among us.

1 comment:

  1. I’ve been reading “White Fragility” and I understand a bit more about those “noisy people trying to take away our diversity”. I am hoping the tide of anti-diversity is about to tip in favor of the tide of diversity. Look at the population numbers. It will happen.

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