Bridges are moderate things. They take two sides and connect them. They allow people to cross over to a different side. They go over chasms and rivers and highways. The trouble being a bridge, though, is that people are increasingly fond of burning bridges, and usually, they blame the other side, or they even blame the bridge.
This bridge is too rickety. It's better to just stay on one side, and not risk traveling. Bridges make me feel uncomfortable. I'm afraid of heights. There's no need for this bridge.
This bridge was built by my enemy. If I use it, they'll see that I'm weak. I'm fine over here. There's no need for this bridge.
This bridge is not being maintained by both sides. I'm tired of maintaining my side, so I'm just going to stop until the other side starts pulling their weight.
This bridge doesn't get enough news coverage. That huge canyon over there, though, is always in the media. It must be better -- or worse. Either way, let's burn this bridge so we can get the same attention.
I'm here to tell you to make it easier, and not harder, for people to be bridges.
You think you are doing good by reposting radically liberal memes calling for defunding the police and accusing all officers of being bad apples, but you're not. You're burning a bridge.
You think you are doing good by posting an inflammatory article about how all women who get abortions are baby-murderers, but you're not. You're burning a bridge.
There's a parable in the bible -- a well-known parable -- about a Jew and a Samaritan. The Jew is walking to Jericho, and he is robbed and beaten. Two other Jews see the beaten man on the side of the road and do not help him. Instead, they stay as far away as possible. But a Samaritan sees the beaten Jew, stops, and helps. He cleans his wounds, and carries the Jew to an inn. He pays for the Jew's care, food, and lodging, promising to pay more if needed.
What's incredible about this story is not that a good person stops to help a person in need. It's the fact that a Samaritan stopped to help a Jew. Jews treated Samaritans terribly. They were not allowed to worship at the temple. Even touching a Samaritan defiled you. Samaritans were lower-class beings, and they were not considered by Jews to be God's covenant people.
You think you are standing up for what is right when you talk about how all Jesus said was to love your neighbor, but you're forgetting about what the Good Samaritan actually did -- he paid the price for the care of another without thought of self. When you celebrate the death of a long-serving female justice, you are not following his example. Similarly, when you call for the deaths of officers shot on duty and try to deny them access to hospitals and you say you're doing it because you love everyone, you're burning bridges.
The Samaritan is you. The person beaten at the side of the road was the person who was prejudiced against you. It was the person who held up a system that despised you. It was the person who fought against your humanity. It was the person who would wash their hands thoroughly after touching you. It's the person who thought you were dirty, stupid, lower-class, and unworthy of notice. Ask yourself honestly if you are really the Samaritan in this story. Because if you're burning bridges, you're not. At best, you're the priest who avoided helping. At worst you're the thief who nearly beat a man to death.
When you think all rich people are lazy and greedy and don't deserve to keep their money, you're burning a bridge.
When you think all people on welfare are jobless addicts who don't deserve your help, you're burning a bridge.
You might say you don't care. Some bridges need to be burned. But as you are burning them down, and the people on either side of the chasm are accusing the other as the cause of the flames, are you trying to build better ones?
Better yet, are you allowing someone else, maybe someone who doesn't agree with you, to build a bridge? Do you give them a voice? Do you allow them the compassion you are begging for?
People who try to bridge the gap are tired. They wonder if there's any purpose in being moderate. They sigh inside every time they see political ads. They start to avoid media sources where they see extremes shared and represented. The chasm gets wider, and if it continues to get wider, the gap will need bigger bridges. Bigger bridges are harder to come by, so please stop burning them.
Once the beaten Jew recovered from his wounds and learned that a Samaritan, a lowly, unclean, unworthy Samaritan, had been his salvation on the road to Jericho, do you think his opinion might have changed? Perhaps he would have seen the value in that which he had previously despised and misjudged. Perhaps he softened, became more compassionate, and more willing to be an example of how his people ought to treat Samaritans.
The Good Samaritan narrowed the gap. He could have made it wider; he could have burned a bridge. He could have said a bigot and a racist deserved to die, and it wasn't his job to help. But he followed a higher law, a better crede:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you"
Both sides are hating their enemies when they could be building bridges.
