Putin and his American agents

The point here is not really that Russia may be trying to interfere or even manipulate our government at the highest levels.

Pretend you’re an enemy looking for America’s weakness to exploit.

I believe our greatest weakness now is disinterest, distrust, and disunity.

Disinterest takes most of what is “normal” for granted. It is both overly optimistic (“it will all work out”) and overly pessimistic (“I can’t do anything about it anyway”) at the same time.

Distrust is what we shoot off in every direction without bothering to aim. We distrust the government. We distrust the media. We distrust each other. Most of the time, we make up ten reasons to every one that is factual.

Disunity is what comes from disinterest and distrust. If Putin (or any foreign power) is attempting to exploit any weakness, it is this one.

What is the solution?

Reversing disinterest. It is a proactive choice to be curious, to be interested, to be open with an outward orientation. It is a proactive choice to take nothing for granted. It is a proactive choice to believe in your own power for change.

Reversing disinterest reverses distrust which reverses disunity.

Put in positive language: Being engaged, interested, and open leads to more trust, which leads to more unity. Notice I didn’t say any of this leads to more agreement.

We don’t need more agreement anyway. We’ve never really had it and never really will. That’s not a knock on America. My wife and I love each other so, so much and will be together until we die. We disagree a lot. Agreement doesn’t keep us together; love keeps us together.

So we don’t need agreement; we need unity. You can have unity without agreement, but you can’t have unity without love.

The hallmark of love is interest in others.

I think that is one of the great shortcomings of the conservative movement in which I came of age in the 1990s. We put so much emphasis on individual responsibilities and rights that we helped our people forget how to be usefully distracted by others. Self-interest became the singular virtue.

Self-interest is killing our country.

What to do?

As a Christian in America who most often speaks to other Christians in America, I have to say this: There is no self-interest in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. None. The call to follow Jesus Christ as apprentices and students is the call to devote our lives to being actively interested and proactively open to others–especially those who are different.

Jesus Christ says: “Don’t worry about yourself. Entrust your life to me if you believe me. I want you to focus on others. Especially enemies, strangers, and other people you’d rather avoid. Go be interested in them.”

I’m afraid that in America’s current state, my fellow Christians and I have been some of the worst offenders at disinterest, distrust, and disunity.

Putin’s meddling and scheming may be a threat to our nation.

Whether it is or isn’t, we need to ask ourselves if we are acting as his willing accomplices.