A Tale of Two Marches

This past Saturday I witnessed two marches. The first was one that I was a part of: the annual West Coast Walk for Life. It was characterized by peaceful and prayerful demonstration. There was no yelling, no shouting, no ugliness. Simply tens of thousands of Christians walking down Market Street holding signs. The loudest we got was when portions of our crowd would chant "pro-life" to drown out the counter protesters that showed up to hurl profanities at us.

The second march was the SF Women's March which was held later that day. I made a point to witness it. It was billed as a peaceful demonstration against hate, misogyny, racism, and other forms of prejudice. I was shocked to see how many signs had messages of hate, anger, and profanities. I was also shocked to see multiple signs calling for the death of Trump and Pence. Where did the call for tolerance go to? Not to mention that the organizers made sure that conservative pro-woman viewpoints were not represented at the march. I was appalled to see how many parents brought their small children to such a march. There were things being said that no child should be exposed to. It was not a march of peace, love, and tolerance.

But I was also made aware of the deep fear that many carry. Behind all of that anger and hate is a fear that our current administration will inflict changes upon the lifestyles of those protesting. I can say that they are in needless fear and their concerns aren't valid- which may be true. But the fact remains- there are deeply held concerns. Trump, in his inaugural address, called for unity. We need a healing to come to our nation and it must start by us laying aside the hate and anger to truly listen to one another. Lincoln took the presidency during a trying time much as this. And there are a lot of parallels between Trump and Lincoln that I won't go into here but the fact remains that we have a deeply divided nation. I don't think our nation has been this divided since Reconstruction. We need to pray that Trump would be used by God to bring healing to this nation. I truly believe that is God's plan for Trump. To make America great again and to bring our nation together from our polarized pieces. But this will only happen if we pay attention to the verse that Pence laid his hands upon as he took the oath of office:

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."