The more I get accustomed to life in Honduras, the more things that I see that would be convenient to add into my life when I return to the States. I’ve become very fond of pan con frijoles (toasted bread with refried beans) for breakfast, and am quite sure it’s the missing link in my plan to keep my grocery bill around $2-3 a day (the $2 a day if more a product of my cheapness than a desire to live simply). I’ve also discovered that in order to get legitimately clean in the shower, the water really only needs to be on for about a minute if you turn it off in the middle. I figure this will come in handy when Michigan has to stop acting like fresh water is a limitless resource.
If I slow down enough to think about what I need to take from this semester, it’s obvious that it involves so much more than just my breakfast of choice or hygiene techniques. It would be an utter waste of my semester to come back without having considered the reality in front of me, the things I’m learning, and to recognize how I need to respond, both in thought and actions. Since forming opinions without dialogue is dangerous, I figured I could write some of these thoughts out on my blog.
When I look at Honduras as a country, it is easy to see the unique culture of the country. It is also easy to see striking similarities to the States; pieces of North American culture seem to have been transplanted into Honduran culture. Honduran culture has adjusted to the transplant, but the underlying congruity remains. The interesting thing is that what goes relatively unnoticed in the States is nakedly exposed under the more extreme conditions of Honduras. Given my pride, it’s easy for me to declare, “What a problem for Honduras, they should change the way they do things.” Unfortunately, such a narrow-minded view of things fails to address the reality that a lot of the problems that Honduras is facing come from the exact same practices and policies that exist in the United States. The States doesn’t suffer nearly as much as Honduras, but that doesn’t change the fact that we may have the same condition. HIV can stay latent for years, but the same virus is present in all persons infected. Whether appearing to be healthy or in the late stages of AIDS, all require treatment for the underlying virus.
I think that this analogy applies in a number of sectors of both the States and Honduras. While sometimes not as serious as HIV, there are very similar sicknesses in both systems, and like the treatment of any sickness, the first step is to recognize that something is wrong.
On Thursday, the political group that has been opposing the coup that occurred last summer, La Resistencia (the resistance), gathered for demonstrations and marches starting from the university where we have classes. La Resistencia ended up shutting down the university as part of their demonstrations. Later that night, a lawyer working for one side or the other of this political issue was assassinated in the very same neighborhood that I live in. On my walk home to my house, the police truck going to investigate the murder passed by us, filled with masked policemen holding their guns at ready.
The political situation in Honduras is not nearly as charged as it was 6 months ago, and yet this political schism has not even begun to disappear. Many families are divided on either side of the issue, and some churches are even taking one side or the other of the issue. My host family, all of them good people, will explain to me whether or not a public figure is reputable simply by telling me whether or not a person is a Golpista (those that support the coup).”
As I see the political tension in Honduras, I see that something needs to change. I also see the reality of the same sickness in the States. Politics in the States are becoming so incredibly polarized, with each side resisting every idea from the other side as a personal attack or threat to their livelihood. When a new idea is introduced, politicians (and citizens) are making it a higher priority to completely discredit the idea (and directly attack the introducer) than to actually find a solution to the problems in front of the country.
I am not suggesting that we just need to throw in the towel and abandon all of our beliefs and opinions. I am suggesting that this polarized political situation, the one that exists in both Honduras and the States, will not bring change. It will bring mistrust, it will bring hatred, and it will bring gridlock, but it will not bring change.
If we are going to go about politics as Christians, we cannot pledge allegiance to a political party driven by causing division. There cannot be more attention paid to convention or comfort than to the needs of people. More than anything, we cannot put our hope in a system when the world is in desperate need of a Savior.
So what’s the treatment? The one benefit of having this increased polarization is that when something breaks, it can be fixed more completely than it was before. Honduras gives us a pretty cool example of this in the Transformemos Honduras (Let’s Transform Honduras) movement. Transformemos Honduras is composed of members of the church; Protestants and Catholics, nationalists and liberals (Honduras’s two main political parties), with the purpose of improving 15 sectors of Honduras including education, health, and corruption in government.
The church needs to be political, but not in the vein of conservatives or liberals or populists or libertarians. Shockingly, the Bible doesn’t advocate for any side of the political spectrum, although it’s easy to see that on various issues it condemns all sides. When the church sees the hungry, we need to feed them. When we see injustice, we need to defend the cause of the oppressed. When we see the sick, we need to provide them what they need to be healed. Obviously there is much discussion that needs to go into how to best do this, but better to discuss within the church, for whom the Trinity is petitioning that their be unity as its own.
No more can the church align itself on one side or the other of the widening abyss. Polarization leads to death; both in the figurative sense and, if allowed to become extreme enough, quite literally. It’s time to be something different.
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