{"id":33080,"date":"2023-09-24T02:27:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T09:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33080"},"modified":"2023-09-24T02:27:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T09:27:01","slug":"does-it-really-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/does-it-really-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Does It Really Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Identity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fukuyama shares with us the problem with identifying only with those like us or in Christian vocabulary like minded. Fukuyama reminds us of the importance of sharing national beliefs, and a need to find a way to have an identity that supports our democracy instead of undermining it.[1]<\/p>\n

Francis Fukuyama is an internationally recognized academic, specializing in political science and currently teaching at Stanford University. In The End of History<\/em> and The Last Man<\/em> argued that liberal democracies and free market capitalism might be the final type of human government.[2]<\/p>\n

Three takeaways from this book:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. We long for dignity and people to recognize our worth.<\/li>\n
  2. The political left has been fractured by the rise of identity politics and is giving way to nationalism.<\/li>\n
  3. We can help lessen the divide by creating more inclusive identity groups.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Politics has begun to pivot on identity. The Left has fallen into arguments over minority rights, such as those of a tiny minority who change their sex, while the Right uses nationalism to harness anger at inequality and deprivation. A resentment of indignity could thus explain why rural English voters chose to \u201ctake back control\u201d and reject the modern European referendum.<\/p>\n

    The shift towards identity politics threatens to fragment society by dividing people into zealous tribes. If people no longer vote according to their values, such as an attachment to liberty, but by their identities, such as their faith, then democracy ceases to function.<\/p>\n

    Love Thy Neighbor<\/strong><\/p>\n

    As Christians we are commanded to love and find our true identity in Jesus Christ. \u00a0There is a difference of honoring people and having fellowship with unbelievers from 1st<\/sup> John. In the Gospel of John 13:35 says \u201cBy this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.\u201d We can honor people and listen to them without getting offended, upset, and even casting a demon out of a person. We simply struggle with cultural or ethnic differences rather than people trying to be difficult or indifferent.<\/p>\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Technology and transportation are shortening the distance of indifference. We are moving to a more global community instead of individual communities. Therefore, learning and honoring other cultures is going to become a normal practice especially in generations to follow. My hope is to avoid future wars and choose diplomacy over division.<\/p>\n

    Our environments will always impact how we live our lives, and we need to be okay with that. We cannot expect people that live above the Artic circle to live and act the same as people who live in metropolitan areas. We must be okay with people being different from us. My dad and I were best friends. We loved to fish together and be together. It did not really matter which vehicle we used, it really depended on if we needed the truck to pull the boat or if we could take the Prius and be more economic.<\/p>\n

    When we hate and have intolerance for other cultures and ethnicities, we are exposing the condition of the brokenness of our own heart. When we cannot love others, we cannot fulfill the Great Command as Christians. We will always be self-focused. The world, cultures, ethnicities will continue to deteriorate. Division and war will continue over and over because of the condition of our own hearts<\/p>\n

    [1] Fukuyama, Francis. Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. First edition. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.<\/p>\n

    [2] Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man<\/i>. Penguin Books, 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Identity Fukuyama shares with us the problem with identifying only with those like us or in Christian vocabulary like minded. Fukuyama reminds us of the importance of sharing national beliefs, and a need to find a way to have an identity that supports our democracy instead of undermining it.[1] Francis Fukuyama is an internationally recognized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1839],"class_list":["post-33080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fukuyama","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33081,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33080\/revisions\/33081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}