Aric Clark Fort Morgan Times
Aric Clark Fort Morgan Times

Living in community would be great if it weren't for all the other people.

The plain fact of human relationship is that people don't always get along. We have different personalities, interests, values, and opinions. We have a lot in common too, but no matter how similar we are there are always forces trying to pull us apart, and there have always been those leading the charge of division, encouraging us to cut ties and go our separate ways.

This was no different when Jesus of Nazareth traveled the hills of Palestine 2,000 years ago. The Temple authorities and religious leaders of the day advocated rigid adherence to codes of purity that kept Jews from associating with Gentiles, the clean from associating with the impure, and men from associating publicly with women. Religious sects like the Essenes took this to the logical extreme retreating to the desert to live apart from the whole society.

The impulse to separate ourselves from each other is stronger than ever these days. So far, 11 counties in Colorado have decided to put a measure on the ballot to consider seceding from the state and forming a new state, tentatively called Northern Colorado. Morgan County is considering adding a similar measure to our ballot.

The 51st State movement is hardly a new thing, it crops up over and over in U.S. history. States as diverse as Arizona, California, Delaware, Maryland, Florida, Michigan, and New York have had portions of their people agitate for secession at different times. The issues that prompt this are recognizably similar: rural counties that feel underrepresented in the State legislature, sharp political divides on controversial issues, and of course taxation. The obstacles which have prevented a 51st State from forming time and again are also predictable: water rights, economic entanglement, and steep political obstacles requiring approval of not only the State legislature, but both houses of Congress.

There is nothing sacred about the way our borders are drawn, but ultimately the desire to cut ties with people over a difference of opinion is misguided. Living in a democracy requires a particularly strong commitment to working out our differences, though no community could survive if members threatened to withdraw whenever they disagreed with one another. Sometimes votes don't go the way we want. Being in the minority in a democracy is not the same thing as being disenfranchised. When we engage in the destructive politics of disassociation most prominently on display in the current government shutdown we ultimately sabotage ourselves.

Jesus famously got in trouble for associating with the wrong people. He made the unity of people across the dividing lines of his culture the basis of the new community he created with his disciples. In the church Gentiles and Jews, Clean and Unclean, Men and Women, Slave and Free, Rich and Poor all shared a common identity as the family of God. Similarly, our nation set out from the beginning to be a haven for people of every culture, background, religion, and race. Every time we try to cut ties with our neighbors we cut our own noses off to spite our face.
