Predictions

Submitted by Henri Fischer (United States), Jun 7, 2016 at 13:28

I'm not sure either dark predictions will come to pass, though I'm more inclined to believe yours. From my perspective, Providence brings "the alien and stranger" into our midst to confront affluent peoples like us, as it did ancient Israel millennia ago, with the ethnic or, now sectarian, other. This unrequested mingling has happened in the USA from all corners of the earth, especially Latin America; and it is changing what America is in color, and more subtly in outlook.

By nature these ethnic changes create a challenge or threat to settled constructs of national and ethnic identity - e.g. de Gaulle's. I believe Providence leads this way to force us, individually and collectively, to expand and reassess what it really means to "love your neighbor as yourself." The most profound exploration of this challenge that I've read, set in the context of the fracturing of Yugoslavia, is "Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness and Reconciliation" by Miroslav Volf.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".