“Some people choose to be wrong just to prove they were always right...”

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. - John Adams (1735  - 1826: was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States (1797–1801) and the first Vice President (1789–97) 

Scripture Text: (JER 7:23-28)

Thus says the LORD:

This is what I commanded my people:

Listen to my voice;

then I will be your God and you shall be my people.

Walk in all the ways that I command you,

so that you may prosper.

But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed.

They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts

and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.

From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day,

I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.

Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed;

they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.

When you speak all these words to them,

they will not listen to you either;

when you call to them, they will not answer you.

Say to them:

This is the nation that does not listen

to the voice of the LORD, its God,

or take correction.

Faithfulness has disappeared;

the word itself is banished from their speech.

The excerpts from the first reading in Jeremiah sound more like the political commentary you now hear on CNN or Fox News about the unrest in our country -- complete with stiffened necks, turned backs and walking with hardness in their hearts. “This is a nation that does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction.”

Why is this? Can we blame it on Twitter, Facebook or the 24/7 cable news stations? Maybe, but even if they all disappeared, I am not optimistic that our divisiveness as exhibited over the last decade would end, and our nation would soon be united. I have come to the personal realization that the more I watch, listen and read about our political malaise, the more I am not letting the voice of the Lord be the touchstone upon which I rely.

Maybe the solution to this growing problem is to remember that more important than the opinions and comments of those who align themselves with red states or blue states, Democrat or Republican, are the teachings of Christ and how we should first and foremost view the vexing political problems that are dividing our country through the lens of our faith. Maybe if we spent as much time praying and serving those in need as we do watching cable news or Twitter feeds, we would be in a much better state of mind.