Reflections on the Fallacy of Either/Or Thinking

 Every year, I write a "Blessing for the Sharing of Light" for the Christmas Eve service at the church I'm serving. This year, I wrote two, but the light was shared virtually because both of our services were held via ZOOM. 

I've been thinking a lot this year about the ways that we portray dark and light culturally, which prompted the blessing I used for the early family service. We as a people will only get closer to building the Realm of God when we deal honestly with White Supremacy and all that derives from it or inspires it. One sick inspiration for it is the notion that light is always better than dark; it comes through the metaphor of light=good and dark=evil that was an ancient philosophical and religious idea that was twisted by those whose greed and thirst for power needed an ideological underpinning. 

God’s first words were, “Let there be light!”

And there was light. 

God separated the light from the darkness, making day and night.

We are born with a fear of night. We are born with a fear of darkness.

But without darkness, we could not know light.

Without darkness, there would be no green plants, for seeds need the darkness of rich soil in which to put down roots so that trees and flowers and all manner of grasses will grow strong and healthy.

Without darkness, there would be no way for us to see the multitude of stars that paint the sky at night, reminding us that we are infinitely small.

Without darkness, there would be no way for the wise ones to follow a single bright star to a manger in Bethlehem so long ago, to greet a baby whose very existence reminds us that we are infinitely loved.

Without darkness, the baby in the manger could not be the Light of the World.

Without darkness, we could not let our own lights shine as beacons of hope and peace in this world that so desperately needs to know that there will be day tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

But even tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, the Light of the World shines, brighter than the moon by night and the sun by day.

When we reflect the Light of the World, God’s love made in human form, into the world, we, too, shine brighter than the moon by night and the sun by day.

Let us now and always, Child in the Manger and Light of the World, let our light shine to reflect your love, this day and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

That got me thinking deeply about the epic fail of "either light or dark" thinking. And you all know I've thought a lot, for a long time, about science and faith, and the combination prompted the blessing I wrote for the later service with communion:

“In the beginning, when God was creating the heavens and the earth…”

God speaks and creation happens.

God’s first words about this earth were, “Let there be light!”

And there was light.

How did the ancients know? Yes, the story goes on to say that the sun and the moon weren’t created until the fourth day, but somehow, they understood that light came first.

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life…”

All life is made up of words. DNA makes three letter words from four letters, 64 words in all that make 21 amino acids and three STOP commands. Lichen, palm trees, crocodiles, and human beings all come from those four letters and 64 words. 

On the fifth and sixth days of creation, God called all the life God created “good.” And when humans came into being, creation was complete and God called all life, all of creation, “Very good.”

“…and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.”

Life is light. Light is life. The Word is life is light!

“The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.” [John 1:14, "The Message" by Eugene H. Peterson]

We know that this is Jesus, the baby whose birth we celebrate this night. Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Light of the World.

And yet, because we are life, we are also words and we are lights, living in our neighborhoods tonight.

As we light our candles, let us remember, now and always, that we bear the Word and the Light within us. From the Word and the Light, we have been called to be words of hope, peace, joy, and love and lights of comfort and abundance to this world that so often forgets that God called the whole of creation after us, “Very good.”

If God can write the laws of physics and chemistry in such a way that bacteria, algae, pine trees, bananas, salamanders, flamingos, tuna, brown recluse spiders, and human beings are all made from the same 4 base pairs of DNA, each of which only pairs with one other base in either a left position or a right position on the helix, how can we possibly think that any life form, let alone any human being, is not worthy of respect and care based simply on their common heritage with the rest of us? I will admit that there are many whose behavior and/or ideology leads me to wish that they could no longer be seen or heard in public, but that is different from basic respect for the life they represent. 

My hope for myself in 2021, and for the rest of us, too, is that we will learn how not to be so casual with our language about the people with whom we disagree. Simply put, I want us all to remember that "Us vs. Them" is also an epic fail of either/or mentality, despite centuries (millennia?) of leaders telling us it's the only way. We face so many life-altering, life-threatening crises as a world right now that can only truly be resolved if we get over ourselves and see the humanity of the people "on the other side(s)", whatever the conflict may be. COVID-19 as a pandemic, White Supremacy (which is a global issue because of colonization), and global climate change are deeply interconnected problems that require multi-national efforts to overcome. Until we set aside any notions that we ("Us") can change things without cooperating internationally with others ("Them"), we are all ("Us" AND "Them"), colloquially, screwed.

We might be getting close to an end to this particular pandemic because so many companies and countries leapt into the vaccine research and development, but more will come and unless we build back trust in the international organizations that monitor and coordinate responses to disease outbreaks, the next one could be far worse. We've seen the ways that White Supremacy has made the pandemic worse in many countries where descendants of enslaved people and Indigenous People have suffered far more sickness in terms of sheer numbers as well as in severe illnesses and deaths. White Supremacy is also an underlying reason that global climate change is most directly affecting the poorest and least powerful populations in the world first. Each of these crises is perpetuated by false either/or thinking, not just "Us. vs. Them" but public health vs. individual rights, prosperity vs. regulation, and a host of others.

We can do it. We can get past this "either/or" fallacy and get to a "both/and" operative mode that seeks out what is best for most people without being deadly for a few. The question for us all to ponder is, "Will we?"