A house divided

There probably has not been a time in living memory when the world has been in such turmoil and so fraught with uncertainty including the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons.

In Europe, the war in Ukraine is now in its third year. It has displaced thousands and precipitated an energy crisis in Germany which is on the brink of recession. In Asia, the tensions around Taiwan have intensified, as have the incidents in the South China Sea.

In the Middle East, the world is witnessing, live on our screens, the genocidal devastation of Gaza and a conflict which has now spread to Lebanon, and has drawn in Iran.

There are ongoing conflicts in Sudan, the Sahel, and the Congo. In Haiti, government has all but collapsed under gang violence.

The conflicts in the Middle East and in Africa have prompted an unceasing flow of refugees from those areas to Europe and the United Kingdom. Instability in Central America has induced significant migration northward into the United States.

These migrations of non-white peoples into Europe and the United States have stoked the fires of xenophobia and racism and prompted moves to stem the flow and effect deportations of those who have entered illegally.

While these conflicts rage, while innocents die and refugees suffer, the planet is failing in its efforts to combat the existential threat of climate change with dire implications for small island states like those of the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The Science and Security Board of Atomic Scientists set the ‘doomsday clock’ to 90 seconds to midnight in January 2024, indicating that we are the closest to catastrophe than we have ever been.

These times call for strong and compassionate leadership, especially from the more developed countries. The United States is pre-eminent among those countries and therefore has a special responsibility. This is why the elections for the President of the USA as well as its Congress are so consequential.

In its peculiar system for electing its President, not by nationwide popular vote but by obtaining 270 votes in the electoral college, the determination of who will be the next President turns on the outcomes in a few ‘battleground’ states.

On one side, Americans can choose Kamala Harris, the current Vice President to Joe Biden, and who would be the first woman and, following Barack Obama, only the second black person to attain that office.

Harris’ gender combined with her Afro-Caribbean and Indian ancestry might be a bridge too far for large sections of the American electorate. Harris’ campaign has focused on women’s ‘right to choose’ following the overturning of the previous US Supreme Court’s decision in Roe V Wade, as well as policies intended to support the American middle class.

Her campaign has been confronted by Palestinian-Americans and generally Arab-Americans who are deeply concerned with the Biden administration’s unqualified support for Israel in its war on Gaza.

Harris has treaded lightly on foreign policy issues as well as on the question of climate change, while embracing what is now the mainstream American view that the flow of migrants on the southern border of the United States must be halted.

On the other side, Americans can again choose Donald Trump as their President. Following his previous term, Americans know what they can now expect. Large sections of the American electorate are prepared to re-elect him, despite the fact that he has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing on criminal charges, and the case involving his role in the events of January 6 storming of the Capitol is proceeding. Trump’s supporters are unconcerned by these factors, nor are they concerned by his openly articulated inclination to use strong-armed tactics against his domestic political opponents.

Whatever the outcome on Tuesday November 5, it is clear that the United States is a fractured society, divided on fundamental questions about race, women and gender, guns, refugees and migrants, and what role it should play in international affairs.

“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:24–25).

The real question for the American electorate is which of these two candidates is more likely to embrace healing, unity, and compassion going forward.