Now that perhaps the most turbulent and polarizing presidential campaign season in modern American history is over and we know who our next President is, we are faced with a great challenge and dilemma that was produced by the mudslinging, name calling, and dirty politics that came from both sides.
The only election in the history of our nation that created more discord, division, and ultimately a civil war the presidential election of 1860 that elected Abraham Lincoln as our 16th president.
At this stage, when the verdict is in and the matter is settled about the one who will occupy the Oval Office for the next four years beginning in January, all true and patriotic Americans must be willing to let bygones be bygones and do all we can to amend the wounds that our nation has incurred.
The issues that we all are facing, regardless of who we voted for, are getting worse and worse and need urgent attending.
If unattended, problems like our national debt (twenty trillion dollars), the immigration problem, the infrastructure problem, the racial problem, the health care problem, the unemployment and job problem, the Isis and terrorist problem, and perhaps our greatest problem, partisan politics and gridlock, will continue to snowball until there is no practical solutions.
These national problems can honestly be defined as ailments for all Americans because if they are not addressed and alleviated soon, each one of us (American citizens) will reap the grave consequences.
To their shame and in many cases incompetence, too many of our political leaders in both houses and the executive branch have actually kicked the can down the road for the next generation to grapple with or they have altogether ignored it and placed their heads in a hole like the proverbial ostrich.
The thing that we are confronted with is how do we come up with some very practical solutions.  I believe that one of the first steps to healing the discord and division that exist in our nation is through acknowledging the fact that we have a problem.
How can we or anyone fix a problem that we refuse to accept exists?  It is time that we all wake up and stop fooling ourselves as though we live in some utopia where everyone believes the same way, embraces the same convictions and values, and are of the same ethnic or racial background.
We must accept the fact that America is an idea, an experiment in democracy and diversity.  It is that idea that brought immigrants and religious pilgrims from Europe in search of the freedom to serve God in the way they deemed necessary in a land occupied by Native Americans.
It is that idea coupled with greed and the exploitation and importation of Africans as slaves, as well as others, who came from as far away as Asia in quest for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the New World that some termed the “melting pot.”
Our diversity as a nation is actually a salad bowl and not a melting pot where each individual component in the recipe brings their individuality and uniqueness.
Our diversity is an oxymoron that makes America strong on one hand, yet weak on the other.  We are strong because we have many people of various cultures, ideas, and traditions coming together to form our union.
In this multitude of free thinkers, some of the greatest minds, inventors, entrepreneurs, scholars, soldiers, athletes, and even theologians and clergymen have developed and changed the world.
Yet the diversity that afforded us strength has regrettably brought us many problems as well.  The mere fact that we are free with various ideas, traditions, and religious beliefs is often the very thing that challenges and weakens our union and nation, if we are not strong enough to disagree without becoming disagreeable.
It will not only divide and polarize us, but it will ultimately destroy us if we don’t embrace the fact that we are all Americans whether we are White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American.
To address the question of can America be healed, I believe that although there is no definitive answer, there perhaps may be some practical remedies that will begin the healing process.
Undoubtedly, one of the surest ways to commence the healing process is for all Americans to accept and respect the distinctions and diversity of others, regardless of race, creed, or color.
As stated, the idea and experience of America is not a melting pot where all people of various races, religions, and cultural distinctions are placed into a cauldron and boiled until each loses their diversity and uniqueness.  Contrarily, it is a salad bowl where each ingredient in the salad brings and retains their unique flavor and taste, thereby enhancing the salad.
The healing of America will begin when each individual ethnic or cultural group, whether they are African Americans, Whites, Native Americans, Hispanics, Asians, etc., will accept and respect each other as Americans.  The healing will start when we see ourselves being Americans first instead of being Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, or Native Americans.
All of us must actively reject and verbally oppose anyone in our ethnic group or cultural distinction who advocates racism, bigotry, or hostility towards other Americans who do not look like, worship like, or even embrace a particular code of ethics or morality like we do.  We must be willing to cross the line of division, polarization, and intolerance so that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable.
This is not to say that any of us should ever abandon or compromise our faith-based convictions or override the moral compass of our consciences.
There are things that I will never agree with nor endorse that are intrinsically wrong and in conflict and contrast with both God and nature.  However, the God that I serve and His book of infallible principles and precepts instructs me to love and pray for everyone, even my enemies.
Furthermore, as a true follower of Jesus Christ, I am commanded to be patient and tolerant with all men, regardless of their culture, religion, race, sexual preference, or gender identity.  If I am to truly be like the One who saved me by dying for the sins of all mankind, when I am reviled, I must not revile back.  When I am threatened, I must not threaten back.  Loving my enemies does not equate to loving and endorsing their immoral, unbiblical, sensual, and devilish ways.  I have learned to love people, but to hate their ungodly and evil ways and practices.
We have considered how we can experience healing in this nation that was already on the critical list before the presidential campaign that greatly aggravated and exasperated the polarization and race problems that exists in America.  I would be remiss in my calling as one who sees all things from a Christian-world view to not share with you the greatest remedy for the healing of any nation or culture that has become immoral and sensual.  These words that were given to Ancient Israel over twenty-five hundred years ago are very relevant to our conversation and appropriate for its ending.
“And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”.