Last month, Face the Nation had an interview with comedian Stephen Colbert. He’s the host
of CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen
Colbert. (Just in case you needed
help with that!) John Dickerson spoke
with him in reflection on 2016. (If you
haven’t seen the interview, check it out.
They cover a wide range of topics.)
Dickerson
asked him, “What was the good news in 2016?”
Colbert first mentioned their Thanksgiving dinner, then he altered the
question a bit. He said just before saying
grace, he asked himself what he was thankful for. He spoke of family and friends and dear ones
who have passed away.
Then Colbert
spoke of people he does not agree with.
He said “they make me think about what I do. They question my beliefs. And an unquestioned belief is almost
vestigial. It doesn’t motivate you in
any way. It doesn’t serve you in any way
if you don’t question it, because a belief is a filter. You have to run things through it, you know,
so you know how you see the world. It’s
a lens; it’s not a prop.”
He speaks of the tendency to engage in divisiveness. He said “divisiveness is a vice. But like a lot of vices, super seductive. And so you indulge in it until it bites you,
and then you go oh, darn—oh, darn, the wages of sin is death. And it makes you question having indulged in
the vice. And I think that political
divisiveness is a vice; picking sides is a vice rather than picking ideas.”
I have the
feeling that 2017 will really challenge us to “love our neighbors” and to “love our enemies.”
