By JIM NICHOLS

It was a busy Saturday afternoon in a city square in Montevideo, Uruguay. I was with a friend among hundreds of other people. My friend is a person who moves easily between the U.S. and Uruguay and has spent much time both places.

He said, “See those three young women over there? They are Americans.” I looked and saw what I would describe as three typical college-age women. They looked like many of the others around them. I asked my friend how he knew they were Americans and he had us walk over to them and ask. They were, indeed, Americans. Later, I asked him how he identified them as American and, frankly, I did not understand what he was describing. He saw things I did not see.

Another friend was on an academic trip last year to England. He is a friendly sort of fellow and reports that, when he identified as an American, he was frequently asked two questions. His new friends wanted to know (1) “What’s the deal with guns in the U.S.? and (2) What’s the deal with avoiding vaccines?

Friends, those are two good questions. How would you have responded to them?

In 1786 poet Robert Burns in a strange little poem has the classic line: “Oh, would some Power give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us.”

Obviously, we see ourselves (individually and collectively) in a way that others might not see us. When I first heard that Robert Burns line, it was sobering to realize that others do not see me as I see myself. I have justified many parts of my life in a manner that is reasonable to me; others may not understand those justifications. Of course, they could be wrong as well as accurate. I would hope that they might refer to the biblical Samuel hearing that “. . . humans look at outward appearances, but God looks at the heart.” However, the behavior of each of us reflects our hearts.

My friend being questioned about why Americans are so hung up on guns and vaccines has caused me to seek connections between those two topics. There are several.

One is certainly fear. A recent survey reported that 72% of gun owners say the major reason they own a gun is for personal protection. Guns provide a feeling of physical and psychological security.

Fear of vaccines is prevalent. My scientific background causes me to be nearly dumbfounded by this. As the new century dawned, there were many surveys ranking the top advancements in medicine during the twentieth century. Near the top of every rendition was the development of vaccines for many of the terrifying diseases of history. People who gladly received multiple vaccines during their lives suddenly balked at the COVID versions. Between January 2020 and October 2023, 1,135,920 Americans died from COVID. How many more would have died if they had not been vaccinated? Fear of solid science can be deadly.

Connected here with both guns and vaccines is a distrust of authority. When this is linked with an excessive level of personal independence and political leaders stoking them both, fear has flourished.

People sense correctly that the world is changing around them. #Me Too and George Floyd as well as others have made people uncomfortable; people do not like to feel uncomfortable. Christians, men, and whites (of which I am all) interpret this as discrimination against them and that has been fermented by political leaders. These lying leaders have been successful in re-directing that discomfort and anger resulting in fear and distrust. People are being told that they are the real victims of bias in a society irreversibly growing more racially and culturally diverse. They become afraid and unthinking.

William Sloane Coffin wrote, “You cannot think straight with a heart full of fear, for fear seeks safety, not truth.”

Truth is a word that is going out of style. Lies from the top of government to ordinary conversation seem rampant. I told my students many times, “If you can’t believe me and I can’t believe you, we are out of business with one another.”

Jesus says the devil is the “father of lies.” Let us expect better of one another.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospice chaplain