Let's Talk Politics

The picture to the right represents the tone of political discourse in the last two or three election cycles.  A friend commented on Facebook, "I have observed, in this political season, that if I don’t adhere to your political reasoning, I am not only “very wrong, ” I am not just “uninformed,” I have no mind of my own.  I am in fact, stupid.” This observation presents a challenge and an opportunity.  The challenge for us, as people of faith, is to model the biblical virtues of gentleness, kindness, and grace, to restrain our words and only utter them if they will build people up.  Lyons and Kinnamon have observed that Christians don't have a good reputation with young people who are outside the faith.  For that matter, we don't have a very good reputation for young people inside the church.  We are viewed as loud, overbearing and pushy.  We have an opportunity to change that.  My challenge for the body of Christ is to provide an example of civility in the realm of politics.  Not a soft civility that doesn't stand for anything, but a thoughtful civility that understands the importance of engaging with people who hold different viewpoints and working with them to propose workable solutions to the most pressing problems of our culture.
 

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