OPINION:
It was a chilly day in March as thousands of people lined College Avenue in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin, hoping to catch a glimpse of Donald Trump. I wandered over from our church, located a few blocks north, curious. Being naive about the political temperament, I wasn’t expecting what I experienced.
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“Get a job!” one Republican bellowed at the liberal protestors from a local college. The angry man turned to those of us in line and remarked, “It’s the middle of the day. Why aren’t they working?” I didn’t answer, but I did note that he wasn’t currently working either. My thoughts were interrupted, however, by the series of snarky insults that people muttered under their breath or shouted for all to hear. The smoldering rage was stoked by the vendors who sold partisan trinkets like the best-selling buttons that read, “Hillary for prison.”
The Democrats weren’t any nicer. That same night I had a meeting at a downtown coffee shop. The protestors I had seen earlier in the day walked in with their signs, desperate for caffeine after an exhausting day. An older woman saw their anti-Trump decor and suggested, “That’s not very nice.” Their reaction wasn’t any nicer. One protestor instantly spewed aggressive words as her friend held her back from physically going after a woman who was old enough to be her grandmother.
That day people on both sides of the aisle behaved badly in the family-friendly community that I knew and loved.
But that’s what politics has devolved into here in America. Divisive. Aggressive. Assuming. Interrupting. I recently read a book by one of America’s favorite conservative bloggers. It opened, “The first liberal was named Lucifer.” Pages later, the author (in all seriousness) lumped Hillary Clinton with Judas, Nero, and Hitler. Hillary and Hitler?! I didn’t vote for her, but I did just tour the Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C., and Mrs. Clinton’s resumé is lightyears from Adolf’s evils.
America, it seems, has gone from a democracy to democrazy. That crazy constitutional right to wrong you because (I believe that) you are wrong and I am right. We see the madness on social media, where fake news is forwarded without a fact check just because it makes the other party look stupid. Or on cable news, where interruptions are rewarded and the reddest faces of rage are given primetime promotions. Or at Mother’s Day brunch, when the health care debate is literally bad for our health. Try to talk about immigration, race, abortion, or an election, and it’s likely to get crazy.
Sadly, it’s not just the world who practices democrazy; that same behavior has seeped into the church. Accurate or not, it has become part of our reputation. When asked why they don’t trust Christians, non-Christians quickly say, “They’re too political, hypocritical, and judgmental.” Jesus said the world would know we are his disciples by our love, but that’s not what the world knows us for (John 13:35).
So, what should we do?
The answer is, of course, in the Bible. The first century had so much in common with the 21st, more than you might assume. Jesus and the apostles lived in a world of political and religious factions that had little love for one another. The Pharisees were the moral conservatives. The Sadducees were more liberal and political. The Herodians loved Big Government. The Zealots hated it. And the Essenes said, “Y’all so crazy that we’re going to live in the desert.”
How did those early Christians live and represent Christ in a world like that? What drove them together instead of apart? Four key passages in the Scriptures answer those questions: Romans 13, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Peter 2, and Matthew 22 tell us how to live in a world that tries to pull us to angry extremes. Christians now, just like Christians throughout history, have desperately needed these words to keep them grounded in a world gone mad.
So if you are open to a biblical view of God and government, one that never backs down from the truth yet always insists on Christ-like love, it’s time to dig into those passages further.
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Excerpt taken from “Taboo: Topics Christians Should Be Talking About but Don’t” by Mike Novotny (© 2024 Time of Grace Ministry).
Mike Novotny is an author, pastor, and speaker who holds a Master of Divinity from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Mike is the lead speaker for Time of Grace, a global media ministry that is committed to ensuring that God’s grace—his love, glory, and power—is accessible around the world. In his latest book “Taboo: Topics Christians Should Be Talking About But Don’t”, he covers deeply personal, vulnerable, and emotional topics, handling them with grace and respect. “Taboo” is a must-read for Christians looking for a biblically based resource to modern questions.
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