Today’s devotional: speaking with grace and gentleness… about politics?
Does the way you talk about politics reflect the grace, patience, and humility of Jesus Christ? No matter which side of the political spectrum you’re on, it’s difficult to avoid hearing (or participating in) the vicious, grace-less talk that is the native language of political discourse today. But how does that square up with the Bible?
This devotional from Words of Hope gets right to the point:
In the world of cable news and talk radio, politics is played out much like old sports rivalries. The two teams have a blind hatred for each other, often regardless of truth, reality, or common sense. The current “losing team” (whoever is out of power) usually spends most of its time abhorring, disparaging, and making up lies about the opposing side. Political pundits create caricatures of their rivals and then attack them. And too often we mistake this kind of behavior for hard news, which is like mistaking a pep rally for the actual game.
Ephesians 4 calls us to be humble, gentle, and patient. It says we are to make every effort to be unified and peaceful. Unfortunately, we aren’t very good at this when it comes to politics. We often do the opposite, continually looking for reasons to call names and point fingers.
Grace-filled speech isn’t something to practice every now and then—it’s something to be actively pursued in every conversation you have or blog post you write. The devotional concludes with some suggestions for how you might respond the next time you encounter (or are tempted to engage in) this sort of interaction. Read the full devotional at Words of Hope.
Is this something you’ve encountered, or that you struggle with? How do you balance speaking the truth (about politics, religion, or any other topic) with speaking gracefully?
Grace and Peace is the key. Humility and openess is also essential. However, that does not equate to ignoring injustices, even in government. It is more than the duty of leaders in all segments of society including religious leaders to call out injustice wherever it lurks. Government that manipulates her people as in the manner of the Egyptians over the Israelites in the Book of Exodus must be called out and exposed. When the government trades benefits for control and power, it is a sign of impending loss of freedoms.
There are 2 kinds of politicians: those who seek their own agenda (crooked actually) and those who are newly elected and cannot achieve anything because of the ‘good old boys.’ I’m convinced the reason people say politics and religion shouldn’t be topics of discussions at social events is because politicians (who I believe started this rumor) don’t want people to discover the truth about what is really going on behind the scenes. Religious people don’t want their empires to crumble and the best way to acheive that is to keep people in ignorance and the best way to accomplish that is to tell them to never discuss such sensitive issues as religion, politics, sexual perversion, abortion, etc., etc. And certainly we should never discuss the real culprit behind the scenes, you know that one named Lucifer. Personally I have no shame to discuss Jesus at every opening I see and especially the one’s I create (it’s so easy to do); it’s the only Good News there is. I hope I am not too politically incorrect; Biblical correctness is so much better.
Thank you for your commentary, Howard and Nicholas. I am struggling with this very thing. I can honestly say that I don’t hate anyone that I know personally; but I would be embarrassed for you to hear me yelling at the TV. I become furious when I hear politicians and talking heads tell what I KNOW, and they must know, are lies. The only other time I sound angry is when discussing politics with friends……and most of my friends agree with me! They know I’m not raising my voice at them….
Actually, I’m pretty good at remaining calm when around the other side.
I would like to add a thought to the your comments: if Christians don’t stand up…stand together…and soon, this government will outlaw Christianity. Just down the road from me, Christians have been arrested for praying (actually, for asking the blessing before a meal). This was at a sports booster luncheon for adults.
Virginia
I have always remained complacent when it came to politics because I didn’t feel I knew enough about it to have an opinion. I still don’t know a lot about politics, but I believe the time has come for Christians to say “It is enough” “No, you’re not going to tell my children they can’t pray in school, you’re not going to take away my right to express my beliefs about Christmas, Easter.” I think we need to be gentle and patient with people, but when you are dealing with evil and schemes of Satan, we had better speak up, or our children will become “slaves” to the enemy in their world that is trying to remove God and everything good and wholesome from our society. God help us!
Politics is always interesting topic of discussion for many people. Reason is as simple as no output. Though there are many antagonist, world can’t be peaceful without them. Some people may feel furious if I say without politics and religions , world won’t be in peace. Off course extreme of both is dangerous but absence of both is even more fatal. See the example around like Iraq, Somania, Afganistan etc. In modern world, we need to be more tolerant, respect other religions, people & culture. There are always some people who does fanatic tasks for their benefit, this is where society as whole should come together and fight against.