How Can I Love Church Members with Different Politics?
“Although every believer must filter their outlook through Scripture, all believers come to the table with different upbringings and lived experiences. This is none more evident than in the world of politics. For this reason, Christians need to know how to love fellow church members who have different opinions, which is what Jonathan Leeman discusses in his new book in the 9Marks Questions series, How Can I Love Church Members with Different Politics? (Crossway, 2020).” - Servants of Grace
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There are aspects of the Republican Party that are attractive to Christians (i.e., abortion, traditional marriage, religious freedom, etc.). However, there are aspects of the Democratic Party should also be important to Christ-followers (i.e., equality, diversity, social justice, etc.).
I am not trying to start a fight, but I must admit that I am a bit confused. What in the Republican platform or in Republican policy does not support equality or diversity? I know that there are individuals in both parties that take positions against such things, but I am missing how this specifically characterizes Republicans. I am aware that there are a lot of false accusations, but negative attack ads are not the same as facts even if those attack ads are sponsered by new agencies.
No doubt there is a lot of debate about social justice. Some conservatives have buried their heads in the sand and have not wanted to even consider some issues of inequality on the social issues, but at the same time some on the left have used social justice to promote inequality in other forms.
I fear that too often we talk past each other by making broad accusations rather than addressing specific policies. An example would be Bloomberg’s statements about “Stop and Frisk.” Rather than defending that policy, he accused whole neighborhoods and minority groups in general of being the problem.
As far as diversity, the Republican party allows much more diversity of opinion than the Democrat Party (we could argue whether this is good or bad) as well as a wide diversity among gender, race, education, and economic status.
There is plenty of room to criticize the Republican party, but let us make sure we are factual when doing so.
Discussion