As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“If we truly love our neighbors… how can we not work to shape the policies that affect our neighbor’s flourishing? And yet, there is a temptation in this age toward partisanship that goes beyond mere civic action, a totalizing approach that becomes less about stewarding citizenship and more about an all-encompassing social identity.” - Daniel Darling
“Public skepticism about national unity isn’t new. Surveys by Gallup and others dating back to the 1990s show that Americans typically have seen the country as divided on key values.” - Gallup
As we’ve noted, even Jonah the bigot knew that God had revealed himself as a God of compassion, who extends mercy even to the most wicked, upon their repentance—and who seeks that repentance from them.
When and where did God reveal this?
It begins with Moses.
”We reject the false teaching that anyone other than Jesus Christ has been anointed by God as our Savior, or that a Christian’s loyalty should belong to any political party” - RNS
We’re polarized.
Yep.
And each side sees the other as the Ultimate Personification of Evil.
They’re bad people, you see. They want to destroy us and all that we hold dear.
No tactic is out of bounds in our desire to destroy them.
It’s war.
Bring it.
There were situations like this in biblical times: existential crises, where God’s people, and all they held dear—or should have held dear—was under assault by those who hated what they stood for, because they hated the God who had chosen them for himself.
“as Yuval Levin points out in his new book, American Covenant … ‘weaker parties … mean more intense partisanship.’ Why this should be so, and how we reached this pass, are best answered by a tour through some classic books on the parties.” - Public Discourse
“Critics… labeled French, best known for his vocal opposition to Donald Trump, as liberal and divisive and accused PCA leaders of trying to cause ‘rancor and controversy’ over politics. Those critics mostly disagreed with French’s political views.” - Church Leaders
“There are many different groups with various interests. Sometimes those interests coincide but not for the same reasons.” - P&D
“The perverse effect of the Freedom Caucus…has been to push policy to the left. By refusing to compromise and therefore making it impossible for the House to act, they often empower the Democratic Senate to wield greater power.” - Law & Liberty
Discussion