Prior to each Sunday in our Political Distortions series, we invite you to pray for the sermon, and that together we can overcome the hostility and division so rampant in our world today:
Holy Spirit, we put our trust and hope in you alone and
commit to serving as your ambassadors.
Cultivate your love in us.
Help us show gentleness.
Help us be patient, bearing with even those who anger us.
Help us make peace in this time when peace seems so rare.
Help us understand one another.
Help us offer the benefit of the doubt to those around us.
Empower us to choose love, even in the small opportunities of
everyday life.
Last Sunday
Week 8, September 22: Unity (Greg Boyd – sermon)
Topic: We may not always attain unity, but are we working toward it?
I really appreciate your sermons addressing political polarization. One question I have is, if there are bad angels led by satan trying to do evil in the world, aren’t there also bad people who want to do evil in the world? Shouldn’t those people be defeated politically for the good of our country and the world? Not defeated by hate, but by truth being spoken in love and honesty? An extreme example is what should Christians have done in Nazi Germany while Hitler was taking over the country. About a third of the churches were against HItler and spoke out, but many stayed neutral or went along with the Nazi demands. Today we have over one million unborn babies being murdered every year. In Minnesota an aborted baby can be born alive, and still left to die. We have sexually explicit material being taught to kindergartners to 4th grade and beyond. We have a two tiered justice system that treats conservatives different than liberals. Shouldn’t this be called out and voted against in love?
Hi Mark,
Passing along a reply from Bill Doherty!
—Emily from the Communications Team
Thanks for your insights and question, Mark. They give me a chance to make a point more clearly: the difference between calling out policies and practices which can be evil, and condemning people as evil. We could argue about whether there are some monstrous people in history, like Hitler, but mainly we’re talking about neighbors and family members who belong to the other political party or who differ on abortion. On abortion, it’s the difference between opposing practices as opposed to calling people “baby killers” or “anti-woman.”
Bottom line: calling out issues in love is a necessary part of democracy. Attacking individuals is not part of the Christian message and tends to polarize democracies.
Thanks again for engaging with these difficult matters.
Bill
Thank you for your reply. I agree wholeheartedly that calling out issues in love and not attacking people as individuals is the way to go. I do wish our Church, specifically Greg, would address the topic of abortion more. He is open and honest about many hot button issues, but appears to shy away from this topic. Cedric did give a great sermon about abortion last year, but I believe the senior Teaching Pastor at Woodland Hills should also address this issue.