The Apostle Paul was adamant about protecting the truth of the gospel. Integrity in the new church was critical. Again and again Paul encouraged believers and leaders to be true to the teachings of Jesus. Along with this, the apostle told the early church that unity was vital. The world was watching.
Today, it seems to me that expressing political views has become more important than unity.
Americans and much of the world are polarized about who is right and who is wrong. Try as we may, as Christians, we can't help but be affected about how we see other Christians when their political views are shared.
I have a dear friend who has very different opinions from mine in the political arena. But this friend is also a Christian. We are careful when talking to each other to keep our political opinions out of our relationship. Our friendship is a treasure. Another dear Christian friend and I also have very different views on some social issues. We have discussed these differences privately. We've been unable to come to a place of acceptance on these. Now, our relationship is broken. This being said, I DEEPLY WISH that Christians would begin to stay away from political discussions on social media. I trust that the truth of the gospel is kept pure by these believers because they seek it through God's Word and prayer. But we all know that there are different sources in the news media for how politics and politicians and social issues are viewed. These are to the left views and to the right views. There are Democrats. There are Republicans. There are conservatives and liberals. And in all this, there are the in-betweens and non-commited. As these differences meet in conversations on issues, feelings get hot. Tempers rise, angry words are expressed and relationships are changed. Forgiveness is needed, but often not sought or offered.
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