If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. —Philippians 2:1-4
What was compelling about Christians was not what they believed, but how they
The pledge of allegiance is to “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
The number one enemy of the church and nation is
Disagreement is
As Jesus followers we don’t withdraw or seek
Who is my Enemy?
In a divided culture, we often see political opponents as
“A great deal of our politics, our ecclesiastical life, often our personal life as well, is dominated by the assumption that everything would be all right if only some people would go away.” – Rowan Williams
When our opponents are evil, they become an existential
As a culture, we have made a virtue of
Our
None of us has a monopoly on
“God loves you in spite of your misinformed, experience based, evolving views.” – Andy Stanley
Perceiving others as enemies prevents us from working
Even if they were enemies, Jesus still tells us to
Changing the Metaphor
If we believe all people are created in God’s image, we must treat them with
People created differently than us can
Instead of seeing diversity of thought as a threat, we can see it as a
Our dominant metaphor for politics is a
What if instead of seeing disagreement as a battle to be won, we saw it as an opportunity to
Changing our metaphors opens new
When we stop seeing others as opponents, we can become partners for the
“If someone considers you their enemy, you’re not required to return the favor.” – Andy Stanley
Loving Your Neighbor in a Democracy
Even as we seek to work together, we recognize that elections and policies have
Majority rule can ignore and even cause the suffering of the
We can oppose policies without
You can’t legislate morality, but some issues are rightly the concern of the
We don’t have to wait for the government to do what is
Our witness of
“The best criticism of bad is the practice of better.” – Fr. Richard Rohr
Guidelines for Living Toward a More Perfect Union
We tell the
We put the
We put
We put our hope in
Action Steps
Be a non-anxious presence in the midst of
When someone says something you disagree with, pause, and take the opportunity to
Put your beliefs into