The Presidential debate–folks tend to get all fired up. How do you feel about the people who support the candidate you don’t?
- Idiots! Can’t think for themselves
- They are just misinformed
- They could be right
- Live and let live
Jesus said,
Matthew 5:44 (NIV)
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Those on the other side of your political divide are not enemies and persecutors. They are created by God and bear his image. God loves them so much that he sent his Son to die for them.
So disagree nicely. And pray.
Actually, I think that those who support the opposing candidate are wholly evil, minions of the devil, and are determined to bring savage oppression to all who disagree with them.
Just kidding, mostly.
I do think, though, that some are our enemies; enemies that we’ve nurtured through the last half-century at our publicly-supported institutions of higher learning. They want to rewrite the Constitution, beginning with the first two Amendments, and change the system of government by fiat to one that relies on executive and judicial action, rather than legislation.
Democracy was hard-won, and paid over the centuries in blood. And those who want it gone are, yes, our enemies.
And God says, “Love them.” ‘Cause he does. Sometimes I find it easier to pray for the enemy far away than I do for the nearby friend with whom I disagree.