Nasty Politics 2016 - How Should Christians Act?

Friday night, I was about to go to bed when a scene on the TV caught my eye. My dad left the TV on FOX News before he went to bed and on the screen was, what looked like, the riots from Ferguson, MO back in 2014. Except, upon seeing the "breaking news" banner scrolling across the bottom of the screen, I could tell it was recent.

This was footage from Friday night. Just a couple hours old from the campus of the University of Illinois - Chicago. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump was scheduled to have a rally there last night and it was cancelled due to security concerns of violence from the hundreds of protesters. Among the protestors and the Trump supporters, many brutal fights broke out, resulting in five arrests and three injuries.


Watching this mob of people with rage in their eyes screaming, shoving, and punching each other made me realize just how messed up our country is. I am by no means a fan of Trump, my thoughts on him would line up with what best-selling Christian author Max Lucado said in his article, "Decency for President".  I don't agree with a lot of what Trump says, but I believe that he has the right to say what he wants. That's his constitutional right. But these people, as well as the many others who have disrupted his rallies, are taking their disagreement with him to a whole other level. They want to silence him. It is a growing idea among liberals today that if someone says something that you disagree with, then they don't have the right to say it. This is just the latest of incidents where liberals have attacked conservatives' First Amendment rights.

I was first made aware of this issue when my friend, Dr Mike Adams was denied promotion from his university because of his conservative Christian views. He filed lawsuit and fought against his employer, the University of North Carolina - Willmington for close to seven years before he successfully won his case and was promoted. You can read his story here. A more recent example is Ben Shapiro. Last month he was scheduled to speak at California State University - Los Angeles about Free Speech, the liberals on the college campus protested and the event was cancelled. The Young Americans for Freedom group that sponsored the event proceeded with the event, and as would be expected, violent protests broke out. You can read more on that story here.
As I said, I do not agree with Trump, nor do I support him, but as a patriot whose ancestor signed the Constitution, I believe in the freedom of speech. Regardless of what he says, he has the constitutional right to say it, as long as it doesn't threaten to harm others.

As it turns out, the person responsible for organizing the protests of thousands of people was a political activist named Ja'Mal Green, who is a supporter of Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Sanders is well known for his socialist views and for being deeply rooted and involved with the American Communist groups during the Cold War. It makes perfect sense for Bernie and his supporters to want to silence the ideas they disagree with and to attack free speech. That was pretty common back in the day of the Soviet Union, a country who Sanders greatly admired and supported the communist ideas of.

Seeing all of these people protesting made my heart sink. Our nation, once the greatest nation on the planet, has fallen so far. On that news broadcast the editor of National Review, Rich Lowry made a statement that really spoke volumes.

"We're just so polarized, we're just so racialized. To see black and white people shoving and punching people at this event, it's just so ugly and so depressing and there's no healer or uniter on the horizon." 

Lowry couldn't have said it better. We, as a country, haven't been as polarized since the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s. We even have people from various sides who are pushing for and promoting widening this divide in our country between people. Everything is split between Republican and Democrat, Conservative and Liberal, black and white, pro- this, or anti-that, the list goes on and on. there doesn't seem to be anyone on the political scale that is seeking to unite or heal people. There is hardly any unity. This is a sad thing.

America is a sinking ship. It's inevitable, there's no stopping it. On one side of that ship, people are trying their best to sink it faster, all the while killing and robbing the passengers. On the other side are those who are desperately trying to save the sinking ship and those on it. Then there are a few people that accept the fact that the ship is sinking and know that trying to save it is useless. They are just trying their best to save as many lives as possible. The latter is where I fit in.

I am a bible-believing Christian, and am thus, naturally, conservative. I have a lot of conservative friends and I see them most on Facebook all the time about wanting to "save America" or "restore America back to its original roots", or "fix our national debt". I believe those are good optimistic ideas to have, but in reality, America is so far gone that the only thing that can really save or nation or restore it to its original roots would be a miracle from God and a revival. That's not me being pessimistic, it's just being realistic.

Lowry said, "there's no healer or uniter on the horizon" and while he is right in the political sense, he is wrong in the overall sense. The only healer and uniter that can fix things is Jesus Christ. We await His coming Kingdom where He will establish a perfect government and unite and heal us all.  But we don't have to  wait till then to be united or healed. He offers us healing and unity now. It is time that we focus less on all the worldly things of politics and focus on the things of God. Should we have opinions on politics and vote, absolutely, but we should vote for and rally behind the candidate that has the strongest biblical values, or is the closest to those values. As believers, we shouldn't fight amongst ourselves  and get angry over politics. I have seen absolutely terrible fights over politics online between several strong believers that I have known for over a decade. The things that are said are extremely hurtful and hostile. Sure, we should have our opinions, but just because a fellow believer disagrees with us, or is too concerned with the worldly things rather than the spiritual part doesn't mean  that we should personally attack and insult them. Their thinking might not make sense to us, but we should still remain respectful to them.

As believers, we should unite behind the ideas that the Lord set forth for us, not be divided. I'm not saying that we should rally behind any certain party or candidate. I'm simply saying that we should set aside the worldly aspects of politics and focus on the aspects that pertain to the Lord and what He has told us to do. When we focus on those things, there will be more unity and peace among believers. We need to do as the old hymn says:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace