Galatians 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
By Samuel Schmitt
Wall street brokers. Illegals. Muslims. Gays. Fundamentalists. The 1%.
These words are angrily spat from the mouths of politicians and party-liners every day this election season. A few syllables is all it takes to draw a line between “us” and “them.” This is usually followed by an oversimplification of the nation’s problems followed by verbally dumping the blame for these problems upon the group in question.
Your college loans are crippling because of the greedy 1%. Illegals have taken American’s jobs. Muslims are violent and should have fewer rights. One finds it so easy to draw lines and convict faceless groups of crimes.
Categories are a necessary thing for any sort of discussion. We live in a complicated world that is getting more complicated by the day. To make things more manageable from a knowledge perspective, we have to categorize all the time. One might say “I saw cars on the road today,” meaning that they saw Jeeps, Cadillac’s, Priuses, semi-trucks, etc. One finds it impossible to carry on a conversation without some sort of categorization, so a politician categorizing a group of people is understandable on some level. The trouble is categories quickly become stereotypes which flows into pre-judging. For the Christian, the danger with putting people into political categories are two-fold: dehumanization and pride.
The first thing it does is dehumanize a number of people by causing us to see them as a political problem instead of what they truly are. We see them as a drain on the system or the greedy elite instead of eternal creatures made in the image of God. The brutal reality of history is nations rise and nations fall. There will come a day when the United States goes the way of the Greek, Roman, French, and British empires before her. Her individuals, every transgender, every red-neck farmer, every east coast media reporter, will go on in eternity to become either a glorious heir to the kingdom of God or banished from his presence in an irreparably broken state. That is why the Christian is called primarily to make disciples of people, not to win political battles. Individuals are more important than politics. Individuals are eternal.
Christ touched people from all walks of life. Mathew was a tax collector for the Roman occupation force. Simon was a Jewish insurgent against the Romans. Peter was a lower-class fisherman. The Samaritan woman was a prostitute from a marginalized political group. Paul and Nicodemus were religious insiders. Christians are ordered to follow his example of loving our neighbor, even if our neighbor happens to be a Democrat (or Republican).
The final and perhaps greatest danger in sweeping political stereotypes is that it takes our eyes off of our own responsibilities and shifts the blame for the brokenness of the world onto other people. I may be lusting after my neighbor’s wife, but at least I’m not making money off the backs of poor people like the Wall Street brokers. I may be a coward, but at least I’m not an intolerant fundamentalist. I may not donate to charity, but at least I’m not an illegal immigrant.
Christians can and should be involved in the political process (more on this in the following pieces), but they also need to be wise enough to recognize propaganda when they see it. Often, sweeping generalizations and stereotypes are used by both parties to whip up the base and drive support. Anger is an extremely useful tool for politicians, so they spend large amounts of time on the sins of the “other” to drive their supporters to angry action.
Did Christ tell us to spend more time repenting of our neighbor’s sin or our own?
The answer should be clear.
Forum of Athens 