I shared this on Facebook a few days ago:

Pastors, preachers, teachers, and Christians in general: if you’ve spent all week berating and making fun of others who do not share your political views, then turn around and preach how God loves everyone and wishes to save them, you are sending mixed messages. For all week, you are communicating that you only love people who believe like you and that God also only loves those who agree with you. If the gospel has gripped you and His grace is a reality, the berating and name calling leave a bad taste in your mouth because the love of God is not overflowing. Be consistent inside and outside the pulpit!

My entire life, I’ve seen politics do a Jekyll and Hyde number on many church members–and I’m seeing this today in this highly charged political climate today: when speaking about Jesus and the gospel, how He has rescued us from brokenness and into Himself, and how this grace extends to all.

Yet, when speaking about political matters unrelated to Scripture, a switch is flipped. Gone is the speaking of grace. Gone is the love. Gone is the care for the soul. What arrives in its place is berating, namecalling, a plethora of ‘how-dare-yous,’ and a boatload of division.

Remember James 3:6-10:

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Dear Christian, as citizens of heaven, we can do better.