You may have noticed that disparate sociopolitical viewpoints are treated with less courtesy than they used to be, even among the sons and daughters of God. A lot of people seem to prefer to silence their opponents than to engage with them for the purpose of influencing their neighbors toward the way they believe is best for the common good.
I place no blame at the feet of those in high political office for the lack of civility in our national conversation. But from where I sit the present administration has exposed a number of malignancies in our culture, including many in the Christian community. Like the storm that unearthed a landfill, this political tsunami uncovered decades of decay in America and in the Body of Christ. Certain politicians, along with their fawning courtiers didn’t dump the trash there; they just excavated it.
Jesus modeled and taught us a new social order and then bequeathed it to our care to model and teach others. Even those outside his kingdom can benefit from a world in which his kingdom comes to rest.
This is an excerpt from a book I hope to publish in the near future on the Sermon on the Mount called: What In The World? Some Moral, Social, and Politically Disruptive Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
As such, I’d appreciate your feedback on this post and others to come in order to make the final copy publish-worthy.
barney wiget 
Hey Barney, I actually believe in the civility of the meek and the tyranny of the oppressive. But isn’t that what you did with me? I’m asking the question seriously, as I enjoy reading your posts for the most part, obviously minus the digs at POTUS, but that’s your gig. Bill Bolin
Sent from my iPhone
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Bill, I don’t claim to have mastered meekness or civility. These are Christlike characteristics to reach for. I’m not sure exactly what you refer to that I did with you, but if I displayed an unChristilke attitude toward you, I apologize.
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How do you call out sinful behavior when other Christians think it’s great? How is taking kids from their parents and putting them in cages the Christian thing to do? One Christian friend of mine told me wants low taxes and a his second amendment rights protected. When did low taxes and having a lot of guns become a Christian thing?
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It seems that among Christians “truth” is more elastic than it used to be. Love of neighbor and justice for all has been supplanted by love of self and justice for me. All I can say is, keep speaking the truth in love!
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I’m looking forward to the book. I’m wondering if you write more in the about how and why we got here? Perhaps that’s more the job of a sociologist but I just can’t see any connecting dots in the Christian world view of a short 40 years ago to now. Maybe it’s because I have these left coast glasses on. Maybe peace, love and brotherhood was just a Jesus movement flash in the pan. Maybe Christians got backed against the wall by secularism and now it’s a knife fight. Or maybe it’s just a plain and simple sell out? So, if I can’t get a sense of how we got here I likewise can’t envision the new social order Jesus preached. Not at all.
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Rod, the book called, The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power Over Values, by Ben Howe walks us through the history of the Christian Right over the last three decades or so, which leads up to the current state of evangelicalism.
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