Josh wrote:Since you vote, something to consider is if your voting record has been consistently partisan, and if so, why.
I don't think it has been - I voted for Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, and Obama. When Obama was running against McCain, I was leaning toward McCain until he chose Sarah Palin. I really do think I weigh candidates and issues on their own merits.
And please remember the quote that I was responding to:
temporal1 wrote:one red flag is when Christian acts are preceeded with language like (to paraphrase:)
"i hate trump, i've always hated trump, i insist you hate trump, too - or you are not Christian."
o. and, this is why ...
following might be examples of how evil trump is, being a republican .. (but, i was just thinking last night) trump was a democrat when he (legally) did all those evil things ..
I don't do that, and you know I don't do that. I don't claim that Trump voters are not Christian, I don't seethe with hatred toward Trump.
In fact, I would say that the whole business of seething hatred toward one side or the other is inherently unchristian. That's equally true for people who seethe hatred toward Obama and people who seethe hatred toward Trump.
An awful lot of political discourse is chock full of the fruit of the flesh:
Galatians 5 wrote:19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. 26 We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
You can apply that test equally to people across the political spectrum. People who provoke each other, create enmities, promote hatreds and factions are not behaving as Christians. And politicized Christianity often seems to look an awful lot like the fruit of the flesh.
By some coincidence, the fruit of the flesh also is the kind of thing that makes it hard to think rationally. On the other hand, the fruit of the flesh makes it really easy to convince yourself that you are thinking rationally and the other guy is not.
And I think that's a dynamic that plays out in more than one thread.