Politics and Squabbling: Calling people evil or demonic

[Grace]

Your statement:

I believe I should not go around speaking evil of someone's actions or beliefs unless I am perfect myself, which only Jesus is. I am to love the sinner but hate the sin wherever sin shows up.

That comment is a bit confusing. "Speaking evil" of someone's actions, and saying you "hate that sin", seems to me as one and the same.

I'll try to explain better. When I speak of another's sinning, to me, that is passing judgment on them and not just the sin. And especially if their name is used it is a very personal condemnation. Whereas if I have compassion on the sinner ('Father forgive them for they know not what they do') and pray for them, then I see them as one enslaved by sin and need the grace of God to set them free. 2 Timothy 2:1-4

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

Regarding the underlined - wow, even give thanks for them. That is a far cry from calling them out for their sinful ways, imo. And look at the benefits from this obedience and it is what is good and pleases God as He wants everyone to be saved.

So, just saying, I don't find any room for pointing out the personal sins of all those in authority even though I have failed at times in doing just that. But would welcome reading more of your take on this as we explore how we address evil.

Thanks for the response. You have some very valid and thought-provoking points. I did apologize for my words in the other thread. However, I will always call out the sins being promoted in the current day culture.

As pointing out personal sins of those in authority....I wonder how many times some have brought up the former president's sins of adultery, cheating, etc. have been brought up here? To many times to count, that is for sure.

[QuietlyListening]

.I wonder how many times some have brought up the former president's sins of adultery, cheating, etc. have been brought up here? To many times to count, that is for sure.

Grace I agree many have brought up the former presidents sins but if you think about it our present president has been brought up just as often and his sins pointed out.
And just like Trump is brought into Biden threads, Biden is just as quickly brought into Trump threads. So it's seems to be happening both ways. But what we all need to be careful of is name calling vs calling out sin. Calling out sin can be done without name calling.

Sin relating to sex, LGBTQ, abortion are sin and should be called out but so is lying, cheating, using 'faith'/religion for political purposes etc. Sin is sin- is one sin worse than another? When we stand before the Lord we will have to account for our sin and is it covered with the blood of Christ. I don't think we will be asked- was it x sin or y sin etc.

Truthfully it would be nice if both sides of the coin would cease from calling out both our past and present president/s. I truly don't think there is anything new that we haven't heard. We know what they are.
I probably should just not even post this but I have to shake my head over and over- one side calling out the other for doing the thing they have just done on another thread.

[Robert]

If .. boot had simply thanked Grace for her clarification, directed to him, which was short and clear, and which (i believe) has general consensus on this forum, it could have ended right there.

Speak for yourself and not for others.

[ohio jones]

Grace is needed

Yes, she is. But sometimes I think she should reread Colossians 4:6 before posting.

[temporal1]

Grace is needed

Yes, she is. But sometimes I think she should reread Colossians 4:6 before posting.

i didn’t catch that until too late, i hope Grace understood my intent. i think she did.

This forum allows members to be known by their “body of work,” which helps spot anomalies and oversights.
Everyone has a bad day now+then. Sometimes very bad. Family problems, work problems. Too much coffee. Or sugar!

Grace is quick to admit error, apologize, be humble, to everyone .. which can be so hard to do. i feel sorry for those who fight it. In the long run, it’s just so much better to admit (imperfection). We all are imperfect, there’s no real shame in it.

Now i may be reprimanded for speaking of Grace. i hope not. i enjoy her thoughts so much. i appreciate candor, even when it pinches.

i don’t expect perfection. Except from Robert, who occasionally reminds us of his.

[Grace]

Five pages, wow ! Astounding that a thread targeting me has garnered that many pages, even after I apologized for saying what I did, about the current president.

[temporal1]

Five pages, wow !
Astounding that a thread targeting me has garnered that many pages, even after I apologized for saying what I did, about the current president.

5+ pages, and counting. funny how that works, eh?
defending the indefensible brings all manner distractions.

[Bootstrap]

Five pages, wow !
Astounding that a thread targeting me has garnered that many pages, even after I apologized for saying what I did, about the current president.

5+ pages, and counting. funny how that works, eh?
defending the indefensible brings all manner distractions.

This is not 5+ pages of targeting Grace, and I really would discourage people from targeting anyone in this thread.

OTOH, I do think we, as Christians, should think about what it means to act as Christians who follow the example of Jesus. That topic really is in scope here. It's easy to point fingers at everyone else, it's more useful to focus on how we should act.

[Grace]

Five pages, wow !
Astounding that a thread targeting me has garnered that many pages, even after I apologized for saying what I did, about the current president.

5+ pages, and counting. funny how that works, eh?
defending the indefensible brings all manner distractions.

This is not 5+ pages of targeting Grace, and I really would discourage people from targeting anyone in this thread.

OTOH, I do think we, as Christians, should think about what it means to act as Christians who follow the example of Jesus. That topic really is in scope here. It's easy to point fingers at everyone else, it's more useful to focus on how we should act.

Not every post was targeting me. But the timing of when the thread started reveals it was a response to my post about the president. To say otherwise is a bit disingenuous, in my opinion.

[Bootstrap]

Not every post was targeting me. But the timing of when the thread started reveals it was a response to my post about the president. To say otherwise is a bit disingenuous, in my opinion.

I'm doing my best to not make this thread about you. Perhaps you could help?

I would very much like to discuss how we, as Christians should approach our speech here and elsewhere. It's in "General Theology" for a reason. And I think it would be helpful if we would ALL refrain from talking about what we think is wrong with everyone else in this thread, not try to hold people to account, etc. That's not what this thread is for.