Hello, Jack,
A Christian sister recently sent me your article about the growing divide in the church over politics. She asked my opinion of your article. I would like to share my thoughts with you as well. First, I agree that the church must be more focused on our core mission & that many congregations have lost that key focus, however, I believe that the church’s disconnection from politics is part of what has led our country into the fix it is in now. Too many Christians have ignored politics far too long and have allowed Too many unscrupulous politicians to get into office. I do not mean being rabid partisans. I mean we have not educated ourselves enough about the policies, the results of policies, their worldviews & the ties politicians have with special interest groups.
You are correct that the Bible mentions very little about the politics & rulers of the day, other than telling Christians to obey their rulers (modified by obeying God rather than men, Acts 5:29) and to live peaceable lives. It is right to preach/teach to go the extra mile and do our best to live peaceably with all people (Romans 12:18). I think you have left out a very important point, though: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” (Hosea 4:6). I submit that it is a lack of “heart knowledge” of the scriptures that weakens the mission of the church in regard to both lost souls and true godliness. … I submit that it is a lack of knowledge of the original sources, contexts & change over time that prevents Christian’s from winnowing the truth out of the biases & smoke screens of the media.
Just as we should study God’s word and “be Berean” about seeing if what we’re being taught is actually taught in the scriptures, we should seek out the context of political sound bytes. Most of the political vitriol is based on slogans, brief sound bytes or a couple seconds of video. If we used the same care in seeking the truth about politicians & their actions or policies as we use in seeking God’s divine word & filtering away man’s opinions, then we’d come to more sensible conclusions with greater calmness & less vitriol.
That applies to relationships, too. We must go to the source (original person or persons) & the context, not just take a bit of gossip about someone as gospel truth. Many media outlets are mere gossip mongerers. That is obvious from the percentage of positive or negative comments they make about particular parties or politicians. Christians should be encouraged to look for news outlets that don’t lean in only one direction in their reporting. (Ex: If your favorite news outlets comment negatively on a particular party or candidate over 90% of the time, you can be sure you’re getting a very skewed viewpoint)! We should be honest and seek out the full original contexts to see whether or not we’re getting the truth or just being shown something out of context; are we just hearing gossip that’s intended to hurt one person while making another look better? Even if we dislike the person it’s about,
Christians shouldn’t be guilty of passing gossip along (nor participate in “cancel culture”). That’s another truth that gets overlooked, too often.
The things that have made me come to these conclusions are the actual full contexts of certain negative news reports about President Trump. I was astounded by how a news outlet could take a 5 second video clip out of several minutes of conversation and turn it around to mean something entirely different than the context shows. That convinced me to seek out the truth about other stories, too.
In conclusion, always seek the truth! Don’t accept tiny sound bytes as gospel truth; Stop the gossip chains; Apply Christ’s agape love to all. Seek souls for Christ! & Vote for politicians that will uphold our freedoms to worship & serve God according to the scriptures.
Jack Wilkie 
Hello, Jack,
A Christian sister recently sent me your article about the growing divide in the church over politics. She asked my opinion of your article. I would like to share my thoughts with you as well. First, I agree that the church must be more focused on our core mission & that many congregations have lost that key focus, however, I believe that the church’s disconnection from politics is part of what has led our country into the fix it is in now. Too many Christians have ignored politics far too long and have allowed Too many unscrupulous politicians to get into office. I do not mean being rabid partisans. I mean we have not educated ourselves enough about the policies, the results of policies, their worldviews & the ties politicians have with special interest groups.
You are correct that the Bible mentions very little about the politics & rulers of the day, other than telling Christians to obey their rulers (modified by obeying God rather than men, Acts 5:29) and to live peaceable lives. It is right to preach/teach to go the extra mile and do our best to live peaceably with all people (Romans 12:18). I think you have left out a very important point, though: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” (Hosea 4:6). I submit that it is a lack of “heart knowledge” of the scriptures that weakens the mission of the church in regard to both lost souls and true godliness. … I submit that it is a lack of knowledge of the original sources, contexts & change over time that prevents Christian’s from winnowing the truth out of the biases & smoke screens of the media.
Just as we should study God’s word and “be Berean” about seeing if what we’re being taught is actually taught in the scriptures, we should seek out the context of political sound bytes. Most of the political vitriol is based on slogans, brief sound bytes or a couple seconds of video. If we used the same care in seeking the truth about politicians & their actions or policies as we use in seeking God’s divine word & filtering away man’s opinions, then we’d come to more sensible conclusions with greater calmness & less vitriol.
That applies to relationships, too. We must go to the source (original person or persons) & the context, not just take a bit of gossip about someone as gospel truth. Many media outlets are mere gossip mongerers. That is obvious from the percentage of positive or negative comments they make about particular parties or politicians. Christians should be encouraged to look for news outlets that don’t lean in only one direction in their reporting. (Ex: If your favorite news outlets comment negatively on a particular party or candidate over 90% of the time, you can be sure you’re getting a very skewed viewpoint)! We should be honest and seek out the full original contexts to see whether or not we’re getting the truth or just being shown something out of context; are we just hearing gossip that’s intended to hurt one person while making another look better? Even if we dislike the person it’s about,
Christians shouldn’t be guilty of passing gossip along (nor participate in “cancel culture”). That’s another truth that gets overlooked, too often.
The things that have made me come to these conclusions are the actual full contexts of certain negative news reports about President Trump. I was astounded by how a news outlet could take a 5 second video clip out of several minutes of conversation and turn it around to mean something entirely different than the context shows. That convinced me to seek out the truth about other stories, too.
In conclusion, always seek the truth! Don’t accept tiny sound bytes as gospel truth; Stop the gossip chains; Apply Christ’s agape love to all. Seek souls for Christ! & Vote for politicians that will uphold our freedoms to worship & serve God according to the scriptures.
May God bless you with wisdom in these matters.
Sincerely,
A Christian sister