I am very sympathetic to this take, but I am wondering how far it can go. As a sincere (not rhetorical) question, I ask: if you lived in Germany in the 1930s, would you extend this approach all the way to people who supported Hitler and his agenda? Even if you yourself were of Jewish origin? Thus knowing that they were likely advocating the murder of yourself and your family? If so, on what grounds? If not, where do you draw the line?
(Since you're a Christian I specify "of Jewish *origin*": since Hitler believed Jews were a race, he targeted people of Jewish origin for extermination even if they had converted to Christianity.)
I live in a rural area., am I minority am a member of the most progressive mainline denomination and while I can respect my neighbors, I keep a distance from those who voted Trump. While we are called to love our enemies, they are not required to do the same and that is the rub when it comes to politics, especially this election.
I agree with both Phillips and Pavlovitz. Phillips is a white woman who can "blend in" so to speak in a farming community without much conflict. If she was open gay or a minority, that may be a totally different situation. Even though I am more conservative in my theology than Pavlovitz, I can recognize that he is calling out the hypocrisy of the religious right. You can't preach from the rooftops that you are for family values and protecting women and children when you elect someone who openly brags about sexual assault and is a bully and then a good percentage of his cabinet picks have charges for sexual assault, domestic violence, etc and also behaves as bullies. It wouldn't be far fetched to say that Jesus would be calling them hypocrites, just like he called out the Pharisees.
When we have a theology that only says "Love one another" it fails to account for human deception, prejudice, and sinfulness and how the fruit of such behaviors will rupture relationships and create strife in society. For roughly the last 20 years, we have had to put up with this double standard in our politics and people are just fed up. While I am not saying the Democrats are perfect, the other party has openly lied, participated in slander and other unsavory practices and have prompted policies that will negatively impact our society for all involved for years to come. We have to be realistic that there are things in our society that divide us and there are people in our society that would willing vote for corrupt people in order to maintain the "look" of moral superiority without putting it into practice.
I am very sympathetic to this take, but I am wondering how far it can go. As a sincere (not rhetorical) question, I ask: if you lived in Germany in the 1930s, would you extend this approach all the way to people who supported Hitler and his agenda? Even if you yourself were of Jewish origin? Thus knowing that they were likely advocating the murder of yourself and your family? If so, on what grounds? If not, where do you draw the line?
(Since you're a Christian I specify "of Jewish *origin*": since Hitler believed Jews were a race, he targeted people of Jewish origin for extermination even if they had converted to Christianity.)
I live in a rural area., am I minority am a member of the most progressive mainline denomination and while I can respect my neighbors, I keep a distance from those who voted Trump. While we are called to love our enemies, they are not required to do the same and that is the rub when it comes to politics, especially this election.
I agree with both Phillips and Pavlovitz. Phillips is a white woman who can "blend in" so to speak in a farming community without much conflict. If she was open gay or a minority, that may be a totally different situation. Even though I am more conservative in my theology than Pavlovitz, I can recognize that he is calling out the hypocrisy of the religious right. You can't preach from the rooftops that you are for family values and protecting women and children when you elect someone who openly brags about sexual assault and is a bully and then a good percentage of his cabinet picks have charges for sexual assault, domestic violence, etc and also behaves as bullies. It wouldn't be far fetched to say that Jesus would be calling them hypocrites, just like he called out the Pharisees.
When we have a theology that only says "Love one another" it fails to account for human deception, prejudice, and sinfulness and how the fruit of such behaviors will rupture relationships and create strife in society. For roughly the last 20 years, we have had to put up with this double standard in our politics and people are just fed up. While I am not saying the Democrats are perfect, the other party has openly lied, participated in slander and other unsavory practices and have prompted policies that will negatively impact our society for all involved for years to come. We have to be realistic that there are things in our society that divide us and there are people in our society that would willing vote for corrupt people in order to maintain the "look" of moral superiority without putting it into practice.