Hey Christian Friends, Are You Being A Hypocrite When It Comes To Politicians?

Everyday, I see people on Facebook who profess to be “good Christians” expressing contempt and hatred for public figures.  Most of us refrain from outright hating and figuratively spitting on people we know in person.  But there seems to be some sort of “Scriptural Exception” in our minds when it comes to celebrities or politicians, especially politicians.  

I understand the impetus behind this.  When a politician espouses something we are politically or conscientiously opposed to, we see that person as representing that issue.  So we feel some sort of permission to hate out loud on them.  

But that person does not equal that policy or even that platform.  They are God’s creation, made in His image, and despising them is despising something He loves.  

Wayne sent me this quote from Richard Rohr:  

What does it mean, as the first commandment instructs us, to love God more than anything else? The only way I know how to love God and to teach you how to love God is to love what God loves. To love God means to love everything . . . no exceptions.

We can think we love God, but if we do not love what He loves, especially WHO He loves, then we are deceived.  “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom He has not seen.  And he has given us this command:  Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”  I John 4:20-21

I have been surprised at the amount of vitriol on social media, especially since the 2016 election.  I’m not often surprised when I hear it spoken because some people have little control over their mouths, as James 3 so graphically illustrates. But when we write, we have time to think and process and edit.  So there’s no excuse here.  The written curses show the heart more clearly. “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34

James 3 concludes with this admonition:  “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.  Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing.  My brothers, this should not be.”  It’s just hypocrisy, brothers and sisters.  Let’s step up onto a higher plane.