The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency recently claimed that the modern-day Republican Party is the most “dangerous” political force he has ever seen. With Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s ambitions for global dominance, Iran’s growing power in the Middle East, and North Korea’s nuclear threats, this is quite a statement.

In similar news, Vanity Fair published an article titled “Republicans appear to be realizing all their candidates are dangerous weirdos.” And Democratic strategist James Carville is condemning the media for covering “both sides” equally when some Democrats are “just silly” but Republicans are “evil.”

By contrast, Republican House candidate Sarah Palin told a cheering audience, “It’s no longer Democrat versus Republican. This is all about control versus freedom. It’s good versus evil. It’s a spiritual battle.” A national conservative commentator said of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, “I just think she’s an evil woman. A woman who is consumed with power. . . . it just makes me disgusted.”

More than 40 percent of Democrats see Republicans not as political opponents but as enemies; close to 60 percent of Republicans view Democrats in the same way. And Pew Research Center reports that 72 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats say members of the other party are more immoral, dishonest, and close-minded than other Americans.

We are seeing a level of political divisiveness and hatred today that challenges our confidence in democracy itself. One researcher warned that Americans are “losing faith in elections, institutions, and the ability of democracy to survive.”

More than at any time in my lifetime, it is urgent that Christians be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

“Our Christian political ethic is upside down”

Christian cultural commentator David French published an article yesterday in which he wrote: “The longer I live the more convinced I am that our Christian political ethic is upside down. On a bipartisan basis, the church has formed its members to be adamant about policies that are difficult and contingent and flexible about virtues that are clear and mandatory” (his emphases).

Dr. Tim Keller agrees. In a typically perceptive analysis, he stated: “One of the many reasons for the decline of church-going and religion in the US is that increasingly Christians are seen as highly partisan foot-soldiers for political movements. This is both divisive within the church and discrediting out in the world. Many Christians publicly disown and attack other believers who share the same beliefs in Christ but who are voting for the ‘wrong’ candidates. They seem to feel a more common bond with people of the same politics than of the same faith.

“When the church as a whole is no longer seen as speaking to questions that transcend politics, and when it is no longer united by a common faith that transcends politics, then the world sees strong evidence that Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx were right, that religion is really just a cover for people wanting to get their way in the world.”

Here’s a virtue that is “clear and mandatory,” to cite French: Paul instructed Titus to “remind” Christians “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:1, 2, my emphases).

Why should we extend such grace? “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (v. 3).

What changed? “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (vv. 4–5). As a result, Christians are to “devote themselves to good works” (v. 8) and to “avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless” (v. 9).

This is such an urgent issue that Paul advised Titus, “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (vv. 10–11).

We know the real enemy

Does this mean that Christians should not stand boldly for biblical truth and morality? Absolutely not. Early Christians were condemned and martyred by the authorities of their day precisely because they would not stop preaching the gospel and speaking truth to power.

But it does mean that we must refuse to condemn those with whom we disagree. This fact is vital in a democracy—if people who disagree cannot work together, ultimately they cannot live together and the future of their nation is imperiled. We can coexist with people who are “wrong,” but living with people who are “evil” is another matter.

As those who have been transformed by grace, you and I can—and, in fact, must—take the lead here. We know that the real enemy is Satan, the one who “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). And we know the One who is the only true hope of the world (Acts 4:12).

As “sons of God,” we are called by Jesus to be “peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). We are forbidden by Scripture to say about someone what we would not say to them (cf. Matthew 18:15). We are likewise forbidden to slander (1 Peter 2:1), lie (Exodus 20:16), or gossip (Proverbs 16:28).

Rather, we are to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1–2). We can and should hold them accountable (Luke 17:3), but in a spirit of encouragement rather than condemnation (1 Thessalonians 5:11). We can and should participate in our political process, but as salt and light rather than as divisive partisans.

Ronald Reagan’s example

Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels once worked for President Ronald Reagan. When asked what impacted him from those days, he said, “He would encourage us to remember that we have only opponents, not enemies. He learned how to turn the other cheek and never lost sight of the fact that we are all in this together—as Americans.

“He would never stoop to the level of personalizing things, even if his opponents were doing it to him. It’s really important never to demonize groups or people in political life, and he led by example in this regard.”

Let’s do the same today, to the glory of God.

Denison Forum

The school board in Fargo, North Dakota, has voted to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before their biweekly meetings, ruling that the Pledge does not align with the district’s diversity code. The board’s vice chairman explained that the problem is two words: “Under God.”

The words “under God” were added to the Pledge in 1954 by a joint resolution of Congress and have withstood numerous legal challenges over the years. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, upon signing the bill, stated: “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.”

How many of our leaders today believe that “spiritual weapons” are “our country’s most powerful resource”?

The Fargo school board certainly does not. In fact, the board’s president recommended that members replace the Pledge of Allegiance with a “shared statement of purpose” which she thought was more appropriate for their work.

In other words, rather than being “one nation under God,” they will be “one nation under us.”

Salman Rushdie remains hospitalized after attack

While our nation slides ever further into moral relativism and missional chaos, many of our geopolitical enemies are choosing the opposite course. Consider Iran as an example.

Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed roughly ten times Friday as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. His family said yesterday that he remains in critical condition in the hospital. Rushdie was taken off a ventilator over the weekend but is being treated for multiple wounds and may lose his right eye.

His attacker’s motives are not yet known, but an initial investigation suggested he had posted on social media about his support of Iran. He may have acted in response to an edict (known as a fatwa) by Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 calling for Rushdie’s death.

Rushdie’s novel, Satanic Verses, is considered blasphemous by many Muslims. The fatwa calls for Rushdie’s murder and offers a $3 million bounty for anyone who kills him. It has never been revoked by Iran’s leaders.

An Iranian government official denied today that Tehran was involved in the assault, but he added that his country considers “[Rushdie] and his supporters worth [sic] of blame and even condemnation.” The front page of a newspaper in Tehran said yesterday that Rushdie had gotten “divine vengeance” and claimed that former President Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, his former secretary of state, “are next.”

In related news, the Justice Department unsealed charges last week against a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for attempting to arrange the murder of former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Mike Pompeo and former State Department Iran policy coordinator Brian Hook have received extended Secret Service protection due to Iranian threats as well.

Three steps to getting elected

A perceptive essay in the New York Times explains why Iran remains such a threat to the US. Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, reminds us that the 1979 Iranian revolution was fueled by religious fundamentalists focused on anti-Americanism. From then until today, the regime’s rulers have made their opposition to the United States central to their nation’s revolutionary identity.

Whether the issue is Iran’s nuclear program, its sponsorship of terrorist regimes in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza, or its geopolitical ambition to rebuild the Persian Empire, the ideological pattern is clear: America is the “Great Satan” who must be opposed for the sake of Iran’s survival. Iran’s entrenched leaders depend on this “threat” to legitimize their power, unify their military, and forestall meaningful reforms within their country.

I am reminded of an observation a perceptive friend shared with me many years ago. He noted that to motivate people to your cause, do three things: (1) convince them they have an enemy; (2) convince them they cannot defeat their enemy; and (3) convince them you will defeat their enemy if they vote for you, give you money, or do whatever else you want them to do.

This strategy has empowered Iran’s leaders for more than four decades. The despotic rulers of Russia, China, Cuba, and North Korea are similarly fixated on the “threat” of the West. This missional focus enables and protects their leadership despite their manifest failures to enhance the lives of their people.

Embracing a mission God can bless

On one hand, we have the West’s relativistic insistence on tolerance of all truth claims (except those considered “intolerant”), to the demise of truth and the forfeiture of missional focus. On the other, we have autocratic regimes that focus missionally on external threats (usually America and the West) to enhance their personal power at the expense of their citizens.

Scripture offers us a third way: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Let’s consider three reasons we should embrace this missional command.

One: God cannot empower any other purpose, because to glorify anyone or anything ahead of himself is to commit idolatry. As a result, when we seek to glorify God, we position ourselves to experience his omnipotent power and omniscient leadership. When we don’t, we don’t.

Two: He made all that is, which is why “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). (For more on the stupendous magnificence of God’s creation, see my latest website article, “Supergiant Betelgeuse has unprecedented stellar eruption.”)

Three: He purchased our eternal salvation. We should therefore respond with gratitude: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

I plan to say more tomorrow about living for God’s glory. For today, let’s close with advice from the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 BC–AD 65): “Adopt once and for all some single rule to live by, and make your whole life conform to it.”

What “single rule” will you live by today?

Denison Forum