Why divisiveness threatens our democracy and the gospel is our hope

A federal disaster relief official reportedly ordered workers to bypass the homes of Donald Trump’s supporters as they surveyed damage from Hurricane Milton in Florida. As a result, when FEMA workers identified residents who could qualify for federal aid, at least twenty homes with Trump yard signs or flags were not given the opportunity to qualify for assistance. The official was later fired.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden will meet in the White House today, but the rancor between their parties will endure long past last week’s election.

And like Trump supporters passed over for help in Florida, there will be victims all around.

The enemy is the other party

American elections are typically won by candidates who convince voters that (1) they are facing an enemy they cannot defeat and (2) the candidate will defeat their enemy if they vote for him or her. At various times, this “enemy” has been a foreign belligerent, such as Germany, Japan, or the Soviet Union, or a domestic challenge such as economic downturns.

Today, the “enemy” is the other party.

One side sees itself as the defender of preborn babies and traditional morality. The other side sees itself as the defender of women’s reproductive freedom, civil rights, and equality for all. These are crucial causes that far transcend electoral politics.

Many on each side are convinced that for them to win, the other side must lose. Not only because the other side’s causes are wrong, but because those who hold them are dangerous to America.

This is a different form of prejudice than I have seen in my lifetime. Discrimination against Jews and other racial minorities is a tragic fact of life across the world, an issue I discuss at some depth in my new website article, “A visit that marked me for the rest of my life: Four roots of antisemitism and three urgent calls to action.” As I note, people typically discriminate against those they envy, consider to be succeeding unfairly, or see as inferior to themselves.

But to disparage and even despise another American because of their political affiliation and the assumption that they are therefore hazardous to our nation—that is something else.

And an ominous threat to the future of our democracy.

If this divisiveness persists

If you and I were living in a monarchy, we would need to get along with the monarch more than with each other. If we were living under communism, we would need to get along with communist officials more than with our neighbors.

But we live in a democratic republic where we elect each other to office, hold each other accountable through elections, jury trials, and the media, support the state with our taxes, trade with each other in commerce, and live with each other in community.

As a result, the more polarized we become, the less functional our society becomes.

If our divisiveness persists, the day will come when we won’t trust the validity of our elections or the character of those we elect. We won’t trust the justice of our courts or the veracity of our media. We won’t trust the integrity of our financial systems or the goodwill of our neighbors.

We will therefore see increasing attempts to restrict the freedom of speech of those we consider dangerous (here’s one post-election example). Crime will escalate as criminals see others not as victims but as means to their ends. People will congregate in communities, schools, businesses, and churches that share their political ideology and listen only to media with which they agree, further fragmenting the social fabric of our nation. And our consensual democracy will become more endangered with each passing year.

But the good news is that the gospel is the good news we need most.

Roman soldiers and Jewish priests

Jesus’ first followers were anything but a homogeneous lot.

Matthew collected taxes for the Roman Empire, while Simon the Zealot was aligned with a guerrilla movement seeking its overthrow. In a day when Jews and Gentiles despised each other, Jesus’ movement included both. In a society where women were devalued, women were among his most visible followers. Demoniacs were healed, adulterers were forgiven, and both were welcomed into his family of faith.

His movement soon encompassed people from fifteen different language groups (Acts 2:9–11). It came to include Roman soldiers and jailers along with Jewish priests and Pharisees.

Was this because people in the first century were more gracious, forgiving, and charitable than we are? Or was it because there’s something transformative and unifying about the message they embraced? And something attractive about their lives once they embraced it?

“With Christ joy is constantly born anew”

Tim Keller encapsulated the message of Jesus:

The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

If I truly believe that I am “loved and accepted in Jesus Christ,” I am free to love and accept you as I am loved and accepted by my Lord. But if I do not embrace this fact, I am as susceptible to the divisiveness of our day as anyone.

I feel deeply the weight of our moral issues and see those with whom I disagree as deeply and tragically wrong. It is only when I embrace the transforming truth of the gospel that I can see others as God sees them. It is only then that I can be a cultural missionary who speaks the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) rather than a cultural warrior who must defeat his enemies.

Only Jesus can turn hearts inflamed by animosity into hearts empowered by grace. Only he can inspire us to choose forgiveness over vengeance. Only he can replace the cycle of retribution with the joy of community. Pope Francis was right:

The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness, and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.

For the sake of our democracy and the health of your soul, will you take time to “encounter Jesus” again today?

Wednesday news to know:

• Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over UK church abuse scandal
• Who will be the next Senate majority leader?
• Trump picks Kristi Noem to be Homeland Security Secretary
• Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor, is Trump’s choice for ambassador to Israel
• On this day in 1982: Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“You could join a church. You can go through a religious ceremony. You can say a prayer and not be changed. But if you really encounter Jesus, you will be changed. No one encounters Jesus and remains the same.” —Derek Prince

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Antisemitism and the wrath of Almighty God

Israeli soccer fans were in Amsterdam last Thursday night for a game between a club from Tel Aviv and a Dutch club. Suddenly, mobs unleashed a wave of violence against them, chasing Jews through the streets on motorbikes and beating them. According to Dutch authorities, the campaign was organized beforehand and the attackers were equipped for their onslaught. The messaging app Telegram was used to talk about “going on Jew hunts,” Amsterdam’s mayor later reported. One Israeli soccer fan said, “They knew exactly where we stayed. They knew exactly which hotels, which street we were going to take. It was all well-organized, well-prepared.”

The site of the attacks was especially ironic: Amsterdam once had a large and thriving Jewish population, but 75 percent of them perished in the Holocaust. Jewish teenager Anne Frank hid for years in the city before she was arrested in 1944 and died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Now violence against Jews in Amsterdam is rising again along with Holocaust denial. But there is more to the story.

Antisemitism reaches record highs in the US

In a recent survey, 96 percent of Jews from thirteen European countries said they had encountered antisemitism in their daily lives even before the ongoing war in Gaza. Most who responded said they worry for their own (53 percent) and their family’s (60 percent) safety and security. Unsurprisingly, Europe’s Jewish population has dropped 60 percent in the last fifty years.

Lest we think this cannot happen in America, we need to know that it is happening in America.

According to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League Center for Extremism:

• Antisemitic incidents in the US reached a record high since last year’s Hamas attack in Israel.
• More than ten thousand incidents were reported from October 7, 2023, to September 24, 2024, a more than two hundred percent increase compared to the same period a year earlier.
• This is the highest level of antisemitism since the ADL began tracking such incidents in 1979.

Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief of Jewish News Syndicate, warns:

In essence, every college with an anti-Israel encampment or a campus culture where pro-Israel Jews find themselves ostracized and targeted by faculty and students is an example of how pogroms like that in Amsterdam become a possibility.

The takeover of American education by those advocating for toxic Marxist myths like critical race theory and intersectionality, which falsely label Jews and Israel as “white” oppressors who are always in the wrong and deserve whatever violence is directed at them, has led to the indoctrination of a generation that sees the barbaric atrocities of Oct. 7 as justified “resistance.”

But there is even more to the story.

Three reasons Satan inspires antisemitism

The devil is the author of antisemitism. How do I know?

1. Satan seeks “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Antisemitism steals from the Jews their security, cultural status, prosperity, and often their possessions. It kills them in the millions; it destroys their communities and seeks to eradicate their race.

2. Satan wants us to strive to be our own god (Genesis 3:5). Antisemitism claims an innate superiority to Jews and a “right” to persecute them, reinforcing the “will to power” at the heart of humanity’s fallen condition.
3. Satan hates God but cannot attack him, so he attacks those whom God loves (cf. Luke 22:31; 1 Peter 5:8). The best way to grieve me is to harm my children. Our Father feels the same about each of us, both Jews and Gentiles (Galatians 3:28).

But there is even more to the story.

Why we must “pray for the peace of Jerusalem”

Antisemitism, like all racism, is an affront to the God who made each of us in his image (Genesis 1:27) and “loves each of us as if there were only one of us” (St. Augustine). Accordingly, throughout Scripture and human history, the Lord invariably and inevitably must bring judgment against those who sin against humanity in this way.

• The Egyptian pharaoh mercilessly enslaved and persecuted Jews, but his army was destroyed in the Red Sea and Moses led the people of Israel to their Promised Land.
• The wicked Haman sought to eradicate the Jews of Persia but was hanged on the scaffold he built for their leader, Mordecai (Esther 7).
• The Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, and Roman Empires that mercilessly persecuted Jews are no more, but Jews continue to thrive.
• Hitler’s “final solution” murdered six million Jews, but his Third Reich was destroyed and the modern State of Israel was born in response to the Holocaust. More than one million Jews in the Soviet Union were murdered; now the Soviet Union is no more.

Similarly, Abraham Lincoln stated prophetically in his Second Inaugural Address that the Civil War was divine punishment for the sin of slavery, a sin in which all Americans were complicit. From then to today, those who perpetuate the heinous sins of antisemitism and racism against their fellow humans must face the loss of God’s favor and the incursion of his wrath.

So, let us urgently “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” today (Psalm 122:6). By this, let us ask Almighty God to protect Jews and all other oppressed minorities around the world. Let us seek his direction and strength as we seek to answer our prayer with our actions.

And let us remember John Donne’s sober warning:

“Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.”

NOTE: For an up-to-the-minute look at life in Israel today, I invite you to listen to a podcast I recorded last week with Danny Lampel, our long-time guide in the Holy Land and one of my dearest friends. Dr. Mark Turman and Dr. Mike Fanning joined me in talking with Danny about the challenges he and his fellow Israelis are facing and his hopes for the future. I believe you will find our conversation sobering, challenging, and inspiring.

Tuesday news to know:

• Trump expected to name Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State
• Trump names Thomas Homan “border czar” with a wide portfolio
• Army private is identified almost 80 years after death in World War II
• A record 13 women will be governors next year after New Hampshire elected Kelly Ayotte
• On this day in 1954: Ellis Island closes

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The denial of human rights anywhere is a threat to the affirmation of human rights everywhere.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Of all the political maps and charts relative to last week’s election, the one that struck me the most came from the New York Times. The map is composed of red arrows pointing to the right where US counties moved in the Republicans’ direction and blue arrows pointing to the left where counties moved in the Democrats’ direction. The map is awash in red with only a few nearly indiscernible spots of blue.

The accompanying article states: “Of the counties with nearly complete results, more than 90 percent shifted in favor of former President Donald J. Trump in the 2024 presidential election.”

This direction is obvious to those on both sides of the election. “America is different,” New York Times writers David French and Patrick Healy lamented the night of the election. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan was glad to agree: “America, after its long journey through the 2010s and ’20s, is becoming more conservative again.”

For those whose values could be considered more conservative than progressive or liberal, this news perhaps indicates that our nation has not devolved from our Judeo-Christian moral foundations as far as many feared.

But there is a cloud in this silver lining.

“Civil war carried on by other means”

Following last week’s election, I have been thinking of numerous Christians in public service I have known over the years. Each was grateful for the efforts of believers who worked to help them win their election. Without exception, however, each was frustrated that these same believers did not then become more involved in the communities and governments their leaders were elected to serve.

As several told me, it was as if Christians thought they did all they needed to do by voting for candidates they thought would advance their values. They did not understand that in a democratic republic, elected officials can only do so much to change society.

In his classic book, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America, Richard John Neuhaus observed, “In a democratic society, state and society must draw from the same moral well.” Americans do not have autocrats or theocrats ruling us from values we may not share or understand. To the contrary, we elect leaders to do what we wish them to do.

In a democracy, our leaders cannot lead us where we are unwilling to go or give us what we are unwilling to receive, which is why Thomas Jefferson observed, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.”

Accordingly, if Americans do not coalesce around the consensual morality that was foundational to the beginning of our nation, we can expect our political divisions and rancor to persist. As Neuhaus warned, “In the absence of a public ethic, we arrive at the point where, in Alasdair MacIntyre’s arresting phrase, ‘politics becomes civil war carried on by other means.’”

“Where liberty under law and justice can triumph”

On this Veterans’ Day, we have reason to give profound thanks for the millions of men and women who served our nation and defended our freedoms. But the cause for which they served and many died is a cause that must be served by every generation.

As Ronald Reagan famously warned in his 1967 Inaugural Address as governor of California, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”

Earlier in that address, Mr. Reagan also stated:

It is inconceivable to me that anyone could accept this delegated authority without asking God’s help. And I pray that we of the legislature and the administration can be granted the wisdom and the strength beyond our own limited powers. That with divine guidance we can avoid easy expedience. That we can work to build a state where liberty under law and justice can triumph, where compassion can govern and wherein the people can participate and prosper because of their government and not in spite of it.

Now the path we chart is not an easy one. It demands much of those chosen to govern, but also from those who did the choosing.

“Quite a different house from the one you thought of”

This same “path” lies before our nation today.

Here’s the problem: It is difficult to motivate people to be more moral than they already are. In a democracy, the only way to effect lasting change is to inspire people to want to change.

To this end, what America needs most is for America’s Christians to be the actual presence of Christ. Nothing less than Christlike character will do. Nothing less than Christlike compassion, courage, wisdom, evangelism, and ministry will suffice.

As the brilliant sociologist James Davison Hunter demonstrates persuasively in To Change the World, culture is changed most effectively not by winning elections, building large churches, or gaining social popularity, but by people who achieve their highest place of influence and then live there effectively. He calls this manifesting “faithful presence.”

My prayer is that you and I settle for nothing less than lives so transformed by God’s Spirit that our secularized society wants the change they see in us.

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis made my point in a powerful and poignant way:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to?

The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

Are you so submitted to God’s Spirit that he can build nothing less than a “palace” with you today?

Monday news to know:

• Trump wins Arizona to sweep swing states and secure 312 total electoral votes
• Trump and Biden to meet in Oval Office on Wednesday
• Amsterdam bans protests for three days following violent attacks on Israeli soccer fans
• Ukraine launches “massive attack” on Moscow, shutting down airports
• On this day in 1918: Armistice Day: World War I ends

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“I know of no other way to triumph over sin long-term than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God” —John Piper

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