Politics: When Christians Get Mean

Once upon a time in America, if a citizen had opinions about politics, he discussed them at dinner parties or political rallies or around the water cooler at work.  These days, we can announce our political views to several hundred people with just a few key strokes.  We can express our ideas or regurgitate other people’s ideas all day long on social media.

In fact, anybody in the world can chime in, and it doesn’t matter how much we know or don’t know about politicians, issues, or the way our government works. As Christians, we have as much right and duty as any other citizen to be informed, to talk about issues that matter, and to uphold moral choices that honor God.  But, as Christians, we also have a responsibility to discuss these things in a way that looks different from how the rest of the world does it.

In the past week, I kept seeing this show up on my Facebook newsfeed:

First of all, it boggles my mind that any women, much less Christian women, would keep this thing moving through social media.  What in the world does the size of Hilary Clinton’s breasts and thighs have to do with her ability to make good decisions?  When Christian women and men see jokes like this, we should cry out against them. We should say NO, we won’t talk about Hillary’s bra size, because Christianity is about looking at who people are and not whether we approve of the job God did when He put them together.

The truth is that Christians are some of the worst about putting up mean, biting, hateful memes and gags about politicians’ weight, ears, breasts, teeth, and who knows what else. We have a great opportunity to talk about issues that are important to our faith, and instead we just get mad and get mean and attack people’s physical attributes as if that’s the best argument we have for voting against them.

I get it.  Some Christians are mad.  Some of us are furious at the things we see happening in our country.  But, Hillary’s breasts didn’t do this to us.  In fact, if we spent more time talking about actual issues in a calm and rational and respectful way and less time making ourselves look like we have no points to bring up at all, maybe we would be doing more to convince younger generations to see things our way.  Which is really worth a Facebook status:  the size of Hillary’s pants or the fact that she supports the termination of American children before they have a chance to see the outside of their mother’s womb?

Christian friends, let’s talk about the real issues.  Just because we have freedom of speech doesn’t mean we should waste our words talking about Hillary Clinton’s thighs.  She is fearfully and wonderfully made, just like you and me. Let’s make sure we’re not more interested in entertaining each other with meanness than we are influencing the world with God’s goodness. I know it may seem harmless, but it’s not.  It says to the world that Christians are just as down and dirty as everyone else when it comes to politics. But, the opposite is true.  Even in politics, my brothers and sisters, we are lights on hills.  Let’s live like it.