Having said that, this post is not about my opinions on race, politics, or COVID-19. I have convictions on all of those things that range from strongly held to highly uncertain, all of which are seasoned with a huge amount of humility and grace. I am by no means an expert in those fields, and my general approach is what Paul outlines in Romans 13 and 14: to submit to every governing authority as an instrument of God (unless submitting to that authority means being disobedient to God), to fulfill God's law by loving other people, not to quarrel or pass judgment over matters of opinion, and not to cause another believer to stumble by my actions with regard to matters of conscience over which we may disagree.
So, this post is not about presenting my perspective on those various issues. What concerns me is the way in which I see believers interacting with these various issues and, more specifically, putting their opinions out there for all to see. Now, don't get me wrong, I definitely believe that as believers we need to seek to understand how our faith and the gospel interact with and direct every area of our lives. I believe we need to do the hard work of digging into the word of God, appropriately interpreting it in its grammatical-historical context, understanding the timeless principles found in Scripture, and applying those principles in our modern context. I do believe that the gospel has a lot to say about race, power, justice, poverty, the sanctity of life, gender and sexuality, and freedom of speech. I believe that a biblical perspective on the kingdom of God and our citizenship in heaven has many implications for how we interact with government, politics, and our role as citizens of earthly kingdoms. I think that a biblical worldview should affect how we view matters of individual freedom, submission to governing authorities, and religious liberty. We should think through these issues biblically and prayerfully while seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit; and then we should enter into dialogue with our culture about these issues.
The problem that concerns me in so many of these issues currently is that many Christians are not entering into dialogue. They are giving a diatribe. They are hastily posting on social media their opinions and reactions to these polarizing, hot-button issues without taking the time to hear from other people or to consider how those posts may impact their unbelieving friends' understanding of and receptivity to the gospel.
Earlier this week I saw someone use the analogy that your posts on your personal social media page are like the decorations in your home. You put on the walls things that are an expression of yourself and your personal tastes, and if someone else doesn't like it, they don't get to come into your home and express their dislike. I think that is a poor analogy. Ten years ago, as social media was just beginning to take off, I wrote an article on developing "An Ethic of Social Media." I said that posting on social media is like speaking into a megaphone in a large crowded room. Even if your profile is set to private, anyone who is in the room with you has the freedom to leave the room and repeat what you said. Thus, the many biblical instructions related to speech and the use of the tongue should govern the things we post about on social media.
In our current environment, God keeps calling to my mind one particular Scripture. James gives this instruction: "My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness." (James 1:19-20 ESV) It seems that in 2020 we have inverted God's instruction. We are quickly angered and offended by things that are happening in the world, that our government is doing, that people of a different life experience are saying, that our "opponents" are saying. And, we are quick to post our criticisms, complaints, defenses, anger and rebuttals to those things.
What we desperately need right now is James's simple instruction to speak less and listen more. On race, we need to listen to what our African-American brothers and sisters (Christian brothers and sisters, not simply an organization or movement) are saying about their experiences with injustice, racism, poverty, crime, and disadvantage. We need to listen to what business owners, police officers, and community leaders are saying. We need to listen to historians and political analysts from a variety of backgrounds. On the pandemic, we need to listen to scientists, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, and governing authorities, as well as mental health experts, economists, and the critics and counter-points to those. On politics, I think we most need to listen to each other, our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and family members. We need to speak less and listen more. I don't think we have the right to post our opinions on these matters until we have genuinely listened to other people. And even after we have listened, maybe we need to hold off on hitting "publish" on our thoughts on these issues.
My concern is that as believers, when we post our personal opinions on these matters before we have actually listened to others, we do damage to our ability to share the gospel with people who have differing perspectives from us. I do believe there are times when we must stand up and speak out on issues that God speaks clearly about, but we must always consider how that impacts the ultimate message that we want people to hear, the gospel. Several years ago, I had a church member who was running for a local office in a highly charged election. People in our community had strong opinions about the election. One day, he came by my house and wanted to put a campaign sign in my yard. I told him, "I love you, but I can't put that sign in my yard. I have one message that I need people to trust me for, and it is not who to vote for." Since that time, I have a personal policy that I will never put a political sign in my yard, because I don't ever want any other message that I communicate to get in the way of my ability to share the gospel with people.
That is the one area where we need to speak more. One of the things that has grieved me most in 2020 is seeing professing Christians post more about COVID-19, race issues, or politics than I have ever seen them post about Jesus. If we are going to speak up, let's make sure that before we speak up about anything else, we speak up about the gospel. Let's share our stories. Let's share with others that we have a good God who made us and everything else in all the universe to point to him, but that we now live in a broken and hurting world because we have all rebelled against God and have chosen to live our lives our ways. Let's tell people that there is a consequence for our rebellion against God and that consequence is death, physical, emotional and spiritual death. And then, please, let's share with people the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, became a man, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross to pay the price for our sin, then rose from the grave to overcome our sin and its consequences so that everyone who believes in him might have forgiveness of sin, adoption into God's family, and eternal life! Let's speak up about that!
