As the election draws ever nearer it’s practically impossible to get on social media of any kind without seeing someone’s political views, and honestly, I understand why. Elections are important times for our nation and because of that people want to use their platform to spread awareness, educate, and hopefully persuade someone to vote the same way as them.
In some ways, this is the beauty of social media. Without needing anyone’s approval, you can share whatever political beliefs and opinions that you want with whoever allows you to share it with them. However, just because you have the ability to share openly doesn’t mean that there are no consequences for what you share, but we often only think about ourselves when we post.
It’s so easy to click share, write some long self-righteous caption, and hit post without ever thinking about who might see it, how it might impact them, or who you might be hurting. But who cares about that? After all, it’s my right to free speech, isn’t it? Why should I let someone else’s feelings or thoughts impact my rights?
Sounds dumb when you read it, but that’s the way many of us operate. We prove our own selfishness by the things we post, like, and share.
Election times are often used as an excuse to spew hatred and bigotry all in the name of political beliefs and alliances. The amount of nonsense I’ve seen as I scroll down my Facebook feed is appalling. What is even more disheartening for me personally, is that a lot of the hatred I see is coming from the profiles of those who profess Christ as Lord.
What is Your Job as a Christian?
Scripture teaches us that there are 2 main goals as a Christian. One of those goals is to love God which leads us to become more like God through the process of sanctification. The other goal is to make disciples or in other words share the gospel in the hopes that you can lead others on a journey towards Christ.
If these are your goals as a Christian then shouldn’t that impact the way that we speak on social media? If your goal is to foster and be aware of opportunities to share the gospel then we probably shouldn’t be posting about how “Muslims hate women and we can’t allow them to infiltrate our government.” That post probably won’t open up any gospel conversations and on top of that, is factually untrue.
Politics Shouldn’t Consist of Hatred
Stop spewing hatred and calling it politics. When your political beliefs cause you to hate another person based on party, race, religion, sexuality, etc. then it’s no longer just a political belief. It’s a deeply engrained seed of fear that you’ve allowed to take over your heart and mind. You fear what you do not understand and therefore you condemn it and you use religion and politics to justify your cruelty.
Despite what some might try to lead you to believe there is no such thing as a Christian vote.
Jesus was not a republican; nor was He a democrat. You are no better or worse of a Christian for voting one way or the other. The bible speaks about a lot of different topics, and neither party nor candidate represents biblical beliefs perfectly. That being said, it’s up to you to decide which beliefs are more important (hopefully through some prayer and research). I’m not here to tell you who to vote for or what to believe. I am here to tell you that we must stop with the hateful speech on both sides of the debate.
Democrats are not from Satan. Republicans are not all heartless and hateful. People who choose to vote third party are not idiots who are “throwing away their vote.” People who practice Islam are not going to “ruin our country,” and people who are transgender are not going to hurt your children in the bathroom.
We’re getting lost in empty and hurtful arguments instead of taking the opportunity to learn more about each other, our country, the issues, and the people we’re soon to elect. Regardless of your political or religious beliefs people are still people and deserve to be treated as such.
So let’s stop using the election as an excuse to speak hateful and untrue nonsense about others. We’re all just people trying to do what we think is right. Let’s show some grace in the process, just as we hope others will show us grace.