How do we fix the current political climate?

[Hieronymus]

Come off it...no part of the Cabal?...it's all a show.
Script: Hate Trump....create division...polarise nation....make right wing politics repugnant.....thereby implicating "christianity" in the "perceived" evils of right wing policies. ==(end game) get rid of Christianity.
You're being played.
The more right wing the church becomes the more they(we) are a part of the problem.

Your assumptions are baseless.

 

[WESTOZZIE]

It's all in the Bible.
Choose which tree you will eat from.
Life---or Right and wrong...republican or democrat.

 

[chevyontheriver]

The one issue I see here, as the previous poster pointed out, is that many in the US (including some here) have linked their political and religious beliefs. We see from people here the attitude that if you support "the other" political party than you can't be a "True Christian." In fact, we see that attitude encouraged by some "Christian organizations" -- particularly ones promoting a single, or just a couple of issues; that you can't be Christian and support a candidate that supports "X" policy.

Yes, the linking of 'conservative' politics with 'conservative' religion is a problem mirrored by the linking of 'leftist' politics with secularism. It's a false but persistent narrative pushed by both political extremes. And it's insane, particularly when you had evangelicals for Trump, a disgusting candidate and president.

One may not be able to be a Christian and a Democrat but being Christian doesn't cleanly fit being a Republican either. The political party spectrum does not neatly mirror the political spectrum, at least not in my mind. A Christian does not have to be wedded to an economic system. Christians do need to be pro-life and pro-marriage, but they can otherwise prudentially choose from among the ideas of any political party.

I think the Republicans and Democrats have both shown themselves to be fringe, and both need to be dumped for something more sane. But they make it appear that they are the only two possible choices. To avoid a revolution, or to mitigate the worst of the revolution that is probably unavoidable now, we need to find a rational middle where Christians and others can coexist. It COULD happen, but I'm not encourgaed that it WILL happen.

 

[wing2000]

The one issue I see here, as the previous poster pointed out, is that many in the US (including some here) have linked their political and religious beliefs. We see from people here the attitude that if you support "the other" political party than you can't be a "True Christian." In fact, we see that attitude encouraged by some "Christian organizations" -- particularly ones promoting a single, or just a couple of issues; that you can't be Christian and support a candidate that supports "X" policy.

If American Christians followed the example of Jesus Christ and acted like they served His Kingdom instead of an earthly one, I'm convinced our politics would be a lot more civil.

 

[expos4ever]

The "opinions " of trained "experts" are just that, opinions.

Nonsense. There is this curious phenomenon in American culture where Joe 6-pack imagines he is as qualified as a Harvard trained biologist when it comes to evaluating the theory of evolution (as an example).

 

[expos4ever]

To say Christians are the most deceived and blinded people on this planet, is just absurd and unfounded.

You have to admit that the fact that Evangelicals overwhelmingly supported an incompetent demagogue does not reflect all that well on their judgement.

 

[expos4ever]

I would like to think that, despite the high present level of polarization, civil war in the USA is exceedingly unlikely. Your institutions and history of civil stability are too strong.

 

[cow451]

It's all in the Bible.
Choose which tree you will eat from.
Life---or Right and wrong...republican or democrat.

Your theological assumptions are merely opinions.

 

[ItIsFinished!]

If American Christians followed the example of Jesus Christ and acted like they served His Kingdom instead of an earthly one, I'm convinced our politics would be a lot more civil.

Do you know all American Christians to make such a ridiculous statement?
How about 75% of them?
How about 50% of them?
I think it would be safe to say less than 10%.
Therefore to state what you did about American Christians is unfounded and definitely not supported.

 

[Foxfyre]

And before someone answers, "the other side needs to clean up their act first," let us be clear, there is plenty of "blame" to go around on both sides. It isn't just one party acting threatening and violent. And if we don't work to fix things, who will? Unfortunately, on this forum I see the same attitudes I see elsewhere -- so many try to generalize that "the other side" is full of unAmerican people that want to destroy the US.

Part of what got me thinking about was this Twitter Thread by David French; a veteran of the Iraq War (Major in the Army Reserve), a staff writer for the National Review, with articles picked up by other mainstream media. Despite being a Republican, he's come under fire for his criticisms of Pres. Trump and the alt-Right (made worse that he has an adopted daughter from Ethiopia).

His Tweet thread:
"I’ve gone back and forth over whether I should post this thread, but I think it might matter a tiny bit in describing the price of public participation. This is increasingly what happens when you speak or write about politics, religion, or culture. Here goes: /1"
"The first scary incident happened about five years ago, A man drove to my house, blocked our driveway, approached my wife (with my kids present) and demanded to see me. He was also seen driving slowly through the parking lot at my kids’ school. /2"
"The next major incident was a probable SWATing attempt. I was involved in a First Amendment matter against a person suspected to engage in such tactics, and someone made a “shots fired” call. Fortunately, we warned the police this might happen, and they responded calmly. /3"
"We had a period of peace, but then in 2015 (as I’ve written about before), the alt-right targeted us, focusing on my youngest daughter (she was seven at the time), She’s adopted from Ethiopia, and they targeted her for vicious, racist attacks. /4"
"The worst of the alt-right attacks came the night they filled the comments section of my wife’s blog with gruesome images of dead and dying African-Americans. I couldn’t sleep for days, fearing for my daughter’s safety. /5"
"Like lots of folks, we got a very worrisome email threat, but unlike lots of others, we actually had someone break into a phone call between my wife and father-in-law. He screamed obscenities about Donald Trump. We have no idea how he did this. /6"
"Then, yesterday (as I’ve tweeted), we found out that the Trump superfan mail bomber searched for my home address. /7"
"I’ve not dwelled on the “normal” dreck that includes such delightful things as daily petty insults, occasional mockery of my wife’s sex abuse when she was a kid, and periodic attacks on us for adopting. That’s the typical price of online engagement. /8"
"And others have had it so much worse. It’s intolerable that Christine Blasey Ford is still under threat. It’s intolerable that Brett Kavanaugh’s family was under threat. Many of us don’t have the resources to hire security. We can buy firearms. We can’t hire guards. /9"
"It’s sad to see the withering contempt online when journalists and others share their fears. Read Twitter and see that thousands of people _want_ their ideological opponents to feel fear. A darkness is gripping people’s hearts. /10"
"I don’t have a political answer. We need Jesus! But those of us who are targets can resolve to keep speaking the truth without fear or favor. We can resolve to show compassion to our opponents. They’re likely fighting a hard battle. Seek justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly. /end"

I'd like to hear others thoughts.

To disagree with another's opinion or a policy/law is within everybody's unalienable right to do and should encourage vigorous debate to arrive at the best conclusions. But we have less and less vigorous debate and more and more hostile, angry, vicious, and sometimes deadly polarization in this country.

The alt-right, if defined as white supremacists, anarchists, and the very occasional sociopath or mentally ill who gun down innocent people and such, are as out of the mainstream as the pure socialist, communist, and people who shoot police officers from a rooftop or gun down Republicans at a baseball practice and such. The actions of those are easy to denounce and condemn regardless of political persuasion. And they are cruel and sometimes dangerous for the innocent. All manner of bullies are hateful and despicable regardless of who they target and are extremely hurtful to those they target including your daughter. I think we can all unite against that kind of hatefulness.

The problem comes when good people, including Christians, become so politically fanatic that they forget the Biblical admonition:

Matthew 5:43-48 43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.​

When you have people--some claiming to be Christians--urging people to get into people's faces, drive them out of restaurants, theaters,etc, shouting insults and obscenities from the congressional balconies, organizing protests that all too frequently turn violent to prevent someone invited to a college campus from speaking there for no other reason than they disagree, creating safe spaces so fragile minded students don't have to hear an idea, concept, opinion, or see or hear a name they don't like. . .

. . .when you have people using the most hateful and unChristian rhetoric to attack the lawfully elected President of the United States. . .

. . .when you have all that, you have a society that is divided against itself, angry, hurtful, unkind, destructive, and sometimes dangerous. You have a society that actually encourages violence from the sociopath and mentally unstable. In my opinion, Christians who condone or promote that disrespect the Christ and grieve the Holy Spirit as that is not who he counseled us to be.

The answer is with us. If each one of us makes the choice not to be part of or party to that kind of hatefulness, we will make a difference. We should politely and respectfully inform our elected leaders that we do not appreciate that kind of hatefulness. And gently and respectfully inform our friends, family, associates etc. that we can't agree with it, etc.

That in my opinion is the only way to stop it.

 

[ItIsFinished!]

Nonsense. There is this curious phenomenon in American culture where Joe 6-pack imagines he is as qualified as a Harvard trained biologist when it comes to evaluating the theory of evolution (as an example).

Not nonsense whatsoever. However the theory of evolution is.
You don't need Joe 6-pack as you stated or be a Harvard trained biologist to know which way the wind blows.

 

[JackRT]

Not nonsense whatsoever. However the theory of evolution is.
You don't need Joe 6-pack as you stated or be a Harvard trained biologist to know which way the wind blows.

Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive framework for lots of biological research, and it has amazing explanatory power. There is no conspiracy to hide the truth about the failure of evolution. There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well.
~~~ Todd Woods

 

[ItIsFinished!]

Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive framework for lots of biological research, and it has amazing explanatory power. There is no conspiracy to hide the truth about the failure of evolution. There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well.
~~~ Todd Woods

I completely disagree with Todd Woods opinion.
It does not work muchless well unless the objective was to deceive multitudes.

 

[Original Happy Camper]

Nonsense. There is this curious phenomenon in American culture where Joe 6-pack imagines he is as qualified as a Harvard trained biologist when it comes to evaluating the theory of evolution (as an example).

If joe six pack has the word of GOD then is more qualified than the Harvard trained biologist without the word of GOD

 

[Original Happy Camper]

Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive framework for lots of biological research, and it has amazing explanatory power. There is no conspiracy to hide the truth about the failure of evolution. There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well.
~~~ Todd Woods

JackRT my man if you believe the theory of evolution please take a pair of scissors and cut this verse out of whatever bible you have.
Genesis 2:7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

 

[JackRT]

I completely disagree with Todd Woods opinion.
It does not work muchless well unless the objective was to deceive multitudes.

You are completely wrong about both the theory of evolution and the motivations of those scientists working in that field.

 

[JackRT]

JackRT my man if you believe the theory of evolution please take a pair of scissors and cut this verse out of whatever bible you have.
Genesis 2:7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

As always the problems come down to just how we interpret scripture. Forty thousand plus denominations attest to that.

 

[ItIsFinished!]

You are completely wrong about both the theory of evolution and the motivations of those scientist working in that field.

You cannot say I am wrong muchless completely wrong about the theory of evolution due to a couple of small posts.
As far as the motivations of those "scientist" working in that field, I'm not so much concerned with their motivations as I am as to what they actually observe regarding the topic.
Evolution has always been a theory and will always be a theory.

 

[ItIsFinished!]

As always the problems come down to just how we interpret scripture. Forty thousand plus denominations attest to that.

Some truth to that, but when Scripture makes sense add no sense less you wind up with nonsense.
The Word of God never changes.

 

[JackRT]

Evolution has always been a theory and will always be a theory.

Quite right! Theory is as good as it gets in science. There is no greater praise for a scientist.