OPINION: An open letter to today’s Christians

*Columns are the opinions of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Wichitan as an organization.*

Dear Christians,

Ask any educated Christian what the Ten Commandments are and they’ll never leave out “Thou shall not commit idolatry (to hold something or someone in higher esteem than God),” and if you ask them which of these commandments are the two greatest, surely they will agree with Jesus Christ that they are “Love the Lord with all your heart” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Yet, there are a large number of Christian people who seem to put former President Donald Trump’s words and opinions above those of The Lord, and still, there are even more Christians who look at their neighbors with disdain simply because they voted for someone different from them.

Now, before every 40 year-old on Facebook with nothing to do starts yammering away on their keyboards, let me clarify two things. The first is that I am a lifelong Christian, raised primarily at Denton Bible Church, and I absolutely think our religious views should influence our political views. The second is I don’t think there’s anything wrong with anyone voting Republican, whether Christian or not, and I’m certainly not trying to convince anyone to vote Democrat. However, some Christians have intertwined Republican and Christian views and values so much now that some can’t tell the difference.

I spend a significant amount of time in primarily Christian homes, and some of the behavior I have observed at some of them is concerning. I’ve heard children tell me how coronavirus is fake, how if they could have voted they would’ve voted for Trump and how their next door neighbors are bad people because they voted for Biden. None of the children in question were older than twelve, and none of them could explain to me why what they were saying is true, because it was fed to them by their parents. This is to be expected I guess, when parents are more interested in teaching

Again, there’s nothing wrong with a Christian voting for Trump or any other Republican candidate if that’s what they feel they’re being called to do, but there is when they are emphasizing Republican figures and values over Christian ones in their homes. How can we as Christians send our kids to Sunday school to learn about the Good Samaritan, and then talk bad about people with differing views in our own home? How can we tell them “God’s kingdom is for everyone” and then hold up signs saying certain people are going to Hell? How can we say “Love your neighbor” and then ignore or condemn our black/gay/muslim/immigrant/[insert minority here] neighbor? Children learn a lot more from their parents than they do from a few hours one day out of the week.

Politics should not play such a pivotal role in churches and homes, and we shouldn’t be watching the news more than we are reading God’s word. We as Christians have a chance to raise a generation who embraces love and kindness; let’s not spoil that by emphasizing man, who is by nature sinful, over a perfect and loving God.

With love,

A very concerned brother in Christ